Poetic Obituaries: Another song she [Fran Landesman] wrote that

became a standard--but, like "Sad Young Men," never a hit--was "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most." It sprang from Ms. Landesman's asking jazz musicians to put T. S. Eliot's phrase "April is the cruelest month" into their own words. Its music was also composed by [Tommy] Wolf. Bette Midler and Sarah Vaughan were among the many who sang it.

Ms. Landesman also published five volumes of poetry, some of it raw. The poem Bette Davis memorized, "Life's a Bitch" contains the line "First love makes you itch, then it dishes you the dirt."

from The New York Times: Fran Landesman, Lyricist With a Bittersweet Edge, Dies at 83
then Riverfront Times: RIP Poet and Songwriter Fran Landesman, 1927-2011: "Life is a Bitch"

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