Jack Strachey was an English composer and songwriter. Born John Francis Strachey in London in September 1894, he began writing songs in the 1920s for the theatre and the music hall, scoring his first success with songs he had written for Frith Shephard’s long-running musical revue Lady Luck which opened at The Carlton Theatre in April 1927 where it ran for 324 performances.
In the 1930s, he began to collaborate with Eric Maschwitz and in 1936 Strachey, Maschwitz (using the pen name Holt Marvell), and Harry Link co-wrote “These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You), which was to provide a top ten hit for five separate artists in 1936. Benny Goodman was among the five artists to record the song in 1936, and it has been widely covered since – by Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk, and Bryan Ferry among others. Under the title “Ces Petites Choses”, it was also a hit in France for Dorothy Dickson.
He wrote with Harry Link for the musical revue Spread It Abroad (1936). This was the first revue for Hermione Gingold, who was married to Maschwitz at the time. In 1940 Strachey and Maschwitz wrote “Queen of Song” for her, which she performed in Swinging the Gate. It was a popular show and ran for over 400 performances before German bombing raids on London prematurely closed it down. They also wrote songs for Miss Gingold for the spectacularly successful revue Sweet and Low (1943). The revue and its two successors, written by the famous West End playwright and lyricist Alan Melville, ran for over five years.
In 1948 Strachey collaborated with Alan Stranks on “No Orchids for My Lady” which appeared in Bolton’s Revue and enjoyed a measure of success when it was recorded by Frank Sinatra. He collaborated again with Maschwitz on the 1949 costume musical, Belinda Fair, which had only a mildly successful run.
In the 1940s, Strachey began to compose light orchestral pieces for the Bosworth Music Library, and is best remembered in Britain as the composer of “Theatreland”, “Pink Champagne”, and especially “In Party Mood”, which was first issued on Bosworth BC1172 in 1944. It became the signature tune of Housewives’ Choice, a popular radio show on the BBC Light Programme which ran until 1967. Jack Strachey moved to Brighton in 1958 and died there in May 1972.
