In his senior year at the City College of New York, Hirsch traveled to Europe to study piano at Berlin's Stern Conservatory, with pianist Rafael Joseffy.
He returned to the U.S. in 1906 and began working as a staff pianist in the Tin Pan Alley publishing houses of Gus Edwards, and Shapiro-Bernstein.
Soon, some of his melodies were interpolated into Broadway shows, including The Gay White Way, Miss Innocence (starring Anna Held), and The Girl and the Wizard.
He subsequently wrote the music to many songs that Deslys made popular, including "The Gaby Glide", "Come Dance with Me", and "When You Hear Love's Hello".
and collaborated with Otto Harbach as lyricist on the musical Going Up (1917), Mary (1920), including "Love Nest", his most successful song, which later became the Burns and Allen radio show theme.