Edgar Leslie

Edgar Leslie (December 31, 1885 – January 22, 1976) was an American songwriter. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut. His first song Lonesome (1909) was an immediate success, recorded by the Haydn Quartet and again by Byron G. Harlan. Other notable artists he worked with are:

  • Nat M. Wills
  • Julian Rose
  • Belle Baker
  • Lew Dockstader
  • James Barton
  • Joe Welch

Leslie's hit songs include:

  • Moon Over Miami
  • On Treasure Island
  • For Me and My Gal
  • That Italian Rag
  • When Ragtime Rosie Ragged the Rosary
  • Lord, Have Mercy on the Married Man
  • Where Was Moses When the Lights Went Out?
  • He’d Have to Get Under
  • Put It On, Take it Off
  • When the Grown Up Ladies Act Like Babies
  • America, I Love You
  • Hello, Hawaii, How Are You?
  • In the Gold Fields of Nevada
  • All the Quakers Are Shoulder Shakers
  • Take Your Girlie to the Movies
  • Take me to the Land of Jazz
  • On the Gin Gin Ginny Shore
  • Oogie Oogie Wa Wa
  • Rose of the Rio Grande
  • Home in Pasadena
  • I’ll Take Her Back If She Wants to Come Back
  • Mistakes
  • Kansas Kitty
  • Tain’t No Sin (to Take Off Your Skin, and Dance Around in Your Bones)
  • Romance
  • I Remember You from Somewhere
  • By the River Saine Marie
  • You’ve Got Me in the Palm of Your Hand
  • Crazy People
  • I Wake Up Smiling
  • The Moon Was Yellow
  • In a Little Gypsy Tearoom
  • Cling to Me
  • A Little Bit Independent
  • Midnight Blue
  • Robins and Roses
  • It Looks Like Rain in Cherry Blossom Lane
  • At a Perfume Counter
  • We Must Be Vigilant
  • You’re Over the Hill
  • Oky Doky Tokyo

He was a founding member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1914 and its director from 1931 to 1941 and from 1947 to 1953.

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.