1899–1981 · Bloomington, Indiana · composer, pianist, singer and bandleader
Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s, and unusually for a composer of that era he sang and recorded his own material. He wrote the music for “Georgia on My Mind” in 1930 and cut the first recording of it himself in New York on 15 September that year, fronting his own orchestra and taking the vocal. His other standards include “Stardust,” “The Nearness of You” and “Heart and Soul.” He was also an actor and a trained lawyer.