About Doris Fisher

Doris Fisher is part of a  songwriting family. Among the standards composed by her father Fred were Peg O'My Heart, Dardanella and Chicago. Her brother Dan wrote Good Morning Heartache and her brother Marvin wrote When Sunny Gets Blue.

Doris' first song hits were Tutti Frutti, written with Slim Gaillard, which made the charts for 11 weeks in 1938, and Whispering Grass, which she wrote with her father in 1940 and which was introduced with great success by the Ink Spots.

After a career as a singer on the radio and with Eddie Duchin at the New York Plaza as well as her own recording orchestra, Doris teamed up with Allan Roberts to compose a remarkable series of hits.

In 1944 alone, they wrote Angelina (The Waitress at the Pizzeria), made popular by Louis Prima; Good, Good, Good, sung by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters; Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall, a tremendous hit for Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots; Invitation To The Blues, introduced by Ella Mae Morse with Harry James; That Ole Devil Called Love, for Billie Holiday; and You Always Hurt The One You Love, a hit first for the Mills Brothers and then for Spike Jones. All of these songs in just one year! Leonard Feather called Doris "Queen of the Juke box" for very good reasons.

Allan Roberts often had the ideas for the songs and usually wrote the words. Doris would edit the lyrics and compose the music. In 1945, they wrote Tampico, which became forever associated with Stan Kenton and June Christy. They also wrote two songs for Pearl Bailey, which were among her biggest hits: Tired and That's Good Enough For Me.

All of these song successes drew the attention of Harry Cohn. who hired Doris and Allan to come to Hollywood to write for Columbia Pictures. Their first film was Gilda, for which they wrote Put The Blame On Mame, and Amado Mio. Among the many other films for which they wrote music over the next five years were Down To Earth and The Lady From Shanghai, also for Rita Hayworth, Singin' In The Corn for Judy Canova, The Strawberry Roan for Gene Autry, Dead Reckoning, The Thrill Of Brazil, and The Corpse Came C.O.D. From these movies came such songs as Let's Stay Young Forever, Warm Kiss (And A Cold Heart), Please Don't Kiss Me, Either It's Love Or It Isn't, and They Can't Convince Me.

Harold Jacobs,

Pres. of the National Sheet Music Society