Tom Glazer

American folk singer and songwriter. Born in 3 September 1914 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of Russian extraction, Glazer was raised in an orphanage after his father died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. He made his singing debut in 1929, arrived in New York in the early 1930s, and, in Washington DC, met Alan Lomax During the 1940s, he was active in New York’s political folk movement, performing songs against racial segregation and in support of labour unions singing alongside Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. In 1948 he won acclaim for his New York Town hall debut. Glazer wrote the musical score for the Elia Kazan film A Face in the Crowd (1957). During the 1950s he moved to folk songs for children and had his greatest success there. His greatest commercial success came with his original 1963 recording of the song parody "On Top of Spaghetti" to the tune of "On Top of Old Smoky" which reached #14 in the US Billboard charts. He composed many ballads later coved including "Because All Men Are Brothers", recorded by The Weavers and Peter, Paul and Mary; "Talking Inflation Blues", recorded by Bob Dylan; "The Ballad of FDR" and "A Dollar Ain't A Dollar Anymore". Glazer died 21 February 2003 in Rochester, New York, USA.