Murray Grand was an American singer, songwriter, lyricist, and pianist best known for the song "Guess Who I Saw Today

Guess Who I Saw Today

Guess Who I Saw Today is a popular jazz song written by Murray Grand with lyrics by Elisse Boyd. The song was originally composed for Leonard Sillman's Broadway musical revue New Faces of 1952 in which it was sung by June Carroll.-Notable Recordings:...

".

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

, Grand played piano as a teenager. During World War II, he served as an infantryman in U.S. Army and played piano accompaniment for USO Tour stars including Gypsy Rose Lee

Gypsy Rose Lee

Gypsy Rose Lee was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act. She was also an actress, author, and playwright whose 1957 memoir was made into the stage musical and film Gypsy.-Early life:...

 and Betty Grable

Betty Grable

Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...

. After the war, Grand studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 and worked as a cabaret performer in New York City.

In 1952, he wrote “Guess Who I Saw Today” (with lyrics by Elisse Boyd) for the Broadway musical revue New Faces of 1952

New Faces of 1952

New Faces of 1952 is a musical revue with songs and comedy skits. It ran on Broadway for nearly a year in 1952 and was then made into a motion picture in 1954...

. The song has been recorded by Nancy Wilson

Nancy Wilson (singer)

Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...

, Carmen McRae

Carmen McRae

Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...

, and Eydie Gorme

Eydie Gormé

Eydie Gormé is an American singer, specializing, with her husband, Steve Lawrence, in traditional pop music, in the form of ballads and breezy swing. She has earned numerous awards, including the Grammy and the Emmy...

 among others.

Grand’s songs have been recorded by Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

, Eartha Kitt

Eartha Kitt

Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...

, Paula West

Paula West

Paula West is an American jazz and cabaret singer known for her rich, powerful contralto voice and for her sensitive interpretations of an extraordinarily eclectic selection of songs ranging far beyond jazz standards and cabaret chestnuts.-Early career:...

, Blossom Dearie

Blossom Dearie

Blossom Dearie was an American jazz singer and pianist, often performing in the bebop genre and remembered for her girlish voice.-Early career:...

, Toni Tennille

Toni Tennille

Cathryn Antoinette "Toni" Tennille is one-half of the 1970s Grammy Award-winning duo Captain & Tennille. Tennille has also done musical work independently of her husband Daryl Dragon. Tennille has a contralto vocal range.-Biography:...

, Eydie Gorme

Eydie Gormé

Eydie Gormé is an American singer, specializing, with her husband, Steve Lawrence, in traditional pop music, in the form of ballads and breezy swing. She has earned numerous awards, including the Grammy and the Emmy...

, and Michael Feinstein

Michael Feinstein

Michael Jay Feinstein is an American singer, pianist, and music revivalist. He is an interpreter of, and an anthropologist and archivist for, the repertoire known as the Great American Songbook. In 1988 he won a Drama Desk Special Award for celebrating American musical theatre songs...

.

Grand appeared in two Paul Mazursky

Paul Mazursky

Paul Mazursky is an American film director, screenwriter and actor.-Personal life:He was born Irwin Mazursky in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jean , a piano player for dance classes, and David Mazursky, a laborer. Mazursky was born to a Jewish family; his grandfather was an immigrant from...

 films: The Tempest

Tempest (1982 film)

Tempest is an American comedy-drama film directed by Paul Mazursky. It is a very loose adaptation of the William Shakespeare play, The Tempest....

and Moscow on the Hudson

Moscow on the Hudson

Moscow on the Hudson is a 1984 comedy-drama film starring Robin Williams, and directed by Paul Mazursky. Williams plays a Soviet circus musician who defects from the Soviet Union while on a visit to the United States...

.

In his later years Grand lived for a time in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...

 where he ran a pet food business and continued to perform. He died of emphysema in Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica, California

Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

.

Songs (Include)

• Guess Who I Saw Today
• Casino Royale (dedicated to Ian Fleming
  Ian Fleming
  Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
  
  )
• Chicken Song (from the musical "The Chicken Inspector")
• Gore Galore
• I Was Beautiful
• Love At An Auction
• Morris Was Nice
• Rouge
• The Spider And The Fly
• Hurry
• April in Fairbanks
• Boozers and Losers (written with Cy Coleman
  Cy Coleman
  Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...
  
  )
• Thursday's Child
• Too Old to Die Young
• I Always Say Hello to a Flower
• Everything You Want
• Come By Sunday
• I'd Rather Cha-Cha Than Eat
• Comment Allez-Vous
• Not a Moment Too Soon

External links