During World War I and the Roaring Twenties, he wrote lyrics for several of the top Tin Pan Alley composers, especially Albert Von Tilzer.

Among his most-popular songs are "Button Up Your Overcoat", "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree", "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries", "That Old Feeling", and "The Birth of the Blues".

Brown was born December 10, 1893, in Odessa, Russian Empire, part of today's Ukraine, the son of Etta (Hirsch) and Jacob Brownstein.

Their cheerful hits, such as "Button Up Your Overcoat" and "The Birth of the Blues", earned lasting appreciation for "the rich variety of verbal mosaics" and "the suggestive imagery that was their trademark".

Recordings by Glenn Miller and by the Andrews Sisters popularized the song with World War II soldiers and radio audiences.

[14] The DeSylva, Brown and Henderson songwriting team was the subject of the 1956 musical biopic: The Best Things in Life Are Free, produced by the Ephrons and based on a storyline by John O'Hara, who would have met and known them in twenties New York.