Bernie Wayne

Who was Bernie Wayne?

Bernie Wayne was an American composer who wrote over 1,000 songs and was best known for Blue Velvet, which was recorded as a hit by numerous artists, and There She Is, the song long associated with the Miss America pageant, as well as songs written for Elvis Presley, Broadway musicals and Hollywood productions. He also wrote the tune featured in commercials for Chock full o'Nuts, that portrayed it as the "heavenly coffee".

Wayne was born in 1919 in Paterson, New Jersey.

Wayne worked together with Ben Raleigh, writing songs for Cass Daley, as well as the 1946 hit "Laughing on the Outside", that was first popularized by bandleader Sammy Kaye and his orchestra and was featured in the 1950 film noir Gun Crazy. Working with Lee Morris, Wayne co-wrote Blue Velvet, which was performed by Tony Bennett in the 1950s, was a number one hit for Bobby Vinton in the 1960s and has been record over the years by such artists as Lana Del Rey. David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet featured the song. On Broadway, he wrote music for Listen to Liz, Skits-oh-Frantics and Torero! He produced the soundtracks for Zorba the Greek in 1964 and for the 1965 film A Patch of Blue as director of artists and repertoire at 20th Century Fox Records.