Gerald Sheldon Herman (July 10, 1931 -- December 26, 2019) was an American composer and lyricist born in Jersey City, New Jersey, whose Broadway musicals made him one of the most commercially successful theater songwriters of the twentieth century.
“Hello, Dolly!,” written by Herman, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for Louis Armstrong (1964).
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His shows include Hello, Dolly! (1964), which ran for 2,844 performances and at one time was the longest-running Broadway musical in history; Mame (1966), a vehicle for Angela Lansbury; and La Cage aux Folles (1983), the first hit Broadway musical about a gay couple.
The title song from Hello, Dolly! became a hit for Louis Armstrong (1964) and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, extending Herman's reach from the theater to popular radio.
Sources§
- Wikipedia — Jerry Herman — link
- Archive research: The Jersey City Sound, 2026
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