Hugh Martin studied music at Birmingham Southern College. He intended to be a classical musician until he discovered George Gershwin.

"‘Rhapsody in Blue’ changed my life,” he recalled in a conversation with the singer and pianist Michael Feinstein in the liner notes for their 1995 album, “The Hugh Martin Songbook.”

“It was Gershwin and Kern and Arlen,” he said. Those three were my top-echelon people.”

The three songs with which Martin is most identified all belonged to the score of the 1944 MGM musical “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Although Mr. Martin shared songwriting credit with his longtime collaborator, Ralph Blane, who died in 1995, Mr. Martin insisted in his autobiography, “Hugh Martin: The Boy Next Door” (2010), that he had written all three songs by himself. Mr. Martin and Mr. Blane, who met as cast members in the 1937 Broadway revue Hooray for What? both wrote words and music, usually independently of each other,having agreed to share credit on everything.

Mr. Martin wrote the music and lyrics for five Broadway musicals: Best Foot Forward, Look Ma, I’m Dancin’! Make a Wish, High Spirits, and the 1989 stage version of Meet Me in St. Louis, for which he wrote new songs.

Source: The New York Times