Hoagy Carmichael.

His unusual first name came from a traveling circus called The Hoaglands that stayed with his mother while she was pregnant. He was born on November 22, 1899 in Bloomington, Indiana. He learned piano from his mother and later took lessons with Reginald DuValle, a bandleader known as the elder statesman of Indiana jazz. He attended Bloomington High School South and then entered Indiana University, where he earned a law degree from the Maurer School of Law while playing piano in college bands.

Carmichael gave up a law practice to pursue songwriting full time, joining ASCAP in 1931. His chief collaborators included Mitchell Parish, Johnny Mercer, and Frank Loesser. His composition Stardust, recorded in 1927, became a jazz standard. In 1930, he wrote Georgia on My Mind with Stuart Gorrell. In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1951 for the film Here Comes the Groom. He also acted in films, playing Cricket in To Have and Have Not 1945 and Butch Engle in The Best Years of Our Lives 1946. He voiced himself on The Flintstones in 1960 and hosted three radio shows.

He married Ruth Meinardi on March 14, 1937; they divorced on November 8, 1955. He married Wanda McKay on May 20, 1977, and they remained together until his death. He had a sister named Georgia Carmichael. He retired to Rancho Mirage, California, where he died of a heart attack on December 27, 1981.

The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted him in 1971, and he received the Grammy Trustees Award in 1980. In 1996, a United States postage stamp featured him as part of the Legends of American Music series, alongside Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, and Dorothy Fields. Musicians continue to perform and record his songs worldwide. He wrote songs such as Stardust and Georgia on My Mind, which have become cornerstones of American popular music.