Al Kasha

Born on January 22, 1937, New Yorker Al Kasha was the son of a hairdresser with an alcohol problem. He started composing at an early age. At the age of 22, Columbia Records offered him a contract to create material that would be interpreted by great artists, such as Aretha Franklin, or Neil Sedaka. 

He triumphed above all after teaming up with  Joel Hirschhorn . Together they composed the song “The Morning After” in 1972, for The Poseidon Adventure , produced by Irwin Allen , about a sinking ship. The theme gave them their first Oscar, which was given to them by Gene Kelly himself. Two years later, the duo won the statuette again with “We May Never Love Like This Again”, conceived for another disaster film, The Burning Colossus , also promoted by Allen. Both received two other nominations, for Best Original Score, and for Best Song, “Candle on the Water,” for Peter and Elliot the Dragon., a Disney film that mixed real actors with animation. Hirschhorn and Kasha excelled supervising the music for various Broadway theater productions, earning two Tony nominations for their versions of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “David Copperfield.”

Al Kasha  also composed the theme song for the animated film All Dogs Go to Heaven . 

Married to Ceil Coen, the couple had a daughter, Dana Kasha-Cohen.