[Fmpro] Nelson Riddle

[Jeff Sultanof]

I worked with Nelson as the editor of his arranging book when I was on staff
at Warner Bros. Publications. He was a class act.
By far his best album as an arranger is an album of music from Oklahoma,
which was issued on CD in the UK. I believe it is still available. Run, do
not walk, if you want to hear something incredible. Capitol deleted it very
quickly, and Nelson was not happy about it, holding a grudge for the rest of
his life.

The next time you listen to Only the Lonely, bear in mind that since he was
under contract to Capitol, he got union scale for those arrangements, and no
re-use money when Frank sang them elsewhere. Union scale in those days was
peanuts.

Another arranger who wrote wonderful, thoughtful endings was Robert Farnon.
If you are unaware of Bob's work, most of his albums for London (British
Decca) are available on CD on the Dutton label.

Jeff Sultanof

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 3:15 PM, Mark McKee <mark at unm.edu> wrote:

> 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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