Songwriter and music publisher Robert Mellin was a capable tunesmith who also wrote lyrics, usually taking one duty or the other in partnership with other writers. Born in Surrey, England, Mellin first scored big with 1952's "My One and Only Love," which he co-wrote with lyricist Guy Wood. The song was recorded by countless artists, among them Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, and even Sting, but perhaps the best-known versions were waxed by Frank Sinatra and legendary one-off duet partners John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman. Mellin subsequently penned English lyrics for a German tune by Lotar Olias; the result, "You, You, You," became the biggest hit of the Ames Brothers' career in 1953. Similarly, Mellin wrote English lyrics for a tune by Italian composers Vittorio Mascheroni and Giancarlo Testoni; "My One Sin" was recorded by Nat King Cole in 1955. "Rain (Falling From the Sky)," a tune co-written with Gunther Finlay, was recorded by Frank Sinatra and featured in the hit movie Picnic. Mellin devoted much of his time in the late '50s and early '60s to getting his own music publishing firm off the ground. His next major songwriting success came in 1962, when he wrote lyrics for Acker Bilk's instrumental smash "Stranger on the Shore," allowing it to be covered by vocal acts like Andy Williams and the Drifters. In the mid-'60s, he moved into scoring, writing soundtrack music for the Western films The Gunfighters of Casa Grande and Son of a Gunfighter and the spy flick The Dirty Game. His best-remembered scoring effort, however, was for the TV series The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; his opening theme, co-written with Gian-Piero Reverberi, became something of a TV-theme classic, later covered by several instrumental groups and included on an electronica mix CD by Orbital. Mellin also wrote music for the TV series Don Quijote, among other projects. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi

Robert Mellin

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