J. Fred Coots; Veteran Tin Pan Alley Composer

NEW YORK — John Frederick Coots, a Tin Pan Alley veteran who wrote the music for “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” “You Go to My Head,” dozens of other songs and several Broadway shows, has died at the age of 87.

The composer, known professionally as J. Fred Coots, died at his New York home on Monday.

Coots was a self-taught pianist who wrote his first song at 16 when he was a vaudeville accompanist and a song promoter for music publishers in an area of New York City dubbed Tin Pan Alley.

He wrote for his first Broadway show, “Sally, Irene and Mary,” in 1922 with Raymond Klages. He went on to write music for more than a dozen shows and revues in that decade.

His tunes include “Love Letters in the Sand,” “A Precious Little Thing Called Love”--featured in the 1928 film “The Shopworn Angel”--”I Still Get a Thrill” and “For All We Know.”