Lou Busch

After his tour of duty, Busch returned to the music business. It was around this time that singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer was recruiting artists and employees for his recently formed label, Capitol Records, so Busch was hired for the radio transcription service in 1946.[1] He was in charge of production of promotional radio shows featuring Capitol artists for distribution to stations around the country. By 1949 he had been promoted to A&R man.[1]

One summer, Busch played piano for singer Jo Stafford and conductor Paul Weston on the hit record "Ragtime Cowboy Joe". The success encouraged both him and the label to release his own original single, "Ivory Rag", early in 1950.[1] It was the first piece incorporated into the "Crazy Otto Medley" by German pianist Fritz Schulz-Reichel, which was later associated with Johnny Maddox in the U.S. In 1962, he formed Burning Bush Music ASCAP.

His biggest hits from the 1950s include "Portuguese Washerwoman", "Sam's Song", a cover of Del Wood's version of "Down Yonder", and Bert Kaempfert's international hit "Zambesi".[2] Some of the singles include his vocal backup group, the Carr Hops. Often overlooked are several mainstream and jazz sides he recorded as Lou Busch, featuring exciting band or orchestral arrangements.

One Busch collaboration with Milton Delugg, "Rollercoaster", became the closing theme of the TV panel show What's My Line? for the entirety of its original network run, from 1950 to 1967.

Busch eventually left Capitol for Warner Bros. Records where he took on the same general responsibilities.[1] Busch returned to arranging and conducting responsibilities again, one of the most notable being the musical force behind comic singer Allan Sherman. On the Sherman records he was credited as "Lou Busch," musical director.[2] Sherman explained Busch's choice to change the spelling of his surname: “Lou thought it would look fancier with a ‘c’ in it.”[3] A few later albums were released on the Dot label, and in the late 1970s he produced one more effort with friend and jazz pianist Lincoln Mayorga, complete with a couple of new tunes, The Brinkerhoff Piano Company.

He married actress-singer Janet Blair in 1943; the union ended in divorce in 1950. He wed singer Margaret Whiting in 1950,[4] and their daughter was born that December. Whiting also sued him for divorce, in 1953.[5]

In the late 1970s, Busch did some live performances with Mayorga and others in Southern California. He died in Camarillo, California, on September 19, 1979, as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile crash. He was interred in the Westwood Village Mortuary near UCLA.[2]