Written by Jaffe and fellow student Nat Bonx, "Collegiate" was well known on the campus when Fred Waring (a Pennsylvania State grad) brought his "Pennsylvanians" to play at the university's annual Ivy Ball.
[2] On August 18, 1925, the song achieved notoriety when interpolated with the Gay Paree musical revue which opened in the Shubert Theatre in New York.
In 1927, a Shubert Brothers production, "Listen, Dearie", had included the song "Sweetest Little Girl" by Jaffe, Nat Bonx, and Clay Boland.
One of his most successful songs, "The Gypsy in My Soul", was written with Clay Boland in 1937 for the 50th annual production of the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Show.
After that, contributing songwriters secured independent publication of their songs, which were published in individual copies, orchestrated for dance, and recorded by name artists.
Although "book shows" like the Mask & Wig productions provide songwriters with a context, most of Jaffe's subsequent songs, written with various collaborators, were created independently of the stage.
In 1937, for example, Jaffe teamed up with Henry Tobias and Larry Vincent to write "If I Had My Life to Live Over", a sentimental waltz that caught on after World War II, when it was featured by Kate Smith, Buddy Clark and Bob Eberly, among others.
In 1941, Jaffe, Nat Bonx and musician Jack Fulton adapted Anton Rubinstein's classical "Romance", added lyrics, and called their version "If You Are But a Dream".
In 1944, Jaffe took credit for words and music, without collaboration, on "Bell Bottom Trousers"—although he freely admitted that it wasn't an entirely original concept.
And additional recordings by Guy Lombardo, Louis Prima, Jerry Colonna and others made "Bell Bottom Trousers" Tune-Dex Digest's number two selling song for 1944-45 (second to "Don't Fence Me In").
Together, they founded General Music Publishing Company, which had its first big hit in 1948 with Jaffe's song "I'm My Own Grandpaw", co-written with Dwight Latham.