Hoffman was born in Minsk in the Russian Empire (now Belarus), to a Jewish family. His parents moved to Seattle, Washington in the United States when he was six.3 After graduating from high school in Seattle, he started his own band, playing the drums, and moved to New York City in 1928 to pursue a music career.4 Though he continued playing the drums in night club bands and selling bagels door-to-door on Broadway, he began writing songs, collaborating with other songwriters such as Leon Carr, Leo Corday, Mann Curtis, Mack David, Milton Drake, Al Goodhart, Walter Kent, Sammy Lerner, Jerry Livingston, Al Sherman, Dick Manning, Bob Merrill, Ed Nelson, and Maurice Sigler.5
In 1934, Hoffman moved to London to work on stage productions and movies, co-writing the hit songs "She Shall Have Music" and "Everything Stops for Tea".6 He returned to the U.S. three years later. In 1984, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He has over 1,500 songs registered with A.S.C.A.P. Hoffman died in New York City of prostate cancer, and was buried in New Jersey.
Ken Bloom American Song: Songwriters Page 477 2001 "Al Hoffman Composer, lyricist. Born: Minsk, Russia, September 25, 1902. Died: New York, New York, July 21, 1960. Came to United States in 1908. Main collaborators: Al Goodhart, Maurice Sigler, Ed Nelson, Sammy Lerner, Dick Manning, ... ↩
"Bears Fight Song Lyrics". Chicago Bears. Archived from the original on 2012-04-13. Retrieved 2012-08-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20120413172014/http://www.chicagobears.com/fancenter/BearsFightSongLyrics.asp ↩
Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Concise ed.). Virgin Books. pp. 606/7. ISBN 1-85227-745-9. 1-85227-745-9 ↩
"Bears fight song". chicagotribune.com. 2008-09-03. Retrieved 2012-08-17. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/cs-bearsfightsong,0,1466056.story ↩