Too Late for Tears -- by Ervin Litkei, (words by A. Litkei). from cd: Ervin Litkei Song Collection, featuring Geronimo and the Apaches

Ervin Litkei Too Late For Tears

Cleopatra, by Ervin Litkei (words by A Litkei) from cd album: Ervin Litkei Song Collection .  Performed by 'The Precisions'

Ervin Litkei Cleopatra

A jazzy blues 50's song with a 40's vibe, smoky niteclub in the dark..... by Ervin Litkei, (words by A Litkei) Sung by Marilyn Brown on the album 'Ervin Litkei Song Collection'

Ervin Litkei The Devil Caught Me Napping

Music by Ervin Litkei, words by  Andrea Litkei. from the album Ervin Litkei Song Collection. recorded by Phil Johnson and the Duvalls

I Lie to My Heart

From article about Ervin Litkei written by Irv Lichtman, esteemed former editor of Billboard


On July 4, 1991, a page 1 story in The New York Times compared Litkei's patriotic music to works by songwriter Irving Berlin , another immigrant to America who was the writer of "God Bless America." 

Litkei's career in America included the writing and recording of Hungarian versions of such standards as Berlin's "White Christmas," "Sentimental Journey," and the themes from "Love Story" and "The Godfather." He racked the major labels, with a particularly long relationship with Walt Disney audio and video products. 

In recent years, Litkei, in addition to continuing composing efforts, concentrated on his labels, Aurora Records and JazzMania Records, which included a line of about 20 jazz releases, and his music publishing firm, Leona Music (sic)(often mispelled, it is Loena Music). 

In 1991, after the late-'80s opening of Soviet society under President Mikhail Gorbachev, Litkei offered a $500 prize for any Soviet citizen who produced the best lyric in Russian for a march he had written called "Salute To President Gorbachev." Litkei also made a $10,000 donation to the Songwriters' Hall of Fame to establish a prize for the best march or patriotic song composed by a New York high school student. 

In 1995, Litkei recalled that as a young, aspiring composer in Hungary-Litkei's mother was a successful songwriter in that country- he had the famous operetta composer Franz Lehar play for him what would be Lehar's final composition. 

In tribute to Lehar, Litkei created a new arrangement for the tune with a lyric by Litkei's wife, Andrea Fodor, who is a poet/pianist and former ballerina. Now titled "Tonight I'm Not Pretending," the song was sung by soprano Lynn Owen on an album, "From Vienna To Broadway," released on Litkei's Aurora label. 

Ethel Gabriel, the record producer who worked for Litkei for a number of years until his death, met him shortly after his arrival in the U.S. As a producer for RCA Victor, she wanted to make an album of ..Hungarian Gypsy music. A salesman for the local RCA Victor distributor, Bruno New York, said he knew a fellow Hungarian who wanted to get into the music business and could find her the right group. 

"After that, I introduced him to Eli Oberstein, the chief of RCA Victor, who taught him the music business. Eli treated him like a son," Gabriel says. 


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