Ervin and Edith Drake Honored by Musical Mondays Theatre Lab and SGA

Ervin Drake, past President and current Executive Board member of the Songwriters Guild of America, was honored recently at a luncheon and show at Sardi’s in New York City. Feted along with him was his wife of twenty-five years, Edith.

In a show that saw many of Drake’s hits performed by friends, cabaret and Broadway notables, the highlight was clearly Drake performing a few numbers himself,

The show was presented by the Musical Mondays Theatre Lab, and emcee’d by New York’s Joey Reynolds. This was a show that saw Richard Skipper as Carol Channing, performing “Widows’ Weeds”, followed by singer-actor Ron Raines and Marc Kudisch doing an impassioned performance of “The Dangerous Age”. Christine Pedi handled one of Ervin’s best, “A Room Without Windows” beautifully, and then Karen Saunders gave a great rendition of “Good Morning Heartache”, followed by the legendary hit, “It Was a Very Good Year”(Marc Kudisch).

An audience favorite followed with KT Sullivan’s fabulous rendition of “Tico,Tico”, which was a great showcase for Sullivan’s electric personality. Steve Ross Followed with “I Believe” and “Just For Today”.

A presentation from Musical Mondays followed, and then SGA President Rick Carnes presented Drake with a beautiful plaque from the Songwriters Guild of America, which read, “Presented to Ervin Drake for his bountiful gifts of song, his lifelong fight for songwriter rights, and his unflagging social conscience”. Drake then followed the presentation with his own rendition of “The Father of Girls” and after a moving speech, Drake gave a performance of “Who Are These Strangers” that moved the audience, and Drake himself, to tears. It capped off a stirring show and a reminder of just what a strong catalogue of songs that Ervin Drake has amassed over the years. This would be a proud collection of songs for any songwriter in the history of recorded music, and it is clear that Ervin stands out as one of its best.

Ervin Drake, a composer and lyricist, has worked as a producer in television, was a writer of books and tv shows, wrote for Broadway, and was enormously successful at each venture. He is probably best known as the composer and lyricist of “It Was A Very Good Year”, a huge hit and career song for Frank Sinatra, although Billie Holiday’s “Good Morning Heartache”, “I Believe”, “Perdido” and “Tico Tico” could never be omitted from his “greatest hits” collection.

A little known fact is that he was a co-writer of what is considered by many to be the very first Rock and Roll song, “Castle Rock”, which contained the lyric “I held her tight and rocked around the clock”, predating Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” from “Blackboard Jungle” by three years.

From 1973 to 1982, Drake was the President of the Songwriters Guild of America (then called the American Guild of Authors and Composers) and was leader of the successful campaign for the passage of the US Copyright Act of 1976, which, among other things, allowed songwriters a larger share in earnings, resulting in millions of dollars for songwriters over the years. Thank you, Mr. Drake!

Alongside him (as always) and also being honored, was his wife of twenty-five years, tho’ his lifelong love, Edith Drake. Edith has had an amazing career as a model, showgirl and actress. She has appeared at Radio City Music Hall, at the 1939 World’s Fair (in the musical American Jubilee) and on Broadway (with Gypsy Rose Lee!) in the Mike Todd production of Star and Garter. She wrote for, and was an instructor with the Barbizon School for Models. Her spa was radical (in 1960) for its approach to health, but now considered the norm. Edith still distributes her exclusive line of cosmetics (Bermaine Cosmetics) and continues to be a loving and constant companion to Ervin. They are (accurately) referred to as “The Love Couple”.