Early life and family Jay Livingston was born
Jacob Harold Levison in
McDonald, Pennsylvania, United States, to
Jewish parents. He had an older sister, Vera, and a younger brother,
Alan W. Livingston, who became an executive with
Capitol Records and later with
NBC television.
Career Livingston studied
piano with Harry Archer in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the
University of Pennsylvania, where he organized a dance band and met Evans, a fellow student in the band. Though they began writing together in 1937, Livingston and Evans did not hit the top until 1946, when they set the music publishing business on fire with "
To Each His Own," which reached number one on the
Billboard charts for three different artists, and occupied the top five positions on the "Most Played On the Air" chart for four different weeks (August 24, 1946, and again on September 7, September 14 and October 5, five versions appeared simultaneously in the Top Ten). "
Buttons and Bows" (1947) was their next multi-million seller, with four artists reaching the top ten in 1948, and won the Academy Award for Best Song. They finished off the decade with 1949's "
Mona Lisa", which was a chart hit for seven popular and two country artists in 1950, sold a million for
Nat King Cole, and won the pair another Best Song Oscar. Their third Oscar came in 1956 for the song "
Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)", featured in the movie
The Man Who Knew Too Much. They also wrote "Tammy" for the movie
Tammy and the Bachelor in 1957. Livingston and Evans wrote also popular TV themes for shows including
Bonanza and
Mister Ed, which Livingston sang. They also wrote the
Christmas song "
Silver Bells" in 1951, for the film
The Lemon Drop Kid, initially calling it "Tinkle Bells" but changed it to "Silver" because of a common connotation of "tinkle", as well as "Never Let Me Go" for the 1956 film
The Scarlet Hour.
Johnny Mathis sang Livingston's song "
All The Time", among others. Livingston appeared as himself with Evans in the New Year's Eve party scene of the 1950 film
Sunset Boulevard, which featured his future sister-in-law,
Nancy Olson.
Death Livingston died aged 86, on October 17, 2001, in
Los Angeles,
California, and was interred there in
Westwood Memorial Park Cemetery; on his tombstone is written "Que Será, Será". ==Honors==