10 Facts About Will Holt

Will Holt was an American singer, songwriter, librettist and lyricist.

Will Holt was known first and primarily as a folk performer during the 1950s, when he made early and influential recordings of such songs as "Sinner Man" and "Lemon Tree", for which he wrote the English lyrics.

Will Holt later became known as an interpreter of the music of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, and made significant contributions to Broadway theatre during the 1970s.

Will Holt attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Williams College, and studied with folk singer Richard Dyer-Bennet at the School for American Minstrels in Aspen, Colorado.

Will Holt sang regularly in clubs in New York City, St Louis, Las Vegas and elsewhere, recording his first LP The World of Will Holt for the Coral label in the mid-1950s, and thereafter recorded for several labels including Elektra, Stinson and Atlantic.

Will Holt's 1956 recording of "Sinner Man", with the Les Baxter Orchestra, was the first version of the song to be recorded under that name, though it was based on an older spiritual, and formed a template for later recordings including those by the Weavers and Nina Simone.

Will Holt wrote one-act musical theatre shows and playlets performed off Broadway, including That 5 AM Jazz in 1965.

Will Holt made his Broadway debut in 1969 with a musical, Come Summer, which was panned by critics, but found success with The Me Nobody Knows, based on stories written by children in New York, which ran for almost a year and won him the Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Musical Writer and a Tony nomination for Best Lyrics.

Will Holt wrote the lyrics for the 1978 musical Platinum, starring Alexis Smith as a film star attempting a comeback as a rock singer.

Will Holt died on May 31,2015, in Los Angeles of Alzheimer's disease.