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4 unusual facts about Will Holt


Will Holt

In 1976, he collaborated with George Abbott and Richard Adler on "Music Is", an adaptation of the Shakespeare play "Twelfth Night" "Platinum (musical)", a 1978 musical starring Alexis Smith as a 1940s-50s film star attempting a comeback as a rock singer.

Will Holt (born April 30, 1929 in Portland, Maine) is an American singer, songwriter, librettist and lyricist known first and primarily as a folk performer during the 1950s and 1960s and as an interpreter of the music of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht in performances and recordings with Martha Schlamme.

As "Lemon Tree", it was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, The Seekers, Sandie Shaw, and Trini Lopez, among others, and it was heard in television commercials for the aerosol furniture polish Lemon Pledge.

Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy

This was a more folky treatment than the one by Will Holt, who published an album of 10 songs entitled Pills to Purge Melancholy (Stinson SLP78).


Me and Bessie

The basically one-woman show, conceived and written by Will Holt and Linda Hopkins and performed by Hopkins, features songs by Lil Green, Clarence Williams, Henry Creamer, Andy Razaf, and Jimmy Cox, among others.


see also