Larry Fotine

American jazz pianist, songwriter, bandleader, producer and author. Born April 27, 1911 in Camden, New Jersey. Died November 25, 1990 in Nevada, USA. Around age 14, Larry started studying piano and then self taught composition, arranging and orchestration. About 1935, he organized a local youth orchestra and played various engagements in the surrounding cities. He later joined the Sammy Kaye Orchestra as an arranger from 1940 to 1945, and from 1945 to 1947 was arranger for the Blue Barron, and Art Mooney Orchestra. By 1948 he organized his own orchestra, and later joined the Lawrence Welk orchestra in 1958. As an arranger he worked with Mr. Welk for two years. Larry Fotine was a member of ASCAP and wrote and published many songs. He charted as a songwriter one song covered three times, all in 1948: "You Were Only Fooling (While I Was Falling in Love)" by The Ink Spots, hit #8 (#15 R&B) (co-written by Billy Faber & Fred Meadows). The song was also covered as "You Were Only Fooling" by Blue Barron and His Orchestra (#9) and "You Were Only Fooling (While I Was Falling in Love)" by Kay Starr (#16). He released in 1959 his own 20th Contemporary Classical work for the Balboa label under the alias “Constantine and His Orchestra” with composer credits to Larry Fotine. He also went under an alias name “Beale Street Buskers”. In the late 1980's, he was still active writing music as background music and tunes for a variety of animated cartoon series. He wrote at least five books including three music-oriented books: "Theory and Techniques of Twelve Tone Composition" (1967) and "Contemporary Musician's Handbook And Dictionary" (1978) and " Musicians and Other Noisemakers" (1980), one book of shorts stories "Pieces of Life" (1987) and "Cowboys, Indians and Other Characters" published in 1991 after his death.

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