Peter De Rose was born on March 10, 1900 in New York City. He was the son of Anthony and Armelina Agnesti De Rose. He was twelve when his sister began giving him instruction on the piano, but impatient with exercises and scales, he soon abandoned formal lessons and from then on played by ear.
De Rose attended De Witt Clinton High School.
While attending High School, De Rose worked as a stock clerk in the music publishing house of G. Schirmer. In 1920 De Rose's first popular song, "When You're Gone I Won't Forget" (lyrics by Ivan Reid), was published. It sold one million copies but brought him small financial returns since he had sold it outright for twenty-five dollars to a small Tin Pan Alley firm.
This success, however, brought De Rose a well-paying job with G. Ricordi, publishers. In 1923 De Rose began an affiliation with radio that lasted sixteen years. He was paired on the National Broadcasting Company's network with May Singhi Breen, known as the "Ukulele Lady, " in a weekly program called "The Sweethearts of the Air. "
From 1923 on, De Rose composed a large number of hit songs. Their interest lay more in their facile and graceful melodies and appealing sentiments than in their sophisticated techniques. In 1926 De Rose collaborated with Harry Richman on "Muddy Water"; Richman was the first to introduce the song. The following year De Rose wrote "I Just Roll Along, Havin' My Ups and Downs, " again with lyrics by Jo Trent. "When Your Hair Has Turned to Silver, " which De Rose wrote in 1930, was made popular by Rudy Vallee over the radio and on records. Everett Marshall successfully introduced "Wagon Wheels, " written in 1933, into the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934, while "There's a Home in Wyomin, " also written in 1933, was interpolated into the motion picture Sunset in Wyoming eight years later. "Song of the Blacksmith, Clang, Clang, Clang" was published in 1934.
Peter De Rose's most celebrated song is "Deep Purple. " Its history began in 1934 when it was performed as an instrumental piece for the piano; on May 10 of the same year Paul Whiteman and his orchestra introduced it over the radio in an orchestral adaptation. But it was not until it was published, in 1939, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish that it took wing and soared into the stratosphere of Tin Pan Alley success, selling more than one million copies of sheet music and one million records in a 1939 Victor release by Larry Clinton and his orchestra, with vocal by Bea Wain.
Almost thirty years after it was first written, "Deep Purple" once again became a best-selling recording, this time in a rock-and-roll adaptation performed by Nino Tempo and April Stevens on the Atco label.
After "Deep Purple" Peter De Rose's principal songs were "The Lamp Is Low, " written in collaboration with Bert Shefter to lyrics by Mitchell Parish and based on the melody from Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte; "Lilacs in the Rain, " its principal melody derived from a piano piece De Rose had written five years earlier; "All I Need Is You, " popularized by Dinah Shore in a Bluebird recording; "Twenty-Four Hours of Sunshine, " recorded by Art Mooney and his orchestra in a best-selling Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer disk; and "Who Do You Know in Heaven?" made into a best-selling Decca recording by the Ink Spots.
Peter De Rose went down in history as a noted composer; his most famous song is "Deep Purple. " It was awarded a Grammy by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences as the best rock-and-roll recording of 1963. On April 24, 1959, six years after his death in New York City, Peter De Rose was honored with a commemorative ceremony at Times Square in New York City sponsored by the borough president of Manhattan; for the day Times Square was renamed Peter De Rose Memorial Square.
De Rose married May Singhi Breen in December 1929, and later adopted a daughter.
