Helmy Kresa, was a songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 and the principal arranger

Arrangement

The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

 and orchestrator for Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin

Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history.His first hit song, "Alexander's Ragtime Band", became world famous...

.

Kresa wrote "That's My Desire

That's My Desire (1931 song)

"That's My Desire" is a 1931 popular song with music by Helmy Kresa and lyrics by Carroll Loveday.The highest-charting version of the song was recorded by the Sammy Kaye orchestra in 1946, although a version of the song recorded by Frankie Laine has become better known over the years, being one of...

," which Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine

Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...

 and Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong

Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....

 recorded. He also composed the instrumental music for Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...

's film "Raging Bull".

Kresa's was the first published arrangement of "All of Me

All of Me (song)

"All of Me" is a popular song and jazz standard written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons in 1931.First performed by Belle Baker over the radio and recorded in December 1931 by Ruth Etting, it has become one of the most recorded songs of its era, with notable versions by Russ Columbo, Bing Crosby,...

," written by Gerald Marks

Gerald Marks

Gerald Marks , was an American composer best known for the song "All of Me" which he co-wrote with Seymour Simons and has been recorded about 2,000 times...

 and Seymour Simons

Seymour Simons

Seymour Simons, was an American Pianist, Composer, Orchestra Leader, and Radio Producer.Simons returned to Detroit after service in World War I and built a reputation as a pianist and songwriter, providing material for stage stars Nora Bayes and Elsie Janis...

. He also acted as the arranger for Berlin for some stage musicals, including Call Me Madam

Call Me Madam

Call Me Madam is a musical with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin.A satire on politics and foreign affairs that spoofs America's penchant for lending billions of dollars to needy countries, it centers on Sally Adams, a well-meaning but ill-informed...

 (1952), Miss Liberty

Miss Liberty

Miss Liberty is a musical with a book by Robert E. Sherwood and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. It is based on the sculpting of the Statue of Liberty in 1886...

 (1950) and Annie Get Your Gun

Annie Get Your Gun (musical)

Annie Get Your Gun is a musical with lyrics and music written by Irving Berlin and a book by Herbert Fields and his sister Dorothy Fields. The story is a fictionalized version of the life of Annie Oakley , who was a sharpshooter from Ohio, and her husband, Frank Butler.The 1946 Broadway production...

 (1949).

In 1926, Kresa began working for Berlin, where he transcribed what Berlin was playing into musical manuscript form as Berlin could neither read nor write music, eventually becoming the general professional manager of the Irving Berlin Music Company.

He died of pneumonia.

His son is Kent Kresa

Kent Kresa

Kent Kresa is an American businessman. Formerly, he was Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman, as well as Chairman of General Motors and has worked with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency , the Lincoln Laboratory at M.I.T, Avery Dennison, the Fluor Corporation, and the MannKind Corporation...

.