Neal Hefti, one of the great names associated with nineteen sixties television and film scoring has died. The big band horn player and jazz arranger became known best for his theme songs for the TV shows Batman and The Odd Couple (and the original film version too). Hefti composed several swinging soundtracks for films like Lord Love a Duck, Boeng, Boeng and How to Murder Your Wife. Wikipedia has a comprehensive exploration of his big band work in the forties and fifties. This is my all time favorite Hefti track off a 1966 LP of "19 Hefti Bat Songs."
Categories
- (((unartig))) Posts
- 365 Days Project
- Alexander Goldstein's Posts
- Amanda Nazario's Posts
- Art
- Arvo's Posts
- Audio Mysteries
- Billy Jam's Posts
- Books
- Brian Turner's Posts
- Bronwyn C's Posts
- Cartoon Sexuality
- Cheesy Euro-Disco
- Comics
- Copyleft
- Current Affairs
- Dave the Spazz's Posts
- Debbie's Posts
- Diane Kamikaze's Posts
- DJ Handi's Archive Picks
- DJ, DJ, Quite Contrary
- Doug Schulkind's Posts
- E.S.P. TV's Posts
- Eric Cecil's Posts
- Fake Beatles
- Fashion
- Fatty Jubbo's Posts
- Film
- FMU BOT's posts
- Games
- Government
- History
- Interviews
- Irwin Chusid's Posts
- Jason Sigal's Posts
- Jesse Hlebo's Posts
- Jesse Jarnow's Posts
- John Fell Ryan's Posts
- Jonathan Steinke's Posts
- Listener Bob Purse's Posts
- Listener Fodder's Posts
- Listener Greg's Posts
- Listener Kliph's Posts
- Listener Mindwrecker's Posts
- Live at WFMU
- Liz B's Posts
- Lukas' Posts
- Mining the Audio Motherlode
- Monica's Posts
- MP Lockwood's Posts
- MP3s
- Music
- Narine Atamian's Posts
- Nat Roe's Posts
- Nate Knaebel's Posts
- Network Awesome
- New Jersey
- New York City
- Paul Haney's Posts
- Photography
- Podcasts
- Propaganda
- Radio
- Religion
- Science
- Scott W's Posts
- Sex
- Sports
- Station Manager Ken's Posts
- Television
- The Internet
- The Thunk Tank
- Tom Djll's Posts
- Tony Coulter's Posts
- Topical Songs
- Travel
- Video Clips
- Video Games
- Web/Tech
- WFMU Annual Favorites Lists
- WFMU in General
- WFMU Marathons
- William Berger's Posts
- Witchbeam's Posts
- Zacharius Hay's Posts
Recent Posts
- Sticking to Music
- Don't Free Pussy Riot
- More Rogue Taxidermy
- A Unique New Wave/Boogie/Avant Rock/Vanity/Christian EP (MP3's)
- "Music of Mystery" from Secret Mysteries #19, July 1955
- Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 208
- “MAN GETS EATEN BY AN ALLIGATOR”: THE WILHELM SCREAM
- In case you didn't feel like showing up - Volume 60
- Al Johnson is Decent: An Interview
- Revilo P. Oliver: The White Supremacist with the Palindromic Name (Exploring My Reel-to-Reel Catacombs, Volume 39) (MP3's)
Listen!
If you are a copyright owner and believe that your copyrighted works have been used in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, here is our DMCA Notice.
« The Blasting Psychedelic Color Explosion of Rainbow Arabia: Live at WFMU | Main | King Leopold Of All The Belgians (MP3s) »
October 26, 2008
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451c29169e2010535c00e00970c
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Neal Hefti 1922-2008:
Comments
Verify your Comment
Previewing your Comment
This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
Thank you for posting this! Find myself humming the "Lord Love a Duck" and "Odd Couple" themes all the time. Good to see the "Duck" mention especially as I think it's very underrated overall.
Posted by: Kristin | October 26, 2008 at 12:12 PM
I know that most of you know it already- but good ol' Neal's 'lyrics' royalties for the word "Batman" being sung in the theme still crack me up. Wotta genius. One of the great one-word songs.
I'm surprised there aren't more comments, I seem to recall a few more obscure Neal jobs worth mentioning, but the names escape me. Not a Hefti scholar, merely a fan. The Sun Ra version of the theme is one of the best, in my opinion.
Posted by: Mindwrecker | November 02, 2008 at 12:39 PM