Howard Biggs

Howard Maceo Biggs (October 13, 1916 – November 24, 1999) was an American pianist, songwriter and arranger. He is noted for his involvement with doo-wop and other styles including jazz, and was influential in the first days of rock and roll.

Biography Born in Seattle, Washington, the son of naval machinist Antonio Biggs and Thelma Buchanan, he learned piano as a child and gave his first concert at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in the city at the age of ten. He studied at the University of Washington before becoming resident composer with the Negro Repertory Company in Seattle. In 1937 he composed the score for the company's production An Evening with Dunbar, based on the life and poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, and wrote several songs incorporating Dunbar's words as well as directing the theatre chorus. In 1939 he wrote the score for a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew, performed in Seattle by the Federal Theatre Negro Unit.

After touring as a concert performer, he played in lounges on the West Coast before heading east to join Noble Sissle's orchestra. He became established as a pianist with the Luis Russell Orchestra, and "Bye Bye Baby Blues", and co-wrote several others with the group's singer Jimmy Ricks. and they co-wrote the songs "Got You on My Mind", a #2 R&B hit for John Greer in 1952, later recorded by Big Joe Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton and others; "I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)", recorded by Roy Hamilton in 1954 and later by both Elvis Presley and The Beatles; "Melancholy Me", recorded by Eddy Howard; and "That's All I Need", written by Biggs, Thomas, and LaVern Baker. He also wrote "If I Could Have Your Love Again," with singer Brook Benton.

Biggs later moved to Houston, Texas, and in the mid-1970s performed regularly as a solo jazz pianist in clubs and restaurants in the city. He married Joan Cockrell, thirty years his junior, in Houston in 1984. He died in Houston in 1999.