Green wrote a number of songs which have become
jazz standards, including "
Out of Nowhere" and "
Body and Soul". He wrote the
scores for various films and TV programs. His earliest songs appeared with the billing "John W. Green," a styling he reverted to in the 1960s. After that anyone addressing "Johnny" was put right with the statement, "You can call me John – or you can call me
Maestro!" At the beginning of his musical career, he arranged for dance orchestras, most notably
Jean Goldkette on
NBC. He was
accompanist/
arranger to musicians such as
James Melton,
Libby Holman and
Ethel Merman. It was while writing material for
Gertrude Lawrence in 1930 that he composed "
Body and Soul", the first recording of which was made by
Jack Hylton & His Orchestra eleven days before the song was copyrighted. Between 1930 and 1933, Green was the arranger and conductor for
Paramount Pictures and worked with such singers as
Ethel Merman,
Gertrude Lawrence and
James Melton. He composed many of his hit standards during the 1930s, including
Bing Crosby's first number one hit recording, "
Out of Nowhere" (1931, co-authored with
Edward Heyman), "Rain Rain Go Away" (1932), "
I Cover the Waterfront", "You're Mine You", "
I Wanna Be Loved" (all 1933), "Easy Come Easy Go" and "Repeal The Blues" (both 1934). After 1933, Green had his own orchestra which he used to perform around the country. He also, until 1940, conducted orchestras for the
Jack Benny and
Philip Morris records and radio shows.
Carnegie Hall and Astoria Studios Nathaniel Shilkret and
Paul Whiteman commissioned Green to write larger works for orchestra, such as "Night Club (Six Impressions for Orchestra with Three Pianos)", introduced by Whiteman on January 25, 1933, at Carnegie Hall. Green was at piano "one," and Roy Bargy and Ramona played the other two pianos. During the early 1930s, Green also wrote music for numerous films at
Paramount's
Astoria Studios, conducted in East Coast theatres, and toured vaudeville as musical director for
Buddy Rogers. During his two and a half years at Paramount Astoria, he was able to learn more about film scoring from veterans
Adolph Deutsch and
Frank Tours.
London, radio, and recordings Green spent much of 1933 in
London, where he contributed songs to both
Mr. Whittington, a musical comedy for
Jack Buchanan at the
London Hippodrome, and
Big Business, the first musical comedy ever written for
BBC Radio. On Green's return to the U.S.A. early in 1934,
William S. Paley, president of the
Columbia Broadcasting System and an investor in New York's
St. Regis Hotel, encouraged him to form what became known as Johnny Green, His Piano and Orchestra. (Green added, "My arm didn't need much twisting.") The orchestra, based for a time at the St. Regis, featured Green's piano and arrangements, whose harmony and mood were among the most sophisticated of the day. It made dance records for the
Columbia and
Brunswick companies, although in the Depression even the most popular records sold only in small numbers. In 1935, Green starred on CBS's
Socony Sketchbook, sponsored by
Socony-Vacuum Oil Co. He lured the young California singer
Virginia Verrill to headline with him on the Friday evening broadcasts. His regular cast included his band singers
Marjory Logan and
Jimmy Farrell, essayist
Christopher Morley, and stage/screen favorites the
Four Eton Boys. A bigger venture yet in commercial radio was
The Fred Astaire Hour (a.k.a.
The Packard Hour), sponsored by
Packard Motors over
NBC in 1936 and co-featuring tenor
Allan Jones and the comedy of
Charles Butterworth. Green's band also backed Astaire on a series of classic recording dates, in both New York and Hollywood, in 1935–1937. He also served as musical director for
The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny during its 1935–1936 season on NBC.
Piano, film, and MGM He continued conducting on radio and in theatres into the 1940s, also leading a dance band for the short-lived Royale Records label in 1939–1940, until he decided to move permanently to
Hollywood and work in the film business. Green particularly made an impression at
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where in the 1940s, along with orchestrator
Conrad Salinger, he was one of the musicians most responsible for changing the overall sound of the MGM Symphony Orchestra, partially through the re-seating of some of the players. This is why the overall orchestral sound of MGM's musicals from the mid-1940s onward is different from the orchestral sound of those made from 1929 until about 1944. Green was the music director at MGM from 1949 to 1959. He compiled and arranged the MGM Jubilee Overture in 1954, a tour de force. He produced numerous film scores, such as the one for
Raintree County in 1957. On loan out to Universal, he composed the songs for the
Deanna Durbin musical, "Something in the Wind", one of her last films before retiring. Nominated for an
Oscar thirteen times, he won the award for the musical scores of
Easter Parade,
An American in Paris,
West Side Story, and
Oliver!, as well as for producing the short "The Merry Wives of Windsor Overture", which won in the Short Subjects (One-Reel) category in 1954. The short subject featured Green conducting the MGM Orchestra on-screen in the music from the opera of the
same name by
Otto Nicolai. After leaving MGM, Green guest-conducted with various orchestras, including the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra,
Denver Symphony Orchestra,
Philadelphia Orchestra,
San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. He also continued to compose the occasional score to films such as
Twilight of Honor (1963),
Johnny Tiger (1966) and
Alvarez Kelly (1966), and contributed the arrangements and musical direction for the critically acclaimed ''
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?'' in 1969. He was also hired to create the televised
Guinness advertisement known as the "World" ad campaign. He recruited a team which included set designer Grant Major and Oscar-nominated director of photography Wally Pfisher to complete the job. ==Notable works==