- Ken Darby
Ken Darby (
May 13 1909 -January 24 1992 ) was an AmericanAcademy Award andGrammy Award winningcomposer , vocal arranger, and conductor. He has shared in winning an Oscar three times and was nominated for three others:
*Awarded "Scoring of a Musical Picture" "The King and I" (1956) (withAlfred Newman )
*Nominated "Scoring of a Musical Picture" "South Pacific" (1958) (withAlfred Newman )
*Awarded "Scoring of a Musical Picture" "Porgy and Bess" (1959) (withAndre Previn )
*Nominated "Scoring of a Musical Picture" "Flower Drum Song" (1961) (withAlfred Newman )
*Nominated "Original Music Score" "How the West Was Won" (1963) (withAlfred Newman )
*Awarded "Scoring of Music-adaptation or treatment" Camelot (1967) (withAlfred Newman )
*AwardedGrammy , "Best Soundtrack Album, Original Cast, Movie or Television" "Porgy and Bess" (1959) (withAndre Previn )His choral group, the Ken Darby Singers, sang backup for Bing Crosby on the original 1942 Decca Records studio recording of "White Christmas." They also sang on the first album ever made of the songs from "The Wizard of Oz", in 1940, a film on which Darby had worked. However, the album was a studio cast recording, not a true
soundtrack album , although it did featureJudy Garland , and it did not use the film's original arrangements.He was a composer and production supervisor for
Walt Disney Studios, and was choral and vocal director on the 1946 Disney film classic, "Song of the South".He was
Marilyn Monroe 's vocal coach for "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1953) and "There's No Business Like Show Business" (1954).He also composed the Elvis Presley hit "
Love Me Tender " for the movie of the same name, but signed the rights over to his wife, Vera Matson, whose name appears as co-lyricist with Elvis Presley for royalty purposes.External links
*imdb name|id=0006024|name=Ken Darby
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