Children who play the perennial "Heart and Soul" duet on the family piano might not realize that the tune was written in 1938 by one of America's most prolific popular song composers, Hoagy Carmichael. Carmichael also became one of the century's most iconic pianists, as his distinctive appearance—gaunt and glum, hunched over the upright piano in a smoky nightclub—endures through numerous Hollywood films from the 1940s and 1950s, including classics such as To Have and Have Not and The Best Years of Our Lives (in Night Song he even shares billing with classical concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein). Carmichael's music lives on, too, having thoroughly entered the American musical canon. Of his 250 published songs, "Stardust" (1927) is probably one of the most frequently recorded of all popular songs (with renditions by artists ranging from Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole to Willie Nelson and Carly...