HENRY MANCINI
Genres: Jazz Related Soundtracks, Exotica, Pop, Art Song, Folk, Big Band, RnB • United States

Born 16 April 1924, Cleveland, Ohio Died 14 June 1994, Beverly Hills, California Mancini was probably the most successful film composer of his time. Between 1958 and 1964, Mancini so dominated the television and film music scene that everything else seemed to be either an attempt to clone his sound or a reaction against it. The secret to his success was simple, though: he wrote catchy tunes. If you set aside Mancini's hit tunes like "Peter Gunn" and "Moon River," you find music that's not dramatically different from, say, Elmer Bernstein's. Nelson Riddle once quipped, though, that he'd take the royalties from one Mancini song over everything he'd ever earned on his own arrangements. Mancini was raised in the mill town of West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. His father taught him the flute and piccolo, and after some initial resistance, gave him perhaps his biggest break ever by setting him up with lessons from Max read more...