Robert Mellin, born Israel Melnikoff on September 22, 1902, in Kiev, Russian Empire, was a distinguished composer, lyricist, and music publisher. Raised in Chicago, he began his career as a music plugger at Remick Music. By the early 1940s, Mellin had moved to New York and established his own company in 1947. In the early 1950s, he relocated to Europe, where he composed music and lyrics for numerous songs, achieving several hits over two decades. Among his most notable works is "My One and Only Love," written with Guy Wood, which was recorded by artists such as Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. He also wrote lyrics for Acker Bilk's instrumental "Stranger on the Shore."

In the mid-1950s, Mellin founded Robert Mellin Music on London's Denmark Street, gaining exclusive rights to film scores from Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Italy. He collaborated with Gian-Piero Reverberi on the theme for the 1964 TV series "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" and composed the score for "Don Quijote" in 1966. Mellin married songwriter Patricia Rossiter in 1980 and passed away on a business trip to Rome on July 10, 1994, at the age of 91.