Andrew B. Sterling


Andrew B. Sterling was an American lyricist.

Biography

Born in New York City, after he graduated from high school, he began writing songs and vaudevilles. An important event was his meeting with the composer Harry Von Tilzer in 1898. The two began a songwriting partnership that lasted almost 30 years.
Others that Sterling collaborated with include Arthur Lange, Gus Edwards, Bernie Grossman, M. K. Jerome, William Jerome, Frederick Allen Mills, his brother Raymond Sterling, Ray Henderson, Edward Moran and Bartley Costello.
Sterling wrote the songs Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis in 1904 and Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie in 1905. He wrote the song America, Here's My Boy for the Peerless Quartet in 1917 in the aftermath of U.S. entry into World War I in April 1917. He wrote On the Old Fall River Line with Von Tilzer and W. Jerome. He worked with Von Tilzer on the classic Pick Me Up and Lay Me Down in Dear Old Dixieland. Other songs for which Sterling wrote the lyrics in whole or part include After the War is Over and When My Baby Smiles at Me.
Sterling died in Stamford, Connecticut on August 11, 1955.
He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Selected works