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Burton Lane
American composer and lyricist
1912 – 1997aged 84
Burton Lane wrote the scores for the Broadway musicals Finian's Rainbow (1947) and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1965), and in Hollywood turned out jazz standards including "How About You?" and "Everything I Have Is Yours" with lyricists like Frank Loesser. A friendship with George Gershwin in his youth shaped him as much as anyone did — he called George his greatest influence — and he later claimed to have discovered Judy Garland performing with her sisters in a Hollywood theater. He spent years as president of the American Guild of Authors and Composers.