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Bob Dorough (1923) is an American bebop and cool jazz pianist, singer, composer, songwriter, arranger and producer.

He worked with Miles Davis and Blossom Dearie, and his adventurous style was an influence on Mose Allison, among other singers. He is perhaps best known as the primary composer of and performer of many of the songs used in Schoolhouse Rock!, a series of educational animated shorts appearing on Saturday morning television in the 1970s and 1980s on ABC affiliates in the United States. He has released vocal jazz albums periodically over the last 50 years; his latest, Eulalia, came out in 2014.

Dorough was born in Arkansas and grew up in Texas. He played in a "Special Services Army Band Unit, gaining much professional experience as arranger, clarinetist, saxophonist, pianist, and entertainer" during World War II. After that, he attended the College of Music at North Texas State University, where he majored in composition and minored in piano.

He moved to New York City around 1950 and attended classes at Columbia University there, and was playing piano in a Times Square tap dance studio when he was introduced to the professional boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, who had temporarily left boxing and was putting together a song and dance revue. Dorough was hired and later became the show's music director; the revue traveled to various US cities and then to Europe.

Dorough left Robinson in Paris and lived there from 1954 to 1955, recording with singer Blossom Dearie during that time. He returned to the United States and moved to Los Angeles, California, where he played various gigs, including a job between sets by comedian Lenny Bruce. Dorough released his first album, Devil May Care, in 1956. It contained a version of "Yardbird Suite" with lyrics by Dorough over the famous Charlie Parker song. Trumpeter Miles Davis liked the album, so when Columbia asked Davis to record a Christmas song in 1962, Davis turned to Dorough for lyrics and singing duties. The result was a downbeat tune called "Blue Xmas," released on Columbia's Jingle Bell Jazz compilation. During that session Dorough recorded another song for Davis, "Nothing Like You," which appeared a few years later at the end of the Sorcerer album, making Dorough one of the few musicians with a vocal performance on a Miles Davis record.

"Comin' Home Baby", written by Dorough and bassist friend Ben Tucker, was a Top 40 hit for Mel Tormé in 1962, and earned Tormé two Grammy nominations.

Dorough had a producing partnership for many years with Stu Scharf. They were best known for producing two albums for the folk-pop band Spanky and Our Gang, adding jazz-influenced arrangements to their sound.

Dorough was the vocalist for The 44th Street Portable Flower Factory, recording cover versions of popular music for the Scholastic Records in the early 1970s.

Through Ben Tucker, Dorough was approached in the early 1970s by advertiser David McCall and asked to put multiplication tables to music. The result was "Three Is a Magic Number", the first song for what would become Schoolhouse Rock!. Dorough remained with the show from 1973 to 1985.

From 1985 to 1993 he toured Europe several times with the saxophone player Michael Hornstein, bassist Bill Takas and drummer Fred Braceful.

Dorough worked with Nellie McKay on her 2007 album Obligatory Villagers as well as her 2009 release Normal as Blueberry Pie - A Tribute to Doris Day.

He continued to do occasional work intended for children, with the 2005 publication of Circumstantial Productions' illustrated book version of "Blue Xmas" and the three eponymous songs he wrote in 2011 to accompany Maureen Sullivan's books about Carlos the French bulldog: Ankle Soup, Custard and Mustard and Christmas Feet.

In December 2007, Dorough was honored by East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania with a Doctor of Fine Arts honorary degree. He has received the Pennsylvania Governor's Artist of the Year Award and was named to the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame.


Bob Dorough & Dave Frishberg - 2000 - Who's on First
Bob Dorough - 1956 - Devil May Care
Bob Dorough - 1966 - Just About Everything (1994)
Bob Dorough - 1987 - Songs of Love
Bob Dorough - 1997 - Right on My Way Home
Bob Dorough - 2000 - Too Much Coffee Man
Bob Dorough - 2004 - Sunday at Iridium
Bob Dorough - 2006 - Small Day Tomorrow
Bob Dorough Quartet - 1954 - An Excursion Through 'Oliver!'