John Frederick Coots, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

John Frederick Coots

American songwriter

Date of Birth: 02-May-1897

Place of Birth: New York City, New York, United States

Date of Death: 08-Apr-1985

Profession: composer, songwriter

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

John Frederick Coots (May 2, 1897 – April 8, 1985) was an American songwriter.
He composed over 700 popular songs and over a dozen Broadway shows.
In 1934, Coots wrote the melody with his then chief collaborator, lyricist Haven Gillespie, for the biggest hit for them both "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town." The song became one of the biggest sellers in American history.In 1934, when Gillespie brought him the lyrics to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", Coots came up with the skeleton of the music in just ten minutes.
Coots took the song to his publisher, Leo Feist Inc., who liked it but thought it was "a kids' song" and didn't expect too much from it.
Coots offered the song to Eddie Cantor who used it on his radio show that November and it became an instant hit.
The morning after the radio show there were orders for 100,000 copies of sheet music and by Christmas sales had passed 400,000.