Jimmy Van Heusen was christened Edward Chester Babcock in Syracuse, New York and took the name Van Heusen from a shirt company. He began recording his songs in the 1930s and in the early 1940s teamed up with lyricist Johnny Burke. Together the team wrote a number of songs for movies starring Bing Crosby, including It's Always You and Swinging on a Star.  As well as with Burke, he occasionally collaborated with other lyricists such as Johnny Mercer, with whom he wrote I Thought About You, and Eddie DeLange, with whom he wrote Darn That Dream.

By the 1950s he was working with a new lyricist, Sammy Cahn, and the team wrote a number of popular songs for television series, including High Hopes in 1959. His songs also were used for a number of major movies, including the 1949 version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Rear Window, and the 1960 version of Ocean's Eleven. Van Heusen wrote a musical in 1965 entitled Skyscraper. Van Heusen and Cahn also wrote songs for Frank Sinatra, frequently being commissioned to write the title songs of his albums - such songs include Come Fly With Me, Only The Lonely and Come Dance With Me.

Van Heusen retired in the late 1970s but his songs continue to be used in movies and television series today: Married... with Children used his Love and Marriage song (lyrics by Sammy Cahn) for the series theme, and two of his songs were used for the soundtrack of American Beauty (1999 film).

Sammy Cahn was born Samuel Cohen in the Lower East Side of New York City. He changed his last name from Cohen to Kahn to avoid confusion with comic and MGM actor Sammy Cohen and again from Kahn to Cahn to avoid confusion with lyricist Gus Kahn.  Cahn has said that lyric writing has always been a thrilling adventure for him, and something he has done with the kind of ease that only comes with joy! From the beginning the fates have conspired to help his career. Lou Levy, the eminent music publisher, lived around the corner and this led to a partnership that lasted many years. Lou and Sammy wrote Rhythm is our business, material for Jimmy Lunceford's orchestra, which became his first ASCAP copyright. He'd been churning out "special lyrics" for special occasions for years and this helped facilitate his tremendous speed with lyric writing. Tommy Dorsey commissioned many works from Cahn and through Tommy came the enduring and perhaps most satisfying relationship of his lyric writing career – Frank Sinatra. Cahn became a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.

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