Our most famous songwriters such as Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Harold Arlen established their reputations on Broadway, where they were given considerable artistic control over their work. They were much less comfortable in Hollywood where the rule from film producers was “Write us a song about [love or other bromide] and we’ll decide how to use it, if we use it.” It is remarkable that this system produced any worthwhile songs at all, but several composers and lyricists thrived under these conditions, including Harry Warren, Ralph Rainger, Leo Robin, Jimmy Van Heusen, Jule Styne and Johnny Mercer, to mention just a few. Their work was scarcely acknowledged at the time, even though their songs are now often the only memorable things about the films in which they were heard. It is these composers and writers to whom we pay tribute.