Oscar Brand born 7 February 1920

Oscar Brand (February 7, 1920 – September 30, 2016) was a Canadian-born American folk singer-songwriter, radio and TV host, and author. In his career, spanning 70 years, he composed at least 300 songs and released nearly 100 albums, among them Canadian and American patriotic songs. Brand's music ran the gamut from novelty songs to serious social commentary and spanned a number of genres. Brand also wrote a number of short stories. 

He was born on a wheat farm near Winnipeg, Manitoba. His father was an interpreter to Indians for the Hudson’s Bay Company and later ran a theatrical supply company and a pawnshop. Young Oscar fell in love with music while listening to player-piano rolls. His family moved to Minneapolis when he was 7, then to Chicago and finally to Brooklyn, where they sought treatment for Oscar, who had been born with a missing calf muscle. He graduated from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, then roamed the country with his banjo, working on farms along the way. He later graduated from Brooklyn College with a degree in psychology. 

In 1942 he joined the Army, where he worked in the psychology section of an induction center and edited a newspaper for psychiatric patients. After his discharge, he moved to Greenwich Village and tried to insinuate himself into the world of music. One of his first initiatives was writing a book called “How to Play the Guitar Better Than Me.” 

His radio career began in December 1945, after he wrote a letter to New York stations offering to present a program of Christmas songs he claimed most people had never heard. WNYC, which at the time was owned by the city, accepted the challenge. His song about Santa’s distinctive body odor proved his point. At the show’s end, WNYC’s program director asked Mr. Brand what he was doing the next week. He boldly replied that he’d be right back in the same studio in the Municipal Building. 

                                    

The music he played included fiddlers to folk songs of the Appalachians to ethnic songs of the big cities. He also played what were then known as “race records” by the likes of Memphis Minnie and Tampa Red, precursors of rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll. Mr. Brand’s own singing voice had an offhand (and sometimes off-key) authenticity, which he applied to old, new and sometimes deliberately mangled songs, both on and off the air. 

In 1950 Mr. Brand was listed in “Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television,” a pamphlet that contained the names of artists who supposedly had Communist connections. Unlike some of his colleagues, he was never asked to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee (he insisted that he never would have cooperated if he had been), and while he did lose some work, he continued to make money from his songwriting. Doris Day’s version of his song “A Guy Is a Guy” reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1952. 

Oscar with Odetta

Brand's WNYC show began what Guinness World Records eventually verified as radio’s longest-running with a single host. (It beat out Alistair Cooke’s “Letter From America,” which ran for just under 58 years.) Mr. Brand never had a contract, but he kept coming back. His employers particularly appreciated that he never asked for compensation — nor did he ever receive any. He also established his own one-of-a-kind reputation. In 1959, The New York Times called him “one of radio’s most genial fanatics.” 

His guests included the Weavers, Lead Belly, Judy Collins, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Harry Chapin, Emmylou Harris, B.B. King and Woody Guthrie’s son, Arlo, who as a teenager gave one of the earliest performances of his song “Alice’s Restaurant” on Mr. Brand’s show. Few have sung and strummed more prolifically. The hundreds of songs Brand recorded include election songs, children’s songs, vaudeville songs, sports car songs, drinking songs, outlaw songs and lascivious ditties about Nellie the Barmaid. 

He scored ballets for Agnes de Mille and commercials for Log Cabin Syrup and Cheerios. He wrote music for documentary films, published songbooks and hosted the children’s television shows “The First Look” and “Spirit of ’76” as well as, from 1963 to 1967, the Canadian television series “Let’s Sing Out.” He also wrote, with Paul Nassau, the music and lyrics for two shows that made it to Broadway, although neither had a long run: “A Joyful Noise” (1966) and “The Education of HYMAN KAPLAN (1968), based on stories by Leo Rosten. He was curator of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and served on the advisory panel that helped develop “Sesame Street.” 

In 1995, Mr. Brand won a Peabody Award for “more than 50 years in service to the music and messages of folk performers and fans around the world.” Mr. Brand’s last show aired on Sept. 24, 2016. He died on September 30, 2016, after a two week battle with pneumonia at his home in Great Neck, N.Y. He was 96. 

(Edited from New York Times & Wikipedia)