Henry Mancini
BORN: April 16, 1924, Cleveland, OH
DIED: June 14, 1994
If the recognition of one's peers is the true measure of success, then
few men are as successful as composer, arranger, and conductor Henry Mancini.
In a career that spanned 40 years, writing for film and television, Mancini
won four Oscars and twenty Grammys, the all-time record for a pop artist.
For 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's alone, Mancini won five Grammys and two
Oscars. Breakfast at Tiffany's includes the classic "Moon River" (lyrics
by Johnny Mercer), arguably one of the finest pop songs of the last 50 years.
At last count, there were over 1000 recordings of it. His other notable
songs include "Dear Heart," "Days of Wine and Roses" (one Oscar, two Grammys),
and "Charade," the last two with lyrics by Mercer. He also had a #1 record
and won a Grammy for Nino Rota's "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet." Among
his other notable film scores are The Pink Panther (three Grammys), Hatari!
(one Grammy), Victor/Victoria (an Oscar), Two for the Road, Wait Until Dark,
and 10. His television themes include "Peter Gunn" (two Grammys, recorded
by many rock artists), "Mr. Lucky" (two Grammys), "Newhart," "Remington Steele,"
and The Thorn Birds television mini-series.
As a child, Mancini learned how to play a variety of musical instruments
and as a teenager, he became enamored with jazz and big bands. He began
to write arrangements and sent a few to Benny Goodman, who wrote the teenager
back, encouraging him to pursue a career in music. Mancini enrolled in the
Julliard School of Music in 1942, but his studies were cut short when he
served in the military during World War II. After the war, he was hired by
Tex Beneke, the leader of the Glenn Miller orchestra, as the as a pianist
and arranger. In the late '40s, he began writing scores for record and film
studios, first for a recording session by the Mel-Tones, which featured his
wife Ginny O'Connor, and then the Abbot and Costello film Lost in Alaska,
the first movie he scored.
Lost in Alaska led to more film scores, in particuar 1954's The Glenn Miller
Story and 1956's The Benny Goodman Story, which both showcased his big band
roots. Soon, he was working on a large number of films and television, including
Orson Welles' Touch of Evil and the TV show Peter Gunn. Mancini's scores
frequently straddled the line between jazz and Hollywood dramatics, making
his music both distinctive and influential.
Mancini's heyday was the early '60s, when his score for Breakfast at Tiffany's
(1961) yielded the Oscar-winning hit single "Moon River," which instantly
became a pop standard. The following year, he wrote the music for Days of
Wine and Roses, which also won an Oscar for its title song. Throughout the
next three decades, he continued to be one of the most successful film composers
in the world, as well as a popular concert conductor. He continued working
until his death in 1994; just prior to his demise, he was writing the score
for the musical adaption of Victor/Victoria.
What kept Mancini's work fresh was his ability to write in almost any style
imaginable and his successful experimentations with unusual sounds and instruments.
In his 1989 memoir Did They Mention the Music?, Mancini's co-author Gene
Lees wrote that "More than any other person, he Americanized film scoring,
and in time even European film composers followed in his path," and that
Mancini wrote scores that "contained almost as many fully developed song
melodies as a Broadway musical." Had he not remained true to his first love,
film scoring, Mancini would have more than likely made as large an impact
on the Broadway stage as he made on the silver screen. ~ Kenneth M. Cassidy
& Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
American composer Henry Mancini was introduced to music by his Italian
immigrant father, who tutored young Mancini on piano and flute. After World
War II service, Mancini attended Carnegie Tech and Juilliard, played piano
with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and ultimately became a staff composer at
Universal, writing snatches of music for everything from the studio's newsreels
to the Abbott and Costello comedies. In 1954, he was given the opportunity
to arrange the music for a film that might well have qualified as a labor
of love: The Glenn Miller Story. The Academy Award nomination he received
for this effort elevated Mancini's industry status, as did his long association
with producer/director Blake Edwards.
When Mancini wrote the jazzy theme music for Edwards' TV series Peter Gunn
and Mr. Lucky, Mancini was so proud and protective of his work that he had
a clause in his contract prohibiting the networks from running spoken "plugs"
for upcoming programs over the closing-credit music. Mancini went on to
win Oscars for his contributions to the Blake Edwards-directed films Breakfast
at Tiffany's (1961), for which he wrote "Moon River"; Days of Wine and Roses
(1962); and Victor/Victoria (1982). He also managed to put 20 Grammies on
his shelf before his death in 1994. Though arguably the best-known film
composer of his time, Henry Mancini was still modest enough in 1989 to title
his autobiography Did They Mention the Music? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie
Guide