Michel Rubini is an American musician and composer, best known for his work composing motion picture soundtracks. He is a professional classical pianist since early childhood. During 1960s and 1970s, Rubini worked on tours, with such stars as Ray Charles

Ray Charles

Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...

, Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa

Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

, Sonny and Cher and Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

.

As a musician

As a session player and arranger
He was producer, conductor and arranger for Motown Records

Motown Records

Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

. He was one of the most sought-after Los Angeles session players during 1970s and 1980s, performed on albums by Sonny

Sonny Bono

Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono was an American recording artist, record producer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades.-Early life:...

 & Cher

Cher

Cher is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes and a Cannes Film Festival Award among others for her work in...

, Michael Parks

Michael Parks

Michael Parks is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in almost fifty films and has made frequent TV appearances, but is probably best known for his work in recent years with Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, and Kevin Smith as well as the 1969 television series Then Came...

, The Cats, The Righteous Brothers

The Righteous Brothers

The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. They recorded from 1963 through 1975, and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003...

 and many others. Rubini arranged and conducted Sonny & Chér single A Cowboys Work Is Never Done, arranged Cher single Don't Hide Your Love

Don't Hide Your Love

"Don't Hide Your Love" is a song released by Cher as the second single released from the album Foxy Lady. It hit number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100. Neil Sedaka wrote the song.-Charts:...

and Maureen McGovern

Maureen McGovern

Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...

 single I Won't Last A Day Without You, produced and arranged Macho

Macho

Macho typically refers to machismo. Other uses include:*Macho , a short-lived disco group in the late 1970s*Pique macho, Bolivian dish*Macho Man , a 1978 disco song performed by the Village People...

 single No One To Depend On

No One to Depend On

"No One to Depend On" is a song by Latin Rock Band Santana, from their 1971 album, Santana III. It is the second track on the first disc of the album and was released as its second single....

. Rubini also made numerous television appearances in the house band of the 1980s game shows Face the Music

Face The Music (game show)

Face the Music was an American television game show that aired in syndication from January 14, 1980 to September 1981. The show tested contestants' knowledge of popular music songs, and association of song titles with famous people, places and things....

and Name That Tune

Name That Tune

Name That Tune is a television game show that put two contestants against each other to test their knowledge of songs. Premiering in the United States on NBC Radio in 1952, the show was created and produced by Harry Salter and his wife Roberta....

.
As a writer
Rubini co-wrote three songs for Thelma Houston

Thelma Houston

Thelma Houston is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She scored a number-one hit in 1976 with her cover version of the song "Don't Leave Me This Way", which won the 1978 Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.-Early life & career:Houston is the daughter of a cotton picking mother...

: Give Me Something To Believe In, Memories and I've Got The Devil In Me - all included in The Devil In Me

The Devil in Me

The Devil in Me is the fifth album by Thelma Houston released in 1978. While this album did not duplicate the commercial success of the Any Way You Like It album, it became a modest commercial success...

album. He composed two songs for The New Kids film: Edge Of Survival (lyrics and performed by Jess Harnell) and Over And Over And Over Again (lyrics and performed by Miriam Cutler).
Solo Career
Rubini, together with Don Dunn, wrote and recorded an album Diggin' It in 1976. During recording session, he played on piano, organ, clavinet, harpsichord, electric piano and synthesizer. In 1978 a follow-up of sorts was issued under the Motown imprint, this one by Friendly Enemies, a pop trio consisting of Dunn, Rubini, and Lead Vocalist Chuck Smith. The album "Round One" also bore the original version of "Baby It's Me", which was recorded by Diana Ross in 1977 (The Enemies' version was made that year, but remained in the can until the 1978 LP release.) In 1988 he recorded his LP album for Gold Castle Records called Secret Dreams. The album was re-recorded, mixed and released on CD by Essence Records in 1994. Rubini recalled:
He started playing gospel and blues about age 13, but he wrote, recorded and released his first and, so far, only blues album Band is Tight Tonite in early 1990s. Rubini had said:
Rubini also (with Mr. Palman) wrote two instrumental songs, released as a single by Atco, called Summer Song /Moonlight Mood.

As a film score composer

Rubini’s most famous association may be as the composer, along with Danny Jaeger, of the soundtrack to The Hunger, a film directed by Tony Scott

Tony Scott

Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...

. This 1983 score is a good example of very dark 1980s electronic music (created using synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

s and synclavier

Synclavier

The Synclavier System was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation, manufactured by New England Digital Corporation, Norwich, VT. The original design and development of the Synclavier prototype occurred at Dartmouth College with the collaboration of...

 II) inspired by the work of Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...

 and György Ligeti

György Ligeti

György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...

. In 1985 he composed Graham's Theme for Michael Mann's film Manhunter

Manhunter (film)

Manhunter is a 1986 American thriller film based on Thomas Harris's novel Red Dragon. Written and directed by Michael Mann, it stars William Petersen as Will Graham and features Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecktor...

. (The film itself was shot and released a year later.) The theme composed by Rubini for Manhunter was also dark, but it was more melodic than the score to The Hunger. Rubini collaborated with Mann (this time Mann was only a fim producer) one more time, for Band of the Hand

Band of the Hand

Band of the Hand is an American 1986 crime film directed by Paul Michael Glaser.The film turned into a theatrical release after it failed as a television pilot....

. This film, directed by Paul Michael Glaser, contains more traditional music by Rubini, recorded by him using a shakuhachi

Shakuhachi

The is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of...

. In 1992 Rubini composed a score for a sci-fi drama directed by Albert Pyun. The Nemesis

Nemesis (film)

Nemesis is a 1992 science fiction film by director Albert Pyun, who also directed the film Cyborg, and stars Olivier Gruner. It is the first installment in the Nemesis film series.-Plot:...

score was a jazz and oriental music fusion with an electronic ensemble. His instrumental music is in the films Panic

Panic

Panic is a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight-or-flight reaction...

("HSML Cha Cha Cha #1", "HSML Bossa Nova Source #1") and Hollywood Homicide

Hollywood Homicide

Hollywood Homicide is a 2003 American action comedy film starring Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett.The film also features Lena Olin, Lolita Davidovich, Martin Landau, Bruce Greenwood, Isaiah Washington, Keith David, Dwight Yoakam and Master P in supporting roles, with Eric Idle making a cameo...

("Lord Made An Angel"). He composed two songs for The New Kids film: Edge Of Survival (lyrics written and performed by Jess Harnell

Jess Harnell

Jess Q. Harnell is an American voice actor and singer, best known for voicing Wakko Warner on Animaniacs. Harnell has been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.-Life and acting career:...

) and Over And Over And Over Again (lyrics written and performed by Miriam Cutler).
In 1992 he wrote and performed music for the Merlin & The Dragons audiobook by Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen

Jane Hyatt Yolen is an American author and editor of almost 300 books. These include folklore, fantasy, science fiction, and children's books...

 (read by Kevin Kline

Kevin Kline

Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...

).

As a television score composer

Rubini's first television contributed was score for The Hitchhiker series in 1983. Then, he co-scored Capitol and Tales from the Crypt. Since 1987 he became successful mini-series, HBO specials and films of the week composer.

Discography

• Summer Song /Moonlight Mood (Single)
• Diggin it '76 (with Don Dunn)
• Round One (with Don Dunn and Chuck Smith as "Friendly Enemies") 1978
• Secret Dreams
• Band is Tight Tonite

Soundtracks released

• The Hunger (with Danny Jaeger)
• Manhunter (with The Reds)
• Band of the Hand
• Merlin & The Dragons (audiobook, with Kevin Kline
  Kevin Kline
  Kevin Delaney Kline is an American theatre, voice, film actor and comedian. He has won an Academy Award and two Tony Awards, and has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and an Emmy Award.- Early life :...
  
  )
• Nemesis

External links

• imdb - profile about composer
• Michel Rubini - Profile and photographs of the co-composer of the music for Manhunter
• Michel Rubini - Profile of the composer of the music for Hitchhiker