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.
References
1893 births
1965 deaths
Musicians from New York (state) American male pianists 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American pianists