Bud Green

Bud Green (19 November 1897 – 2 January 1981) was an American songwriter. Bud Green (Buddy) grew up in Harlem at 108th & Madison Avenue at the turn of the 20th century, the eldest of seven. He dropped out of elementary school to sell newspapers and help the family. While selling papers, he decided to become a songwriter and started keeping a notebook of poems and rhymes that he thought would be useful someday. He was the brother of writer Hannah Russell (1913 – 2002) (Song About the Sky, who also wrote scores for children's film in London in the late 1950s; see Who's Who in American Women). He was also the brother-in-law of the great lyricist Bob Russell (1914 – 1970), who wrote "Brazil", "Frenesi", "Don't Get Around Much Anymore", "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and many other songs. Green was also the granduncle to Luther Russell, a singer songerwriter in his own right (www.lutherrussell.com).

At 21, Bud Green married a girl from the Ziegfeld Follies, Nan Hinken, they were together until her death in the early 1960s. They had two sons, both now deceased. Green worked as a salaried writer for music publishers. By 1928 he had written "Alabamy Bound" and "That's My Weakness Now", which became a huge hit for Ukulele Ike and Helen Kane, Kane's version including the suggestive scat phrase "boop boop ba doo." This line and Kane's stage persona made the song synonymous with the flapper era; Kane and the song became the inspiration for the Betty Boop cartoons that debuted in 1930. The song was self-published by Green and Stept. They were in the Brass Rail Building at 745, 7th Avenue. They then went to Hollywood to work for the movie industry. He and Sammy eventually sold their company to Warner Bros. and returned to New York. He moved his family to Yonkers, New York, where he lived the rest of his life commuting to NYC every day.