John Barry Prendergast was an English composer and conductor of film music. Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet. Upon completing his national service, he formed a band in 1957, the John Barry Seven. He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958. He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr. No, who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. Noel Rogers, the head of music at United Artists, approached Barry. This started a successful association between Barry and the Bond series that lasted for 25 years.
Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer, with a career in film and television scoring that spanned nearly 50 years and over 200 productions, between 1954 and 2003. He was considered one of film music's most innovative and influential composers. He was nominated for eighteen Academy Awards, six Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, and four British Academy Film Awards.
Michael Philip Batt is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director, and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry.
Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestrations. He is a five-time Grammy Award winner; he has been nominated for six Academy Awards and four Emmy Awards.
Robert Joseph FarnonCM was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a composer of original works, he was commissioned by film and television producers for theme and incidental music. In later life he composed a number of more serious orchestral works, including three symphonies, and was recognised with four Ivor Novello awards and the Order of Canada.
Walter Anthony Murphy Jr. is an American composer, keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for the instrumental "A Fifth of Beethoven", a disco adaptation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony which topped the charts in 1976 and was featured on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1977. Further classical-disco fusions followed, such as "Flight '76", "Toccata and Funk in 'D' Minor" "Bolero", and "Mostly Mozart", but were not as successful.
Thomas Wright Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, and arranger. He was a member of The Blues Brothers and led the jazz fusion group L.A. Express.
John Valmore Pearson was a British composer, orchestra leader and pianist. He led the Top of the Pops orchestra for sixteen years, wrote a catalogue of library music, and had many of his pieces used as the theme music to television series.
Roy Frederick Budd was a British jazz pianist and composer known for his film scores, including Get Carter and The Wild Geese.
Ronald Hazlehurst was an English composer and conductor who, having joined the BBC in 1961, became its Light Entertainment Musical Director.
David Lee Shire is an American songwriter and composer of stage musicals, film and television scores. Among his best known works are the motion picture soundtracks to The Big Bus, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Conversation, All the President's Men, and parts of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack such as "Manhattan Skyline". His other work includes the score of the 1985 film Return to Oz, and the stage musical scores of Baby, Big, Closer Than Ever, and Starting Here, Starting Now. Shire is married to actress Didi Conn.
Zoran Simjanović was a Serbian and Yugoslav musician, composer and music educator.
John Harry Cacavas was an American composer and conductor probably best known for his television scores, such as Kojak, and The Time Machine, for which he was the chief composer. He also composed Kojak's second main title theme for its 5th and final season in 1977-1978.
Frank Denny De Vol was an American bandleader, arranger, composer and actor. As a composer, he was nominated for four Academy Awards.
Robert Cobert was an American composer who worked in television and films. He is best known for his work with producer/director Dan Curtis, notably the scores for the 1966–71 ABC-TV gothic fiction soap opera Dark Shadows and the TV mini-series The Winds of War (1983) and its sequel War and Remembrance (1988), for which he received an Emmy Awards nomination. Together, the latter two scores constitute the longest film music ever written for a film.
Syd Dale was an English self-taught composer and arranger of big band, easy listening and library music. His themes and underscore music played an important role on television, radio and advertising media of the 1960s and 1970s and many cues are still in use today.
Laurence Reginald Ward Johnson was an English composer and bandleader who wrote scores for dozens of film and television series, described as "one of the most highly regarded arrangers of big-band swing and pop music" in England. Much of Johnson's music was written for the KPM music library, for which he composed and conducted between 1960 and 1965.
Ralph Joseph P. Burns was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger.
Michel Herr is a Belgian jazz pianist, composer and arranger. In addition to releasing jazz albums, composing for jazz ensembles and touring widely as a performing musician, he has also composed scores for films. As a bandleader he founded several bands: Solis Lacus, Michel Herr European Quintet, Michel Herr & Unexpected Encounters. He is also a music producer.
William Edward Motzing Jr. was an American composer, conductor, arranger and trombonist best known for the award-winning film and television scores and gold and platinum pop album arrangements he wrote in Australia. He was a jazz lecturer and the Director of Jazz Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music over a period of 40 years.
