Henry Mancini

I don't see Mancini as kitcsh but a master! That's what I mean!

yeh, i do agree. and so do milions and millions of people, obv. not to mention the shower of academy awards he was, erm, showered with throughout his lifetime... that's why the "vastly underappreciated" bit amazed me so much.

(oh! this reminds me of Morrissy's longish, and to my mind rather wonderful, vershn of "Moon River" ...and of that other thread...)

...can you recommend a good Mancini *compilation* btw?

as for ('the kids' and) 'kitsch factor', i don't believe that thing can be figured out simply - hardly ever.
had the opprtunity once to ask the question - 'What, in your opinion, is kitsch in music?' - from Gary Brooker of Procol Harum (at a press conference, mid-90s), and... well, his answer evaded music entirely - not 'on purpose' either, i'd say, he really seemed totally clueless - instead, he made a half-hearted effort to discuss 'kitsch furniture' with me (which was a topic i was no good at, ha!)

Johnny Mercer? Get "Ella Fitzgerald sings the Johnny Mercer Catalogue on Verve". She does all the classics, though there are some quibbles on whether Nelson Riddle's string arrangements fit. Verve did a superb back cataloguing of Johnny Mercer's songs in a recent compilation 'Blues in the Night' (My mama done told me, when I was in knee pants, that a woman will cheat you...). He is without a doubt a great lyricist. Autumn Leaves is pure American poetry.

Nonetheless, he did a lot to introduce jazzier textures into film music, and he was a genius arranger with a distinctive sound, especially with horns. For example, people always talk about the guitar on "Peter Gunn," but what really blows that track through the roof are the horns--the guitar does the same thing all the way through.

So, vastly underappreciated, yes, but not necessarily because of his neo-bachelor-pad appeal.

There's a really nice Mancini boxed set that's surprisingly light on filler (called The Days of Wine and Roses, I think), but a lot of his prime-era soundtracks are at least worth a listen. Even, say, The Return of the Pink Panther score is full of really nice moments.

ah shit, title sequence of 'touch of evil' is some hotness

He was indeed crucially important to '50s and especially '60s film music. New book:

http://www.tnr.com/book/review/henry-mancini-john-caps

Mancini did a lot of amazing dark film scores which are almost never discussed outside film music fandom. Wait Until Dark is based around two pianos which are tuned a quarter-tone apart from each other and play in unison; at the time this was not even that common of a classical technique let alone a film score one. The effect is amazing. The Night Visitor is a bizarre death dirge for early synthesizer and chamber ensemble. Lifeforce is a brooding affair for large orchestra that some call his masterpiece. And of course he cut his teeth on classic monster flicks like Creature From The Black Lagoon.

Hopefully some label someday will issue the actual film score to Hatari!... The famous LP has one track of score on it, "Sounds Of Hatari" which is pretty tantalizing.

great, more stuff I have to re/watch :)

The Wait Until Dark score is all-time.

Even when it's not doodling around with the quarter-tone oscillations.

Oh yeah, it's def much more than just the novelty of the quarter-tone thing.