Trivia

A non-song writer fan of Mercer's named Sadie Vimmerstedt once wrote him a letter saying that "I Wanna Be Around to Pick Up the Pieces When Somebody Breaks Your Heart" would make a good title for a song. Mercer was so taken by the suggested title that he went ahead and wrote a complete song based on it which became a big hit and of which he gave Ms. Vimmerstedt half the royalties.

He had an on-off affair with Judy Garland.

His music is featured prominently in the both the book and film: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), which was set in his birthplace of Savannah, GA.

His grandchildren called him Beebah and his wife Granginger.

In 1942 he founded Capitol Records with songwriter Buddy G. DeSylva and businessman Glen Wallichs. Sold out in 1955 to EMI. He used part of the proceeds to repay his father's debts that resulted from the Florida real estate bust and the Great Depression. Mercer and DeSylva also founded Cowboy Records (Philadelphia, PA) in 1942.

Adopted a son, John Jefferson "Jeff" Mercer in 1947. He was born 4/5/47.

Misjudged his own song "Moon River" from "Breakfast at Tiffany's," believing it had no commercial value. It went on to become one of his most-recorded songs and won him one of his four Oscars.

Pictured on one of a set of four 32¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, issued 11 September 1996, celebrating American songwriters. Others honored in this issue are Harold Arlen, Dorothy Fields, and Hoagy Carmichael.

Graduate of Woodberry Forest School, Orange, VA, in 1927.

Posthumously nominated for Broadway's 1983 Tony Award for his original lyrics for Gene de Paul's original music and score, with additional, new music and lyrics by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn, for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.".

His Oscar loss in 1941 for writing the title song for Blues in the Night (1941) brought about a change in the Academy's rules governing Best Song nominations. The song that ended up winning, "The Last Time I Saw Paris" by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II , was not written for the movie it appeared in, Lady Be Good (1941), but was inserted in order to pay tribute to France's war effort. Because of the uproar about Mercer's loss, the rules now stated that a song had to be originally created specifically for the film in which it appeared. Mercer did receive four other Oscars in his career.

Two children, Amanda and John Jeff

Best known during WWII for his hit, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive." He would become the premier lyricist in post-War America.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971.

He adopted Norma Claire Barnes in April, 1940 and renamed her Amanda "Mandy" Mercer. She had been born 5/12/39. Paul Whiteman's wife arranged the adoption.

His daughter married Bob Corwin, his musical stenographer and accompanist, in 1960.

He had a grandson, Jim Corwin, who was born in 1961.

Began Capitol Records with $25,000 and sold it 13 years later to EMI for $20 million.

One of the legendary figures in the Great American Songbook, his work as a lyricist, and occasionally composer and lyricist, has produced such standards as "Skylark," "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" (music by Hoagy Carmichael), "Blues in the Night," "One For My Baby," "My Shining Hour" (music by Harold Arlen), "Moon River," "Days of Wine and Roses," "Charade," "The Sweetheart Tree," "Moment to Moment," "Whistling in the Dark" (music by Henry Mancini), "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" (music by Harry Warren), "Life Is What You Make It" (music by Marvin Hamlisch), "Jamboree Jones," "Dream," "Something's Gotta Give," and "I Wanna Be Around" (music and lyrics by Mercer).

Circa 1940, he wrecked his car, breaking his wife's jaw. After it healed, it was distorted and made her face appear different.

As his birthplace, Savannah, Georgia has numerous tributes to its famous son, including a bronze statue of him in a town square, a marker in front of his birthplace, his gravesite, and a majestic house on Burnside Island which was the Mercer family summer home. Black River, which was frequented by Mercer when he was a boy, was renamed Moon River in his honor, and there are multiple streets referencing his songs in the Moon River District, which is approximately 20 minutes from Downtown Savannah. The most well known street in Savannah that bears his name is Johnny Mercer Blvd, the main thoroughfare though Wilmington Island.

Mentioned in The $99,000 Answer (1956).