Harold Weeks (musician)

Weeks was born in Iowa,[2] but is usually associated with Seattle, Washington where he grew up and attended Queen Anne High School, where he became a nationally recognized ragtime composer by his junior year performing under the name H. Taylor Weeks.[1][3] He then attended the University of Washington.[1]

He is best known for his 1918 song "Hindustan", written with Oliver Wallace, which sold over one million copies and was widely played by dance orchestras and is today considered a jazz standard.[4][3] The most notable version of the song was performed by the Joseph C. Smith orchestra.[5] Other notable compositions included "Seattle Town", "No Fair Falling in Love", "My Honolulu Bride",[6] "Ada" (with Victor Aloysius Meyers and Danny Cann), and "Isle of Dreams" (with Meyers and Wallace).[7] He composed more than forty popular songs and was considered one of Seattle's most prolific composers.[1]

Weeks was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and the National Temperance League.[6] He was a Christian and was actively involved with the Christian Science movement, including serving as a trustee for his church: Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist, Seattle.[3] The church building later became Town Hall Seattle.[6]

Weeks died in 1967. His correspondence, writings, sheet music, scrapbook, and phonograph records can be found at the University of Washington’s Special Collections library.[6][8]

Media related to Harold Weeks at Wikimedia Commons