Claude Thornhill

Claude Thornhill was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. He composed the jazz and pop standards "Snowfall" and "I Wish I Had You". Thornhill was playing at the Paramount Theater in New York for $10,000 a week when he enlisted in the United States Navy as an apprentice seaman on October 26, 1942. As chief musician, he performed shows across the Pacific Theater with Jackie Cooper as his drummer and Dennis Day as his vocalist. Following his discharged from the Navy in 1946, he reunited his ensemble.