Jay Livingston was born Jacob Harold Levison in McDonald, Pennsylvania to Jewish parents.

[1][2] He had an older sister, Vera, and a younger brother, Alan W. Livingston, who became an executive with Capitol Records and later with NBC television.

[4][5][6][7] "Buttons and Bows" (1947) was their next multi-million seller, with four artists reaching the top ten in 1948, and won the Academy Award for Best Song.

They finished off the decade with 1949's "Mona Lisa", which was a chart hit for seven popular and two country artists in 1950, sold a million for Nat King Cole, and won the pair another Best Song Oscar.

Livingston appeared as himself with Evans in the New Year's Eve party scene of the 1950 film Sunset Boulevard, which featured his future sister-in-law, Nancy Olson.