Ben Light

Ben Light

Benjamin Bertram Leight, better known by his stage name Ben Light was an American pianist. He was born on April 23, 1893, in New York City.Light had a long career at the keyboard. He started playing the piano at the age of three without a teacher, and made his professional debut at the age of seven. For 15 years, he toured as a vaudeville pianist, performing with renowned figures such as Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Jack Benny and Sophie Tucker. Known as a musical phenomenon, Ben Light was once timed playing 1,173 notes in a single minute. Light was noted for his fast ragtime play and recorded over 100 piano compositions. He claimed to have written "My Melancholy Baby" as a teenager, but did not copyright the work.In the late 1930s, he recorded bawdy "party" records for a low-budget jukebox label. He also toured with Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards in 1938. From the late 1940s to the mid-1950s, he made over 100 recordings for the Tempo, Capitol, and X labels, selling millions of records.Ben Light died of a heart attack on January 6, 1965, in Santa Monica, California at the age of 72.

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