Alf. J. Lawrance

English songwriter/pianist/singer. Alf. J. Lawrance published his first song at age 16 and went on to published more than a thousand by the mid-1940s (some in collaboration) for vaudeville, pantomime, revusical, revue and follies, radio and film. Lawrance’s first song, “Goodnight My Little Daffodil,” reportedly sold in excess of 40,000 copies in Britain. He first came to Australia in 1914 with his wife, singer Violet Carmen (as Carmen and Lawrence) and in the early to mid-1920s partnered singer Nell Crane before going solo. The 1930s saw him employed by Ernest C. Rolls as a pianist/songwriter for revues like League of Happiness, while also contributing music for radio and film. His radio career began in the late-1920s with the privately-owned Australian Broadcasting Company (as music director/ conductor). He joined the government-run ABC in 1937 and was still writing and publishing songs in the early 1950s. Lawrance’s film scores included The Hayseeds (1933), Splendid Fellows (1934), The Flying Doctor (1936, with Willy Redstone) and Rangle River (1936). His songs also featured in at least two Hollywood films. In late-1946 Lawrance teamed up with 19 year-old songwriter Robyn Teakle. The pair went on to write and publish a number of popular songs.