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Harold Taylor Weeks (March 28, 1893 – January 7, 1967) was an American jazz musician and composer from Seattle, Washington.

Biography

Weeks was born in Iowa, 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. He then attended the University of Washington.

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. The most notable version of the song was performed by the Joseph C. Smith orchestra. Other notable compositions included "Seattle Town", "No Fair Falling in Love", "My Honolulu Bride", "Ada" (with Victor Aloysius Meyers and Danny Cann), and "Isle of Dreams" (with Meyers and Wallace). He composed more than forty popular songs and was considered one of Seattle's most prolific composers.

Weeks was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers and the National Temperance League. 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. The church building later became Town Hall Seattle.

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.

References

1. ^ Smith, Merle Irene. (1989) Seattle had a Tin Pan Alley, too!. p. 57. M.I. Smith.
2. Harold T Weeks in the 1940 Census. ancestry.com
3. ^ Safronoff, Cindy Peyser. Dedication: Building the Seattle Branches of Mary Baker Eddy's Church, A Centennial Story - Part 1: 1889 to 1929. (p. 263). this one thing. Kindle Edition.
4. Smith, Merle Irene. (1989) Seattle had a Tin Pan Alley, too!. p. 51. M.I. Smith.
5. Harold Weeks. Discography of American Historical Recordings.
6. ^ Jonathan Shipley (November 15, 2018) "Celebrating Harold Weeks with Some Ragtime Ditties". Town Hall Seattle.
7. Don Duncan, Musical Tribute To Vic Meyers: Public Servant And Funny Guy, Seattle Times, April 9, 1990.
8. Harold Weeks papers, 1910-1966. Archives West: Orbis Cascade.

External links

[REDACTED] Media related to Harold Weeks at Wikimedia Commons

• 1893 births
• 1967 deaths
• People from Eagle Grove, Iowa
• American jazz composers
• American jazz musicians
• Musicians from Seattle
• American Christian Scientists
• University of Washington alumni
• Jazz musicians from Washington (state)