This is the ninety ninth anniversary of the birth of Johnny Mercer, the third greatest lyricist and the fourth dreatest composer-lyricist of the American musical scene. His ASCAP list is simply incredible, but for those not historically minded may I say two Oscars, one for "Moon River" and one for "The Days of Wine and Roses" For the historically minded, the other two wins from his nineteen nominations were "On the Atchison-Topeka and the Santa Fe" and "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" which he wrote with Hoagy Carmichael. Mercer's "Skylark" also written with Carmichael is one of the most lyrical pieces of music written in the Twentieth Century.