Bart Howard

Who was Bart Howard?

Bart Howard, born Howard Joseph Gustafson, was the composer and writer of the famous jazz standard "Fly Me To The Moon", which has been performed by singers Bobby Womack, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Wilson, Della Reese, Diana Krall, June Christy and Astrud Gilberto. It is also played frequently by jazz and popular musicians around the world.

Howard was born in Burlington, Iowa. He began his career as an accompanist at the age of 16 and played for Mabel Mercer, Johnny Mathis and Eartha Kitt, among others.

"Fly Me To the Moon" was first sung in 1954 by Felicia Sanders at the "Blue Angel" club in Manhattan where the composer became M.C. and accompanist in 1951. The song received wide exposure when Peggy Lee sang it on The Ed Sullivan Show several years later. Bart Howard "lived off" this song for the rest of his life, although he had 49 other songs to his credit. These include "Let Me Love You", "On The First Warm Day", "One Love Affair", "Be My All", "The Man In The Looking Glass", "My Love Is A Wanderer", "Who Wants To Fall In Love", "Don't Dream of Anybody But Me".

He died, aged 88, in Carmel, New York. He was survived by a sister Dorothy Lind of Burlington, Iowa and by his companion of 58 years, Thomas Fowler.