Legendary songwriter and Great Neck resident Ervin Drake died at his home Thursday due to complications from bladder cancer.
Drake’s most popular song compositions include the lyrics for “Good Morning Heartache,” recorded by Billy Holliday, and the lyrics and music for 1961’s “It Was A Very Good Year,” which eventually became a hit for Frank Sinatra in 1965, according to the Songwriters Hall of Fame website.
He also wrote the lyrics and music for the Broadway show “What Makes Sammy Run?” according to the hall of fame.
Drake also had a series of small successes throughout the 1940s, such as writing the English lyrics to the Brazilian song “Tico-Tico,” writing the words to the instrumental song “Perdido” and writing the words and music for “The Rickety Rick shaw Man,” according to the hall of fame. He also wrote the English-language lyrics to “Quando Quando Quando.”
Sinatra first heard “It Was A Very Good Year” on the radio driving from Las Vegas to California late one night, and stopped at a gas station to call Gordon Jenkins – the famous arranger and pianist – to arrange the song for him to do, said Drake’s son Jed Berman.
“He got the song and by the next week Frank was able to do recording,” Berman said. “The song was able to help with his come back.”
Berman said his father was friends with Sinatra, and on one occasion while dining with him at a Las Vegas hotel, a young musician from Memphis came to their table and asked if he could sit down and talk – a pre-fame Elvis Presley.
“Elvis asked if he could sit down with them and he sat with them for a little while,” Berman said. “He was still a very young guy, and as [Elvis] left, Frank said ‘maybe that guy will go somewhere some day.’”
Drake was close enough to the Sinatra’s that Sinatra’s children – Nancy, Frank Jr. and Tina – all sent a big bouquet of flowers to Drake’s family upon learning of his death, Berman said.
According to Berman, his father wrote “It Was A Very Good Year” in about half an hour.
“He was commissioned to write song for Bob Shane [member of the Kingston Trio] and he always carried a little notebook with him, and in it he had a written something about comparing life to a fine wine,” Berman said.
“He was asked to write the son. He was finished in about 30 minutes or so, and Shane decided he wanted to do it with a group and not as a solo act.”
For his 95th birthday in April, Drake was honored at the Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington at an event sponsored by the Gold Coast Arts Center.
At the event, 16 singers – including Sidney Myer, Leslie Uggams and Eric Yves Garcia — performed some of his hit songs, and the event was hosted by Drake’s long-time friend and actor, Charles Grodin.
Gold Coast Arts Center Associate Director Caroline Sorokoff said the evening was great and that it was a fitting tribute to Drake’s songwriting fame. Sorokoff said Drake hadn’t really been involved much in the arts center, but they felt it was necessary to acknowledge his talent.
“We knew he was from the region and we wanted to honor him and pay respect to this legendary songwriter who lived in Great Neck,” Sorokoff said. “It was about acknowledging a true songwriting legend that many people didn’t even know about.”
She said many people did not even know Drake was a Great Neck resident.
“He lived quietly in Great Neck,” Sorokoff said. “We had done some small things with him in past, and we always knew he lived here.”
Sorokoff said Drake lived quietly with his wife, Edith, who survives him.
“He was very nice,” she said. “He was gracious and humorous.”
