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Peter DeRose was born on March 10, 1900 in New York City and as a boy exhibited a gift for music. His older sister taught him to play piano but composing was his true love and by 18 had published his first song. After high school he worked as a music store stock clerk but his successful 1920 composition “When You’re Gone, I Won’t Forget” led him to a job with Italian music publisher G. Ricordi & Company.

In 1923 he met his soon to be wife May Singhi Breen and the duet of piano and ukulele became popular entertainment on NBC’s musical radio show “Sweethearts of the Air” which ran for sixteen years. The show also offered a spotlight for DeRose to introduce many of his compositions.

Collaborating with lyricists Charles Tobias, Al Stillman, Carl Sigman and Billy Hill some of his best known works were “Somebody Loves Me”, Wagon Wheels, Rain, Lamp Is Low, On A Little Street In Singapore and Deep Purple. His songs have been performed by the likes of Bing Crosby, Paul Robeson, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Sarah Vaughan and Duke Ellington among others.

He wrote religious sheet music; composed for the 1941 Ice Capades show and ventured into Hollywood scoring music for several motion pictures. In 1970 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

The Hall of Fame composer of jazz and pop during the Tin Pan Alley era, composer Peter DeRose passed away on April 23, 1953 in his hometown of New York City.

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