Vincent Rose

Biography

The prolific songwriter and bandleader Vincent Rose was born in the Sicilian town of Palermo in June 1880. He emigrated to the United States in 1897 at the age of seventeen, but returned to Italy to complete his musical studies (piano and violin). Once again back in the U.S., Rose was initially employed as a musical director working for a chain of Chicago hotels. He formed his own orchestra in Southern California sometime between 1904 and 1906 (accounts vary), establishing a residency at the fashionable Cafe Montmartre on Hollywood Boulevard (the band became henceforth known as the Montmartre Orchestra). Patrons included the wealthy and the famous. Actors Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle (on drums) and Tom Mix (on trumpet) occasionally gigged with the band and Harry Owens, future leader of the 'Royal Hawaiians', played trumpet and co-wrote the song "Linger Awhile" with Rose. The resulting hit broadened the band's appeal and opened doors for engagements at the Ritz-Carlton in New York and the College Inn in Chicago. Prominent members of the long-lived Montmartre Orchestra included Smith Ballew, Irving Kaufman and Chick Bullock. Rose wrote many more successful tunes, often in collaboration with top songsmiths like Buddy G. DeSylva. Some of these were showcased on Broadway, notably in revues staged by the impresario Earl Carroll. Rose's most famous contributions as co-writer include "Whispering", "Avalon" and "Blueberry Hill", the latter a hit ballad for Glenn Miller in 1940, and, in 1956, an R&B mega hit for Fats Domino. Rose quit the band scene in the mid-1930's to pursue other musical interests. He died in New York in May 1944 at the age of 63.