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James Kennedy (20 July 1902 – 6 April 1984) was a British songwriter. He was predominantly a lyricist, putting words to existing music such as "Teddy Bears' Picnic" and "My Prayer" or co-writing with composers like Michael Carr, Wilhelm Grosz and Nat Simon. In a career spanning more than fifty years, he wrote some 2000 songs, of which over 200 became worldwide hit single and about 50 are popular music classics.
Kennedy graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, before teaching in England. Biography by Jason Ankeny, AllMusic. Retrieved 23 April 2017 He was accepted into the Colonial Service, as a civil servant, in 1927.
In 1934, Feldman turned down Kennedy's song "Isle of Capri", but it became a major hit for a new publisher, Peter Maurice. Kennedy wrote several more successful songs for Maurice, including "Red Sails in the Sunset" (1935), inspired by beautiful summer evenings in Portstewart, Northern Ireland; "Harbour Lights" (1937); and "South of the Border" (1939), inspired by a holiday picture postcard he received from Tijuana, Mexico, and written with composer Michael Carr. Kennedy and Carr also collaborated on several West End shows in the 1930s, including London Rhapsody (1937). "My Prayer", with original music by Georges Boulanger, had English lyrics penned by Kennedy in 1939. It was originally written by Boulanger with the title "Avant de Mourir" in 1926.
During the early stages of the Second World War, while serving in the British Army's Royal Artillery, where he rose to the rank of captain, he wrote the wartime hit, "We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line". His hits also included "Hokey Pokey" (1945; known as "The Hokey Pokey" and "Okey Cokey" in several locales), and the English lyrics to "Lili Marlene". After the end of the war, his songs included "An Apple Blossom Wedding" (1947), "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (1953), and "Love Is Like a Violin" (1960). In the 1960s, Kennedy wrote the song "The Banks of the Erne'", for recording by his friend from the war years, Theo Hyde, also known as Ray Warren.
Kennedy was a patron of the Castlebar International Song Contest from 1973 until his death in 1984, and his association with the event added great prestige to the contest.
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