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\n\tAs we\u00a0reported earlier\u00a0on Thursday (Feb. 22), Diane Warren<\/a>\u00a0is this year\u2019s recipient<\/a> of the Johnny Mercer Award, the top honor given by the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Warren joins a long list of Mercer Award recipients which includes Burt Bacharach & Hal David, Paul Simon, Stephen Sondheim, Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Dolly Parton and Neil Diamond.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Mercer Award is reserved for a songwriter or songwriting team who has already been inducted into the SHOF and whose body of work upholds the high standards set by Mercer, wrote dozens of hits from the 1930s through the 1960s.<\/p>\n \n\tWarren will be the fourth woman to receive the award on her own, following Carole King (2002), Dolly Parton (2007) and Carole Bayer Sager (2019). In addition, three songwriting teams with a female partner have won the honor \u2013 Betty Comden & Adolph Green (1991), Alan & Marilyn Bergman (1997), and Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil (2011).<\/p>\n \n\tMercer died in 1976, so you can be excused if you don\u2019t know all that much about him. Mercer was a top lyricist of the Great American Songbook era, but his creative peak extended beyond that era. He won back-to-back Oscars in 1962-63 for co-writing \u201cMoon River\u201d and \u201cDays of Wine and Roses.\u201d Henry Mancini<\/a>, who composed both of those hits, saluted Mercer with a memorable line<\/a> from \u201cMoon River\u201d when they won for \u201cDays of Wine and Roses,\u201d saying \u201cand my huckleberry friend, Johnny Mercer.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMercer\u2019s other most famous songs include \u201cHooray for Hollywood\u201d (a perennial on the Oscars), \u201cOne for My Baby (And One More for the Road)\u201d (a classic saloon song that is one of Frank Sinatra\u2019s signature hits), \u201cSummer Wind\u201d (another Sinatra classic from 1966), \u201cFools Rush In\u201d (which Rick Nelson revived in 1963), \u201cDream\u201d (one of the most melancholy ballads of the World War II years), \u201cI\u2019m an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)\u201d (Lucy and Ethel sang it on a 1954 episode of I Love Lucy<\/em>), \u201cThat Old Black Magic\u201d (Louis Prima & Keely Smith\u2019s classic version was a winner at the first Grammy Awards) and \u201cI Wanna Be Around\u201d (Tony Bennett\u2019s highest-charting Hot 100 hit).<\/p>\n \n\tHere are more Mercer songs you probably know: \u201cAc-Cent-Tchu-Ate-the-Positive,\u201d \u201cAutumn Leaves,\u201d \u201cBlues in the Night,\u201d \u201cJeepers, Creepers!,\u201d \u201cCome Rain or Come Shine,\u201d \u201cI Remember You,\u201d \u201cCharade,\u201d \u201cSkylark\u201d and \u201cToo Marvelous for Words.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tScan these 12 Fun Facts and learn more about the man for whom the Songwriters Hall of Fame named their top award.<\/p>\n