[Fmpro] Nelson Riddle

[Mark McKee]

My favorite arranger without a doubt.  An inconsistent composer, but having said that, "Open Highway" (the Rt. 66 theme), is one of my top ten favorite compositions.  I have a copy of his original score (man that dude was always flying across the page, you can see it from the "notes", which are these little lines with faint dots at the top, very hard to read. I've copied the whole score and am covering it with electric guitar taking over the main melody.

His arrangements were and still are unreal.  He pretty much single handedly saved the legendary flat-butt ingrate Sinatra's career with his work on "Only the Lonely", which I believe is the Sinatra album you would take to the bomb shelter, one of those rare moments where Franky had nothing to lose, no entourage, just an artist interpreting songs for art's sake.  Then he came back and he was an asshole again and the world was right.

The other thing about Nelson Riddle as a composer and arranger was that he took such great care with his endings, which can sometimes be an afterthought for others.  He had some of the nicest song endings. 

Mark McKee
Multimedia Development Specialist
Course Development Group
New Media & Extended Learning
The University of New Mexico
505-277-0691

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