He undertook further studies in American Literature at New York University,[2] played piano in a group, the Harmony Collegians, and started composing songs.
His best-known compositions include "Mobiles", "The Mod Moppet: Seven Nursery Rip-offs",[6] and "Sing a Song of Americans", for which Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benét wrote the lyrics.
He also handled public relations and advertising for a number of individual performers, including Elvis Presley, Burt Bacharach and Paul Simon.
[6] He published Lingo of Tin Pan Alley in 1950; a novel, The Money Song in 1953; and a biography of Harry Belafonte in 1960.
[4][10] His significant career as a writer, however, came in the 1970s and 1980s, beginning with the 1969 publication of The Rock Revolution: What's Happening to Today's Music.