Known for Deep Purple, Somebody Loves You, Wagon Wheels, and Have You Ever Been Lonely? He dominated during the Tin Pan Alley era.
He worked as a stock room clerk at a music store.
He was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
He married ukulele musician May Singhi Breen in 1929 after she left the female ukulele group the Syncopators to perform with him on the long-running radio show Sweethearts of the Air on NBC.
He collaborated with lyricists Carl Sigman, Al Stillman, Billy Hill, and Charles Tobias.