Dory Previn

Lyricist and marriage: 1958–1969 Through a chance contact with film producer Arthur Freed, she gained a job as a lyricist at MGM. There she met, and began collaborating with, composer André Previn. In 1958, as Dory Langdon, she recorded an album of her songs, The Leprechauns Are Upon Me, with André Previn and jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell accompanying her, for Verve Records. She married Previn in 1959. The couple collaborated on a number of songs used in motion pictures, including "The Faraway Part Of Town", sung by Judy Garland in the film Pepe, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song in 1960. In 1961 they wrote "One, Two, Three Waltz" for the movie One, Two, Three, and in 1962 "A Second Chance" for the movie Two for the Seesaw, which won them a second Oscar nomination. They also wrote songs recorded by Rosemary Clooney, Chris Connor, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis Jr., Doris Day, Eileen Farrell, Jack Jones, Marilyn Maye, Carmen McRae, Matt Monro, Leontyne Price, Nancy Wilson, and Monica Zetterlund. In 1964, they collaborated with Harold Arlen on "So Long, Big Time!", which was recorded by Tony Bennett. During this period, Dory Previn wrote lyrics with other film composers for the movies Tall Story, Goodbye Again and Harper.

By the mid-1960s, André Previn had become a classical music conductor, touring worldwide, but Dory's fear of air travel kept her from joining him. In 1965 she suffered a psychiatric breakdown for which she was briefly hospitalized, but continued to write songs with André, including You're Gonna Hear from Me, recorded by Frank Sinatra, and began to use the name Dory Previn professionally. In 1967, they wrote five songs for the movie Valley of the Dolls. The soundtrack album spent six months on the charts, and Dionne Warwick had a pop hit with her version of the theme song. The next year, she won a third Oscar nomination for "Come Saturday Morning", with music by Fred Karlin, from the movie The Sterile Cuckoo. A hit version was recorded by The Sandpipers.

In 1968, André Previn had fully moved from composing film scores to conducting symphony orchestras, most notably the London Symphony Orchestra. While in London, he began an affair with 23-year-old actress Mia Farrow, who was working on the film A Dandy in Aspic. In 1969, Dory Previn discovered that Farrow had become pregnant by her husband, which led to their separation. In a cruel twist of fate, Farrow had been married to Frank Sinatra during the time Previn and her husband composed You're Gonna Hear from Me which was recorded by Sinatra. Their divorce became final in July 1970. Two months later, André Previn subsequently married Farrow in September 1970. This seemed to change her outlook as a songwriter, making her more introspective. She expressed her feelings about Farrow and the end of her marriage in the song "Beware of Young Girls" on her 1970 album On My Way to Where.

In a 1973 interview, Previn said: "I'd been writing for films for several years, but nothing I could say in those theme songs had not been said better by many songwriters before me; and gloriously by poets. So what did I do? Did I want to go on and write more poetic lyrical metaphors on things already said? Or did I want to write about the one thing I can only presume to be an authority on: myself?"

Singer-songwriter: 1970–1980 In 1970, Previn signed as a solo artist with the Mediarts company founded by Alan Livingston and Nik Venet, and recorded her first album for 12 years, On My Way to Where.

Previn's albums maintained a balance of intensely personal lyrics and wider commentary. "A Stone for Bessie Smith" is about the premature death of singer Janis Joplin, while "Doppelgänger" examines the latent savagery of humanity. Self-conscious spirituality at the expense of the tangible is criticized in "Mythical Kings and Iguanas", while songs dealing with emotionally frail characters include "Lady With the Braid", "Lemon-Haired Ladies", and "The Altruist and the Needy Case". Feminist issues and dilemmas are explored in "Brando" and "The Owl and the Pussycat", while the male ego is attacked with wit and irony in "Michael, Michael", "Don't Put Him Down", and "The Perfect Man".

In 1973, Previn's screenplay Third Girl From The Left was filmed and broadcast as a TV movie. In 1983 she wrote and appeared in a musical statement on nuclear war, August 6, 1945, in Los Angeles. Working for television, she won an Emmy Award in 1984 for "We'll Win this World" (from Two of a Kind) with Jim Pasquale, and an Emmy nomination in 1985 for "Home Here" (from Two Marriages) with Bruce Broughton.

In 1984, she married actor and artist Joby Baker. She performed in London in 1986, and wrote a stage work, The Flight of the Gooney Bird. She last appeared in concert in 1988, in Dublin and at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Her short stories appeared in several publications, and she also worked on a novel, Word-Play with an Invisible Relative. She lectured on lyric writing, recording, and writing autobiographies at various American universities. It was first performed by the New York Philharmonic, with Previn conducting and Sylvia McNair performing the soprano part. A piano reduction was published by G. Schirmer, Inc . In 2002, Dory Previn released a royalty-free recording available online, Planet Blue. It contains a mixture of recent and previously unreleased material dealing with environmental degradation and the threat of nuclear disaster. She continued to work, despite having suffered several strokes that affected her eyesight. A new compilation of her early 1970s work, The Art of Dory Previn, was released by EMI on January 21, 2008.

Death Previn died, aged 86, on February 14, 2012, at her farm in Southfield, Massachusetts, where she lived with her husband, Joby Baker. In addition to her husband, she was survived by three stepchildren, Michelle Wayland, Fredricka Baker and Scott Zimmerman, and six step-grandchildren.

Legacy A feature documentary about Previn called Dory Previn: On My Way to Where has been shown at various film festivals to critical acclaim.

Discography

Original albums The Leprechauns Are Upon Me (1958)—Verve, as Dory Langdon. Reissued in 1983 as Dory & Andre Previn On My Way to Where (1970)—Mediarts Mythical Kings and Iguanas (1971)—Mediarts Reflections in a Mud Puddle/Taps Tremors and Time Steps (1971)—United Artists Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign (1972)—United Artists Live at Carnegie Hall (1973)—United Artists Dory Previn (1974)—Warner Bros. Records We're Children of Coincidence and Harpo Marx (1976)—Warner Bros. Records Planet Blue—(2002) Download only

Compilation albums One A.M. Phonecalls (1977) United Artists In Search of Mythical Kings: The U.A. Years (1993) EMI The Art of Dory Previn (2008) EMI Previn's material from her period with United Artists has been reissued on CD under the Beat Goes On label.