K. Newell Dayley was born in 1939. He joined the faculty of Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1967 as a professor of music and later served as the associate academic vice president for undergraduate studies at that institution. Dayley was the first director of the BYU jazz ensemble, Synthesis. He also directed the brass ensemble and other organizations as well as many musical theatre productions. He has taught classes from trumpet to music theory and from film scoring to music business. Among his works are "Bring Forth My Zion", "First You Have A Dream", the music to hymn 220 of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "Lord, I Would Follow Thee", words and music to "Faith in Every Footstep", and the music to "I Feel My Savior’s Love", "Every Star is Different", "Hum Your Favorite Hymn", "Home", and "The World Is So Big" in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Primary’s Children’s Songbook. Dayley has also written musical sections for passages in the Book of Mormon. In 1975, he collaborated with Arnold Sundgaard to write the musical "Brigham!" as part of the celebrations for BYU's centennial year, with Dayley composing the music and Sundgaard writing the book and lyrics. Dayley retired from BYU in September 2007. He is married to Diane Wilcox and they are the parents of eight children.

Arnold Sundgaard was born October 31, 1909 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He wrote a number of plays throughout the 20th century. In 1975, he collaborated with K. Newell Dayley to write the musical "Brigham!" as part of the celebrations for Brigham Young University's centennial year, with Dayley composing the music and Sundgaard writing the book and lyrics. Sundgaard died October 22, 2006 in Dallas, Texas.