Gene Raskin

Gene Raskin (born September 5, 1909, The Bronx, New York, USA - died June 7 2004, Manhattan, New York, USA) was an American musician, songwriter, playwright and author. In the early 1960's, Raskin and his wife Francesca played folk music around Greenwich Village in New York City. They released an album which included the song "Those Were The Days" (a Russian song composed by Boris Fomin to which Raskin wrote the English lyrics and claimed as his own) that was initially covered by The Limeliters. He also wrote three plays: "One's a Crowd" (1949), a comedy about an atomic scientist who develops four personalities after his experiments go horribly wrong; "Amata" (1951), a romantic play; and later, "The Old Friend". He published three books on architecture: "Architecturally Speaking" (1951); "Sequel to Cities" (1971); and "Architecture and People" (1974). He also wrote a novel, "Stranger in my Arms".