- Hugo Winterhalter
Hugo Winterhalter (
15 August 1909 -17 September 1973 ) was an Americanmusician .Easy listening arranger andcomposer , Winterhalter was born in Wilkes-Barre,Pennsylvania , later studyingviolin and reed instruments at the New England Conservatory of Music. After graduating, he taught school for several years before turning professional during the mid 1930s, serving as asideman and arranger forCount Basie ,Tommy Dorsey ,Raymond Scott ,Claude Thornhill and others.Winterhalter also arranged and conducted sessions for
singer s includingDinah Shore andBilly Eckstine , and in 1948 he was namedmusical director atMGM Records . After a two-year stint with therecord label , he moved toColumbia Records , where he scored a hit with his orchestral reading of "Blue Christmas."In 1950, Winterhalter signed on with
RCA Victor , where he arranged sessions for artists includingPerry Como , Eddie Fisher and theAmes Brothers ; he also recorded severalinstrumental album s, among them 1952's "Great Music Themes of Television", one of the first collections of TVtheme song s ever recorded. Winterhalter also notched a series of chart hits, including "Blue Tango ," "Vanessa," "The Little Shoemaker " and "Song of The Barefoot Contessa"; with pianistEddie Heywood , he reached the number two spot with 1956's "Canadian Sunset ."He remained with RCA until 1963, at which time he moved to
Kapp ; that same year, he also penned the main title theme for thefilm , "Diamond Head". At Kapp he recorded a handful of albums including "The Best of '64" and its follow-up, "The Big Hits of 1965", before leaving the label to work on Broadway. He later worked in television as well, and continued recording the occasional LP for various budget labels.Winterhalter died from
cancer , in Greenwich,Connecticut on 17 September 1973.External links
* [http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/HugoW.html Biography of Hugo Winterhalter on "The Interlude Era"]
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