Songs
Harry is said to have written thousands of songs in his lifetime although most are attributed to the artistes that he sold them to. He wrote songs at such a rate that he was sometimes composing as much as 7 songs in a day but seldom received more than £10 for a composition.
One of his earliest songs he sold to The Great Vance for 7 shillings and 6 pence and at that point he decided to throw in his job as a ledger clerk and turn to songwriter full time. In his early writing days he was so poor he starved for long periods, one of the turning points in his career involved selling one of his songs for £4 which was then sung by Vesta Tilley.
Various artistes that he composed and wrote songs for included as well as Vesta Tilley, Marie Lloyd, The Great Vance, Dan Leno, Gus Elen, Little Tich, Florrie Forde, Kate Carney, Charlie Chaplin's Father and Albert Chevalier.
One of the artistes that he regularly wrote for was Harry Champion of whom he was a great friend and indeed on Harry Champions death in 1942 he wrote these lyrics in affectionate memory:
His name was famous ev'rywhere
Around the Halls and on the air
Right to the last, he went the length
Regardless of his health and strength
Year in, year out, fifty and more
Comic songs he sang galore
Happy in them all the while
And rendered with a jouvial smile
Millions they will miss him now
Parted from us, we all bow
In grief, our heads in memory
Of one we loved, and blessed is he
Nearer to God to R. I. P.
