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{{Infobox musical artist |name = George Goehring |caption = George Goehring |image = GeorgeGoehring2.jpg |background = composer |birth_name = George Goehring |alias = |birth_date = (1933-07-16) July 16, 1933 (age 91) |birth_place =Glenside, Pennsylvania, United States |death_date = Error: Need valid birth date (second date): year, month, day |origin = Glenside, Pennsylvania |instrument = vocals, piano |genre = Rock and Roll, rock and roll |occupation = singer, songwriter |years_active = 1952–74 |label = |associated_acts = Connie Francis, Gene Pitney, The Platters, Dion |website = |current_members = |past_members =

George Goehring (July 16, 1933-August 15, 2024) was an American composer, songwriter and pianist, who composed the top ten hits Lipstick On Your Collar and [[Half Heaven, Half Heartache[[, as well as for Dion, the Platters, Sarah Vaughn, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and the theme song of the television show Hootenanny.

Early Life And Career

George Goehring was born July 16, 1933 in Glenside, PA, a Philadelphia suburb, where he began studying classical piano with the intention of becoming a concert pianist. In his teens, he began learning popular music to play piano bars. He was performing at The Pirate Ship in downtown Philadelphia, he later said, when he heard about the Brill Building, a haven for songwriters and publlshers at 1619 Broadway in New York. In 1955 he secured an audition with Irving Caesar, who’d written the lyrics for Swanee, Tea For Two and several other standards. Caesar agreed to publish two of Goehring’s first songs, “Daffodilly Duck” and “Our Lady of The Highway,” which was recorded by singer Connie Boswell. With this success, he moved to New York, where he was house pianist at Arthur’s Café in Greenwich Village and wrote with various lyricists in the Brill Building, beginning with Ira Kosloff (who also co-wrote Elvis’ #1 I Want You I Need You I Love You). Their song “Edge Of The Sea” was soon covered by Sarah Vaughn.

   After scoring his first song to make the charts, “The Mystery Of You” recorded by the Platters, Goehring was signed to a 5-year publishing deal with Joy Music. There he co-wrote “Lipstick On Your Collar” with fellow staff writer Edna Lewis, who’d also co-written Sixteen Candles. Goehring, who went to Francis’ home to play her the song, later said “Connie Francis changed my life forever with five words: ‘Okay, I’ll take this one.’” Released in May 1959, “Lipstick” went to #15 on the Hot 100 and was #1 on juke boxes nationally, selling a million copies. 
    While at Joy Music he also co-wrote songs for “one-hit wonders,” including Diane Ray’s “Please Don’t Talk To The Lifeguard”, with lyrics by Sylvia Dee, who also wrote “Too Young” and “The End Of The World,”  and The Glencoves’ “Hootenanny,” theme song for the folk-music ABC tv show of the 1960s. Not every song was a hit single: Elvis’ “Suppose” appeared only in the film “Speedway,” but Dion’s “Somebody Nobody Wants” made the top 40. In 1962 Goehring, Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold wrote “Half Heaven Half Heartache,” a #12 pop hit, #5 AC, sung by Gene Pitney. Goehring later called it “the biggest thrill of my life…because Gene is my favorite male singer.” For his September 2001 fan newsletter, Pitney, known for a lengthy list of pop hits in the early 60s, noted that “Half Heaven Half Heartache” was “one of his favorite songs to sing live.” The fan newsletter also noted the song’s “unforgettable haunting melody…This breathtaking song of melancholy never fails to bring down the house at concerts.” Like “Lipstick On Your Collar,” it’s been recorded by several artists, including Jane Olivor, David Cassidy and Rod MacDonald.

Goehring later composed the music for ‘Our Corner Of The Night,” one of the first rock and roll songs recorded by Barbra Streisand, and “Robot Man,” recorded by Connie Francis; but as more artists wrote their own songs, Brill Building publishers began to close, and Geohring left New York with his partner, Dennis O’Brien. They lived in northern California and West Virginia before settling in northeast Baltimore, MD, near Lake Montebello. “Half Heaven, Half Heartache” is today published by Aaron Schroeder Music; Joy Music was eventually sold to Warner Chappell, which today owns most of Goehring’s compositions. Goehring also composed the music, beginning in 1966, for a musical adaptation of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s novel, “Lady Audley’s Secret,” which opened at Balrimore’s Center Stage in 1966. The Baltimore Sun’s theater critic, R.H. “Hal” Gardner, called it “a triumph” and praised the score for its “Gilbert and Sullivan quality.” The play was revived in 1972 for Off-Broadway in New York. During his years in Maryland, according to Baltimore Sun editor Alan Sea, “George also played an important role in the gay musical community of the 1980s, when he was the piano accompanist for the Baltimore Men’s Chorus.” Goehring also operated an antiques store in Waverly, MD, and began collecting antigue commercial art, specialising in hand-painted cigarette and condom tins and other collectibles. The Sun noted Goehring “once scored a collecting coup when he found a tin box that traded on the name of Babe Ruth — a Bambino brand tin.”

He and O’Brien later published a book for collectors of hand-painted condom tins, “Don’t Forget Your Rubbers.”

In 1992 Mr. Goehring was shot in the hand by a U.S. postal agent during a botched drug raid at his home. He settled a lawsuit against the Postal Service for $150,000. In 2006 Goehring and O’Brien moved to Delray Beach, FL; they married in 2015. In 2008 Goering teamed up with jazz singer-violinist Nicole Yarling and singer-songwriters Ellen Bukstel and Rod MacDonald to perform “My Life In The Brill Building,” a retrospective concert of Goehring’s songs and stories. The show proved very popular in south Florida, selling out several venues during its six-year run. Writing for the web site “Gotfolk,” Heather Tanksley called it “one of THE MOST entertaining and interesting shows I've ever attended!... George Goehring's storytelling ability, self-effacing humor, and genuinely warm and humble persona were simply delightful to behold…. If you are a lover of "oldies but goodies" and want to learn more about the creation of pop music in the '60s straight from the horse's mouth (so to speak), then you shouldn't miss this show!!” Geohring’s longtime partner Dennis O’Brien died in 2023, and Goehring moved into Amazing Grace Assisted Living in West Palm Beach, Florida, where ““George loved playing his music and was still entertaining the people in his assisted living home only a few weeks ago,” according to Mr. Sea. He died August 15, 2024, 81 years old; at Amazing Grace. A cause of death was not available.