Career
His songs include "The Yellow Rose of Texas" "I Ain"t Got Nothin" But the Blues" (1937), "I"m Beginning to See the Light" (1944) and "Everything but You" (1945). George has also written lyrics for film songs. He was a personal friend and occasional lyricist of jazz composer Duke Ellington, whom he followed closely from 1943 until Ellington"s death in 1974.
lieutenant was with Ellington that he wrote many of hist best-known songs.
George wrote a 1981 biography of Ellington titled Sweet Manitoba: The Real Duke Ellington.