Jule Styne composed over 1,500 published songs during a prolific career spanning the 1920s through the 1970s. His most significant contributions came through Broadway scores created with various lyricist collaborators. Working with Sammy Cahn, his most celebrated partnership, Styne produced numerous popular songs in the 1940s. His major Broadway musicals include Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949), Bells Are Ringing (1956) with Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Gypsy (1959) with Stephen Sondheim, and Funny Girl (1964). The jazz standard "I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry" demonstrates his gift for sophisticated melody writing that appealed to jazz interpreters.
