Steve Allen Interview

He's a Show Biz Legend. He both created and hosted The Tonight Show. He's written 36 books, over 4,000 songs, and recorded some 40 albums. Is it any wonder then that Steve Allen was inducted into the TV Academy's Hall of Fame. As Andy Williams once said, "Steve Allen does so many things, he's the only man I know who's listed on every one of the Yellow Pages." And, Steve Allen is the only T.V. comedian from the Golden Age of Comedy of the 50's, still making frequent T.V. appearances.

Q. You made it to the Guinness Book Of World Re­cords as the "Most Prolific Composer of Modern Times." As I understand it, you once wrote 400 songs in one day. Those were complete songs.?
A. Yes, the 400 songs were complete, if you are talking about melodies. Naturally, I didn't have time to write lyr­ics except for three or four comedy verses I created in re­sponse to requests called up from the audience that was witnessing the event.

Q. So what happens to those songs?
A. It's impossible to say at present. Although I have had excellent fortune as a songwriter over the years, I've pro­duced such an enormous volume of work that the great majority of it will never be heard. It might help you to understand this, Irving Berlin is reported to have written about 1,000 songs in his lifetime, but had only about 50 hits. That's a good deal more than other writers had, but it's obviously a very small percentage of his total output.