Joe Bushkin (November 7, 1916 – November 3, 2004) was an American jazz pianist.
He began his career by playing trumpet and piano with New York City dance bands. He joined Bunny Berigan's band in 1935, then left to join Muggsy Spanier's Ragtime Band in 1939. From the late 1930s through to the late 1940s he also worked with Eddie Condon on records, radio and TV. After service in WWII he worked with Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman.
He might be best known for co-writing "Oh! Look at Me Now", with John DeVries, when he worked in Tommy Dorsey's band. That song would become Frank Sinatra's first hit. In his 60s Bing Crosby ended Bushkin's semi-retirement with an offer for them to tour together.
Bushkin died in 2004.
Famous quotes containing the word joe:
“This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than apes. True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)