- Real name
- George Alexander Aberle
- Born
- April 15, 1908
- Died
- March 4, 1995
- Country
- United States
- IPI
- 00000294827
- Comments
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Songwriter and performer active from the 1940s into the 1960s. Ahbez spent his early years in a Brooklyn orphanage and was adopted in 1917, moving to Kansas and growing up under the name George McGrew. Ahbez was an inspiration to the California hippie movement as since at least the 1940s, Ahbez had shoulder length hair and a beard, dressed unconventionally and lived outdoors.
Ahbez's most famous song was "Nature Boy" over which Herman Yablokoff sued, claiming an infringement of his song called "Schweig Mein Hartz" ("Be Still My Heart"), written and published in 1935. The suit was settled with Yablokoff receiving $25,000 and waiving rights to Nature Boy.