Nelson Riddle
Encyclopedia
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. (June 1, 1921 – October 6, 1985) was an American arranger
, composer
, bandleader and orchestrator
whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s. It was his signature sound and iconic arrangements that defined a generation and his work for Capitol Records
kept such vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald
, Frank Sinatra
, Dean Martin
, Nat King Cole
, Judy Garland
, Peggy Lee
, Johnny Mathis
, Rosemary Clooney
and Keely Smith
household names. He found commercial and critical success again in the 1980s with a trio of albums with vocalist Linda Ronstadt
.
, the only child of Marie Albertine Riddle and Nelson Smock Riddle, Sr., and later moved to nearby Ridgewood
. Following his father's interest in music, he began taking piano
lessons at age eight and trombone
lessons at age fourteen. Riddle and his family had a summer house in Rumson, New Jersey
. He enjoyed Rumson so much that he convinced his parents to allow him to attend high school there for his senior year. After his graduation from Rumson High School, Riddle spent his late teens and early 20s playing trombone in and occasionally arranging for various local dance bands, culminating in his association with the Charlie Spivak
Orchestra.
In 1943, Riddle joined the Merchant Marine
, serving at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York for roughly two years. During this time he continued working for the Charlie Spivak Orchestra and he studied orchestration
under his fellow merchant marine, composer Alan Shulman
. After his enlistment term ended, Riddle travelled to Chicago to join the Tommy Dorsey
Orchestra in 1944; he remained the orchestra's third trombone for eleven months until drafted by the United States Army
in April, 1945.
Just months after Riddle entered the Army, World War II
ended and he was discharged (June 1946) after serving fifteen months on active duty. Riddle moved shortly thereafter to Hollywood to pursue his career as an arranger and spent the next several years writing arrangements for multiple radio and record projects.
to write arrangements for a recording session with Nat King Cole
; this was one of Riddle's first associations with Capitol Records
. Although one of the songs Riddle had arranged, "Mona Lisa
," soon became the biggest selling single of Cole's career, the work was credited to Baxter. However, once Cole learned the identity of the arrangement's creator, he sought out Riddle's work for other sessions, and thus began a fruitful partnership that furthered the careers of both men at Capitol.
During the same year, Riddle also struck up a conversation with Vern Yocum
, (born George Vernon Yocum) a big band jazz musician (brother of Pied Piper
, Clark Yocum) who had transitioned into music preparation servicing Frank Sinatra and other entertainers at Capitol Records. A collaboration followed with Vern becoming Riddle's "right hand" as copyist and librarian for the next thirty years.
In 1952, Capitol Records executives viewed the up-and-coming Riddle as a prime choice to arrange for the newly-arrived Frank Sinatra
. Sinatra was reluctant however, preferring instead to remain with Axel Stordahl
, his long-time collaborator from his Columbia Records years. When success of the first few Capitol sides with Stordahl proved disappointing, Sinatra eventually relented and Riddle was called in to arrange his first session for Sinatra, held on April 30, 1953. The first product of the Riddle-Sinatra partnership, "I've Got The World On A String," became a runaway hit and is often credited with relaunching the singer's slumping career. His personal favorite, a Sinatra ballad album, Only the Lonely
.
Riddle was to stay at Capitol for another decade, during which time he continued to arrange for Sinatra and Cole, in addition to such Capitol artists as Kate Smith, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Keely Smith, Sue Raney, and Ed Townsend. He also found time to release his own instrumental albums on the label, most notably Hey...Let Yourself Go (1957) and C'mon...Get Happy (1958), both of which peaked at a respectable number twenty on the Billboard charts.
While at Capitol, Riddle continued his successful film arranging career, most notably with MGM's Conrad Salinger
on the first onscreen duet between Bing Crosby
and Sinatra in High Society (1956), and the 1957 film version of Pal Joey
directed by George Sidney
for Columbia Pictures
. In 1969, he arranged and conducted the music for the film Paint Your Wagon
, which starred a trio of non-singers, Lee Marvin
, Clint Eastwood
, and Jean Seberg
.
, Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson
, and Ella Swings Gently with Nelson
, their first work together since 1959's Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook
. The mid-1960s would also see Fitzgerald and Riddle collaborate on the last of Ella's 'Songbooks', devoted to the songs of Jerome Kern
(Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook
) and Johnny Mercer
(Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook
).
In 1963, Riddle joined Sinatra's newly-established label Reprise Records
, under the musical direction of Morris Stoloff
. Much of his work in the 1960s and 1970s was for film and television, including his hit theme song for Route 66
; steady work scoring episodes of Batman
and other television series, and composing the scores of several motion pictures including the Rat Pack
features Robin and the 7 Hoods
and the original Ocean's Eleven
.
In the latter half of the 1960s, the partnership between Riddle and Frank Sinatra grew more distant as Sinatra began increasingly to turn to Don Costa
, Billy May
and an assortment of other arrangers for his album projects. Although Riddle would write various arrangements for Sinatra until the late 1970s, Strangers In The Night
, released in 1966, was the last full album project the pair completed together. The collection of Riddle-arranged songs was intended to expand on the success of the title track, which had been a number one hit single for Sinatra arranged by Ernie Freeman
.
During the 1970s, the majority of his work was for film and television, including the score for the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby
, which earned Riddle his first Academy Award
after some five nominations. In 1973, he served as musical director for the Emmy Award
winning The Julie Andrews Hour
. Nelson Riddle's Orchestra also made numerous concert appearances throughout the 1970s, some of which were led and contracted by his good friend, Tommy Shepard
.
On March 14, 1977, Riddle conducted his last three arrangements for Sinatra. The songs, "Linda," "Sweet Lorraine," and "Barbara," were intended for an album of songs with women's names. The album was never completed. "Sweet Lorraine" was released in 1990 and the other two on "The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings" in 1996. http://www.songsbysinatra.com/dates/dates_main.html
1982 saw Riddle work for the last time with Ella Fitzgerald
, on her last orchestral Pablo
album, The Best Is Yet to Come.
to write arrangements for an album of jazz standard
s Ronstadt had been contemplating since her stint in Pirates of Penzance. The agreement between the two resulted in a three-album contract which included what were to be the last arrangements of Riddle's career, with the exception of an album of twelve Great American Songbook standards he arranged and conducted for his old friend, opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa
, in April 1985, six months before his death that October. Ronstadt recalls that when sheinitially approached Riddle, she did not know if he was even familiar with her music. He knew her name but basically hated rock 'n' roll. However, his daughter was a big Ronstadt fan and told her father, "Don't worry. Her checks won't bounce."
When Nelson learned of Ronstadt's desire to learn more about traditional pop music and agreed to record with her, he insisted on a whole album or nothing. He was at first skeptical, but once he agreed his career turned upside down immediately. For her to do "elevator music
", as she called it, was a great surprise to the young audience. Joe Smith, the president of Elektra, was terrified that the albums would turn off the rock audience. The three albums together sold over seven million copies and brought Nelson back to a young audience during the last three years of his life. Arrangements for Linda Ronstadt
's What's New
(1983) and Lush Life
(1984) won Riddle his second and third Grammy Award
s (the last was awarded posthumously in 1986).
Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania
and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teen-agers undid in the mid-60s ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print". What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook
.
in Hollywood, California in the Hall of David Mausoleum.
Following Riddle's death, his last three arrangements for Ronstadt's For Sentimental Reasons
album were conducted by Terry Woodson; the album was released in 1986.
In February 1986, Riddle's youngest son Christopher, himself an accomplished bass trombonist, assumed the leadership of his father's orchestra.
Following the death of Riddle's second wife Naomi in 1998, proceeds from the sale of the Riddle home in Bel Air were used to establish a Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair and library at the University of Arizona
, which officially opened in 2001. The opening showcased a gala concert of Riddle's works, with Ronstadt as a featured guest performer.
In 2000, Erich Kunzel
and the Cincinnati Pops released a Nelson Riddle tribute album titled "Route 66: That Nelson Riddle Sound" on Telarc Records. The album showcased expanded orchestral adaptations of the original arrangements provided by the Nelson Riddle Archives, and was presented in a state-of-the-art digital recording that was among the first titles to be released on multi-channel SACD
.
While in the Army, Riddle married his first wife Doreen Moran in 1945. The couple had six children. Riddle had an extra-marital affair with singer Rosemary Clooney
in the 1960s, which contributed to the breakup of their respective marriages. In 1968, Riddle separated from his wife Doreen; their divorce became official in 1970. A few months later he married Naomi Tenenholtz, then his secretary, with whom he would remain for the rest of his life. Riddle's children are dispersed between the east and west coasts of the United States with Nelson Jr. residing in London, England. Riddle's eldest daughter Rosemary is the trustee of the Nelson Riddle Trust.
Riddle was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
, the national fraternity for men in music.
In a 1982 radio interview on WNEW with Jonathan Schwartz
, Riddle cites Stan Kenton
's "23 degrees north 82 degrees west" arranged by Bill Russo as inspiration for his signature trombone interplay crescendos.
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, bandleader and orchestrator
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s. It was his signature sound and iconic arrangements that defined a generation and his work for Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
kept such vocalists as Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...
, Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
, Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
, Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
John Royce "Johnny" Mathis is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standards, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum status, and 73 making the Billboard charts...
, Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...
and Keely Smith
Keely Smith
Keely Smith is an American jazz and popular music singer who enjoyed popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. She collaborated with, among others, Louis Prima and Frank Sinatra.-Career:...
household names. He found commercial and critical success again in the 1980s with a trio of albums with vocalist Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
.
Early years
Riddle was born in Oradell, New JerseyOradell, New Jersey
Oradell is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. At the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,978. The borough's territory includes a dam on the Hackensack River that forms the Oradell Reservoir...
, the only child of Marie Albertine Riddle and Nelson Smock Riddle, Sr., and later moved to nearby Ridgewood
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the village population was 24,958. Ridgewood is an affluent suburban bedroom community of New York City, located approximately northwest of Midtown Manhattan.The Village of Ridgewood was...
. Following his father's interest in music, he began taking piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
lessons at age eight and trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
lessons at age fourteen. Riddle and his family had a summer house in Rumson, New Jersey
Rumson, New Jersey
Rumson is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 7,122.Rumson was formed as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 15, 1907, from portions of Shrewsbury Township, based on the results of a...
. He enjoyed Rumson so much that he convinced his parents to allow him to attend high school there for his senior year. After his graduation from Rumson High School, Riddle spent his late teens and early 20s playing trombone in and occasionally arranging for various local dance bands, culminating in his association with the Charlie Spivak
Charlie Spivak
Charlie Spivak was an American trumpeter and bandleader, best known for his big band in the 1940s.-Biography:...
Orchestra.
In 1943, Riddle joined the Merchant Marine
United States Merchant Marine
The United States Merchant Marine refers to the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is...
, serving at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, New York for roughly two years. During this time he continued working for the Charlie Spivak Orchestra and he studied orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
under his fellow merchant marine, composer Alan Shulman
Alan Shulman
Alan Shulman was an American composer and cello virtuoso. He wrote a considerable amount of symphonic music, chamber music, and jazz music. Trumpeter Eddie Bailey said, "Alan had the greatest ear of any musician I ever came across. He had better than perfect pitch...
. After his enlistment term ended, Riddle travelled to Chicago to join the Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
Orchestra in 1944; he remained the orchestra's third trombone for eleven months until drafted by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
in April, 1945.
Just months after Riddle entered the Army, World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
ended and he was discharged (June 1946) after serving fifteen months on active duty. Riddle moved shortly thereafter to Hollywood to pursue his career as an arranger and spent the next several years writing arrangements for multiple radio and record projects.
The Capitol years
In 1950, Riddle was hired by composer Les BaxterLes Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...
to write arrangements for a recording session with Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
; this was one of Riddle's first associations with Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
. Although one of the songs Riddle had arranged, "Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole song)
"Mona Lisa" is a song written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for the Paramount Pictures film Captain Carey, U.S.A. . It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1950. The arrangement was by Nelson Riddle and the orchestral backing was played by Les Baxter and his Orchestra...
," soon became the biggest selling single of Cole's career, the work was credited to Baxter. However, once Cole learned the identity of the arrangement's creator, he sought out Riddle's work for other sessions, and thus began a fruitful partnership that furthered the careers of both men at Capitol.
During the same year, Riddle also struck up a conversation with Vern Yocum
Vern Yocum
Vern Yocum is best known as copyist and librarian for Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Nelson Riddle. Many of the top artists of the mid-20th century relied on Vern Yocum’s Music Service, which was walking distance from the Capitol Records Tower...
, (born George Vernon Yocum) a big band jazz musician (brother of Pied Piper
The Pied Pipers
The Pied Pipers were a popular singing group in the late 1930s and 1940s. Originally they consisted of eight members who had belonged to three separate groups: Jo Stafford from The Stafford Sisters, and seven male singers: John Huddleston, Hal Hopper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody...
, Clark Yocum) who had transitioned into music preparation servicing Frank Sinatra and other entertainers at Capitol Records. A collaboration followed with Vern becoming Riddle's "right hand" as copyist and librarian for the next thirty years.
In 1952, Capitol Records executives viewed the up-and-coming Riddle as a prime choice to arrange for the newly-arrived Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
. Sinatra was reluctant however, preferring instead to remain with Axel Stordahl
Axel Stordahl
Axel Stordahl was an arranger who was active from the late 1930s through the 1950s. He is perhaps best known for his work with Frank Sinatra in the 1940s at Columbia Records...
, his long-time collaborator from his Columbia Records years. When success of the first few Capitol sides with Stordahl proved disappointing, Sinatra eventually relented and Riddle was called in to arrange his first session for Sinatra, held on April 30, 1953. The first product of the Riddle-Sinatra partnership, "I've Got The World On A String," became a runaway hit and is often credited with relaunching the singer's slumping career. His personal favorite, a Sinatra ballad album, Only the Lonely
Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely
Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely is a studio LP by the American singer Frank Sinatra...
.
Riddle was to stay at Capitol for another decade, during which time he continued to arrange for Sinatra and Cole, in addition to such Capitol artists as Kate Smith, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Keely Smith, Sue Raney, and Ed Townsend. He also found time to release his own instrumental albums on the label, most notably Hey...Let Yourself Go (1957) and C'mon...Get Happy (1958), both of which peaked at a respectable number twenty on the Billboard charts.
While at Capitol, Riddle continued his successful film arranging career, most notably with MGM's Conrad Salinger
Conrad Salinger
Conrad Salinger was an American arranger, orchestrator and composer, who studied classical composition at the Paris Conservatoire. He is credited with orchestrating nine productions on Broadway from 1931 to 1938, and over seventy-five motion pictures from 1931 to 1962...
on the first onscreen duet between Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
and Sinatra in High Society (1956), and the 1957 film version of Pal Joey
Pal Joey (film)
Pal Joey is a 1957 film, loosely adapted from the musical play of the same name, and starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak. Jo Ann Greer sang for Hayworth, as she had done previously in Affair in Trinidad and Miss Sadie Thompson. Kim Novak's singing voice was dubbed by Trudy Erwin...
directed by George Sidney
George Sidney
George Sidney was an American film director and film producer who worked primarily at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Career:...
for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. In 1969, he arranged and conducted the music for the film Paint Your Wagon
Paint Your Wagon (film)
Paint Your Wagon is a 1969 American musical film starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. The movie was adapted by Paddy Chayefsky from the 1951 stage musical by Lerner and Loewe, set in a mining camp in Gold Rush-era California.-Plot:...
, which starred a trio of non-singers, Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin
Lee Marvin was an American film actor. Known for his gravelly voice, white hair and 6' 2" stature, Marvin at first did supporting roles, mostly villains, soldiers and other hardboiled characters, but after winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his dual roles in Cat Ballou , he landed more...
, Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, and Jean Seberg
Jean Seberg
Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She starred in 37 films in Hollywood and in France, including Breathless , the musical Paint Your Wagon and the disaster film Airport ....
.
Later years
In 1962, Riddle orchestrated two albums for Ella FitzgeraldElla Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson
Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson
Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson is a 1962 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra....
, and Ella Swings Gently with Nelson
Ella Swings Gently with Nelson
Ella Swings Gently with Nelson is a 1962 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle....
, their first work together since 1959's Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook is a 1959 five album set by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, focusing on the songs of George and Ira Gershwin. It was recorded with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, marking the first time that Ella and Riddle had worked together...
. The mid-1960s would also see Fitzgerald and Riddle collaborate on the last of Ella's 'Songbooks', devoted to the songs of Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
(Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook is a 1963 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with an Orchestra conducted and arranged by Nelson Riddle, focusing on the songs of Jerome Kern....
) and Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
(Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook
Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Johnny Mercer Song Book is a 1964 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, focusing on the songs of Johnny Mercer. This was Fitzgerald's fifth and final collaboration with Riddle during her years on the Verve label...
).
In 1963, Riddle joined Sinatra's newly-established label Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
, under the musical direction of Morris Stoloff
Morris Stoloff
Morris Stoloff was a musical composer.Stoloff worked as a music director at Columbia Pictures from 1936 to 1962...
. Much of his work in the 1960s and 1970s was for film and television, including his hit theme song for Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
; steady work scoring episodes of Batman
Batman (TV series)
Batman is an American television series, based on the DC comic book character of the same name. It stars Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin — two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City. It aired on the American Broadcasting Company network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to...
and other television series, and composing the scores of several motion pictures including the Rat Pack
Rat Pack
The Rat Pack was a group of actors originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a later variation of the group, after Bogart's death, that called itself "the summit" or "the clan," featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean...
features Robin and the 7 Hoods
Robin and the 7 Hoods
Robin and the 7 Hoods is a 1964 American musical film that transplants the Robin Hood legend to a 1930s Chicago gangster setting. Directed by Gordon Douglas and produced by Frank Sinatra, with a screenplay by David R. Schwartz, the movie stars members of the Rat Pack as well as Bing Crosby, Peter...
and the original Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven (1960 film)
Ocean's 11 is a 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop....
.
In the latter half of the 1960s, the partnership between Riddle and Frank Sinatra grew more distant as Sinatra began increasingly to turn to Don Costa
Don Costa
Don Costa was an American pop music arranger and record producer, best known for his work with Frank Sinatra.-Career:...
, Billy May
Billy May
William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...
and an assortment of other arrangers for his album projects. Although Riddle would write various arrangements for Sinatra until the late 1970s, Strangers In The Night
Strangers in the Night (Frank Sinatra album)
Strangers in the Night is a 1966 studio album by Frank Sinatra.The album marked Sinatra's return to #1 on the pop album charts in the mid-1960s, and it consolidated the comeback he started in 1966. Combining pop hits with show tunes and standards, the album creates a balance between big band and...
, released in 1966, was the last full album project the pair completed together. The collection of Riddle-arranged songs was intended to expand on the success of the title track, which had been a number one hit single for Sinatra arranged by Ernie Freeman
Ernie Freeman
Ernie Freeman was an American pianist, organist and arranger.In 1935 he began playing in local Cleveland area nightclubs, and also formed a classical music trio for local social functions with his father and his sister Evelyn...
.
During the 1970s, the majority of his work was for film and television, including the score for the 1974 version of The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby (1974 film)
The Great Gatsby is a 1974 romantic drama film distributed by Newdon Productions and Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Jack Clayton and produced by David Merrick, from a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola based on F...
, which earned Riddle his first Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
after some five nominations. In 1973, he served as musical director for the Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
winning The Julie Andrews Hour
The Julie Andrews Hour
The Julie Andrews Hour is a television variety series starring Julie Andrews that was produced by ATV and distributed by ITC Entertainment. It aired on the ABC network in the United States....
. Nelson Riddle's Orchestra also made numerous concert appearances throughout the 1970s, some of which were led and contracted by his good friend, Tommy Shepard
Tommy Shepard
Tommy Shepard was an American trombonist who worked extensively in both Chicago and Hollywood as a regular recording artist for the top recording, television, and film studios. He had a trombone sound that was often compared to Tommy Dorsey...
.
On March 14, 1977, Riddle conducted his last three arrangements for Sinatra. The songs, "Linda," "Sweet Lorraine," and "Barbara," were intended for an album of songs with women's names. The album was never completed. "Sweet Lorraine" was released in 1990 and the other two on "The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings" in 1996. http://www.songsbysinatra.com/dates/dates_main.html
1982 saw Riddle work for the last time with Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
, on her last orchestral Pablo
Pablo Records
Pablo Records was a record label founded by Norman Granz in 1972, some ten years after he had sold his jazz labels to MGM Records....
album, The Best Is Yet to Come.
Career revival
In 1982, Riddle was approached by Linda RonstadtLinda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
to write arrangements for an album of jazz standard
Jazz standard
Jazz standards are musical compositions which are an important part of the musical repertoire of jazz musicians, in that they are widely known, performed, and recorded by jazz musicians, and widely known by listeners. There is no definitive list of jazz standards, and the list of songs deemed to be...
s Ronstadt had been contemplating since her stint in Pirates of Penzance. The agreement between the two resulted in a three-album contract which included what were to be the last arrangements of Riddle's career, with the exception of an album of twelve Great American Songbook standards he arranged and conducted for his old friend, opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...
, in April 1985, six months before his death that October. Ronstadt recalls that when sheinitially approached Riddle, she did not know if he was even familiar with her music. He knew her name but basically hated rock 'n' roll. However, his daughter was a big Ronstadt fan and told her father, "Don't worry. Her checks won't bounce."
When Nelson learned of Ronstadt's desire to learn more about traditional pop music and agreed to record with her, he insisted on a whole album or nothing. He was at first skeptical, but once he agreed his career turned upside down immediately. For her to do "elevator music
Elevator music
Elevator music refers to instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for playing in shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, telephone systems , cruise ships, airports, doctors' and dentists' offices, and elevators...
", as she called it, was a great surprise to the young audience. Joe Smith, the president of Elektra, was terrified that the albums would turn off the rock audience. The three albums together sold over seven million copies and brought Nelson back to a young audience during the last three years of his life. Arrangements for Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
's What's New
What's New (Linda Ronstadt album)
What's New is a Grammy-nominated, Triple Platinum-certified, 1983 Jazz album by American singer/songwriter/producer Linda Ronstadt consisting of nine songs of Jazz music. It represents the first in a trilogy of 1980s albums Ronstadt recorded with the bandleader/arranger Nelson Riddle...
(1983) and Lush Life
Lush Life (Linda Ronstadt album)
Lush Life is a Platinum-certified, Grammy-nominated album by American singer/songwriter/producer Linda Ronstadt, released in late 1984. It was the second in a trilogy of jazz albums with bandleader/arranger Nelson Riddle....
(1984) won Riddle his second and third Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s (the last was awarded posthumously in 1986).
Working with Ronstadt, Riddle brought his career back into focus in the last three years of his life. Stephen Holden of the New York Times wrote, What's New "isn't the first album by a rock singer to pay tribute to the golden age of the pop, but is ... the best and most serious attempt to rehabilitate an idea of pop that Beatlemania
Beatlemania
Beatlemania is a term that originated during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward The Beatles during the early years of their success...
and the mass marketing of rock LPs for teen-agers undid in the mid-60s ... In the decade prior to Beatlemania, most of the great band singers and crooners of the 40s and 50s codified a half-century of American pop standards on dozens of albums ... many of them now long out-of-print". What's New is the first album by a rock singer to have major commercial success in rehabilitating the Great American Songbook
Great American Songbook
The Great American Songbook is a hypothetical construct that seeks to represent the best American songs of the 20th century principally from Broadway theatre, musical theatre, and Hollywood musicals, from the 1920s to 1960, including dozens of songs of enduring popularity...
.
Death and legacy
In 1985, Riddle died at age 64 of liver ailments. He is interred at Hollywood Forever CemeteryHollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
in Hollywood, California in the Hall of David Mausoleum.
Following Riddle's death, his last three arrangements for Ronstadt's For Sentimental Reasons
For Sentimental Reasons (Linda Ronstadt album)
For Sentimental Reasons is a million-selling, Platinum-certified album by American singer/songwriter/producer Linda Ronstadt, released in late 1986. The album reached #46 on Billboards main album chart as well as #3 on the Top Jazz Albums chart...
album were conducted by Terry Woodson; the album was released in 1986.
In February 1986, Riddle's youngest son Christopher, himself an accomplished bass trombonist, assumed the leadership of his father's orchestra.
Following the death of Riddle's second wife Naomi in 1998, proceeds from the sale of the Riddle home in Bel Air were used to establish a Nelson Riddle Endowed Chair and library at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
, which officially opened in 2001. The opening showcased a gala concert of Riddle's works, with Ronstadt as a featured guest performer.
In 2000, Erich Kunzel
Erich Kunzel
Erich Kunzel, Jr. was an American orchestra conductor. Called the "Prince of Pops" by the Chicago Tribune, he performed with a number of leading pops and symphony orchestras, especially the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra , which he led for over 44 years.-Early life and career:Kunzel was born to...
and the Cincinnati Pops released a Nelson Riddle tribute album titled "Route 66: That Nelson Riddle Sound" on Telarc Records. The album showcased expanded orchestral adaptations of the original arrangements provided by the Nelson Riddle Archives, and was presented in a state-of-the-art digital recording that was among the first titles to be released on multi-channel SACD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
.
While in the Army, Riddle married his first wife Doreen Moran in 1945. The couple had six children. Riddle had an extra-marital affair with singer Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House" written by William Saroyan and his cousin Ross Bagdasarian , which was followed by other pop numbers such as "Botch-a-Me" Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 –...
in the 1960s, which contributed to the breakup of their respective marriages. In 1968, Riddle separated from his wife Doreen; their divorce became official in 1970. A few months later he married Naomi Tenenholtz, then his secretary, with whom he would remain for the rest of his life. Riddle's children are dispersed between the east and west coasts of the United States with Nelson Jr. residing in London, England. Riddle's eldest daughter Rosemary is the trustee of the Nelson Riddle Trust.
Riddle was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music...
, the national fraternity for men in music.
In a 1982 radio interview on WNEW with Jonathan Schwartz
Jonathan Schwartz (radio)
Jonathan Schwartz is an American radio personality, known for his devotion to traditional pop music.Schwartz worked at New York's WNEW-FM from 1967 to 1976, followed by stints at WNEW-AM, WQEW, and currently WNYC-FM...
, Riddle cites Stan Kenton
Stan Kenton
Stanley Newcomb "Stan" Kenton was a pianist, composer, and arranger who led a highly innovative, influential, and often controversial American jazz orchestra. In later years he was widely active as an educator....
's "23 degrees north 82 degrees west" arranged by Bill Russo as inspiration for his signature trombone interplay crescendos.
Discography
ALBUMS- 1953 It Can't Be Wrong
- 1953 Love Songs By Rodgers & Hammerstein
- 1954 Swing Easy
- 1954 Unforgettable
- 1954 Songs For Young Lovers
- 1954 Sings For Two In Love
- 1955 In The Wee Small Hours
- 1955 Piano Style of Nat King Cole
- 1956 Songs For Swingin' Lovers
- 1956 Ballads of the Day
- 1956 JudyJudy (Judy Garland album)Judy is a 1956 studio album by Judy Garland, her fourth LP on the Capitol label, arranged by Nelson Riddle. -Track listing:# "Come Rain or Come Shine" # "Just Imagine"...
- 1956 Lisbon Antigua
- 1956 The Tender Touch
- 1956 This is Sinatra
- 1956 Close To You
- 1956 A Swingin' Affair
- 1956 Phil Silver's Swinging Brass
- 1957 Hey... Let Yourself Go!
- 1957 The Man I Love
- 1957 This is Nat King Cole
- 1958 C'mon... Get Happy!
- 1958 I Wish You Love
- 1958 Sea of Dreams
- 1958 Cross Country Suite
- 1958 When Your Lover Has Gone
- 1958 Jump For Joy
- 1958 This is Sinatra (Volume 2)
- 1958 St. Louis Blues
- 1958 Only The Lonely
- 1958 Witchcraft!
- 1958 Judy In Love
- 1959 New In Town
- 1959 Swingin' Pretty
- 1959 The Joy of Living
- 1959 To Whom It May Concern
- 1959 Take A Number
- 1959 Look to Your Heart
- 1959 Glad To Be Here
- 1959 When I'm Thinking of You
- 1959 Dinah, Yes, Indeed
- 1959 Sing a Song With Riddle
- 1959 Ella Sings The Gershwin Songbook Volume 1
- 1959 Ella Sings The Gershwin Songbook Volume 2
- 1959 Ella Sings The Gershwin Songbook Volume 3
- 1959 Ella Sings The Gershwin Songbook Volume 4
- 1959 Ella Sings The Gershwin Songbook Volume 5
- 1960 Warm & Willing
- 1960 Wild Is Love
- 1960 Nice 'N' Easy
- 1960 Dream With Me
- 1960 This Time I'm Swingin'
- 1960 Sinatra Swingin' Session
- 1961 Love Tide
- 1961 All the Way
- 1961 Rosie Solves The Swingin' Riddle
- 1962 Cha Cha De Amor
- 1962 Sinatra Sings Of Love & Things
- 1962 Ella Swings Brightly With Nelson
- 1962 Ella Swings Gently With Nelson
- 1962 Love Is a Game of Poker
- 1962 I'll Buy You A Star
- 1962 The Best of Nelson Riddle
- 1962 Let's Face The Music
- 1962 Swinging For You
- 1962 Little Girl Blue, Little Girl New
- 1962 Guard Session Album with Keely Smith
- 1962 Love
- 1963 Jerome Kern Songbook
- 1963 Shirley Bassey Sings the Hit Song from Oliver!
- 1963 Live It Up
- 1963 The Concert Sinatra
- 1963 Sinatra's Sinatra
- 1963 Country Boy
- 1964 Return To Paradise Islands
- 1964 Nat Cole Sings The Great Songs
- 1964 Days Of Wine & Roses
- 1964 Oscar Peterson & Nelson Riddle
- 1964 Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Johnny Mercer Songbook
- 1964 Hits of *1964
- 1964 All Time Favorites
- 1965 There's Love
- 1965 The Brazilian Mood
- 1966 Games That Lovers Play
- 1966 Strangers In The Night
- 1966 Moonlight Sinatra
- 1966 Nat: An Orchestral Portrait
- 1967 Music for Wives and Lovers
- 1967 The Bright and the Beautiful
- 1967 Here, There and Everywhere
- 1968 The Riddle of Today
- 1968 Wish You A Merry Christmas
- 1968 The Contemporary Sound of Nelson Riddle
- 1969 British Columbia Suite
- 1970 The Look of Love
- 1970 Nelson Riddle Conducts The 101 Strings
- 1970 The Sound of Magnificence / With 101 Strings
- 1971 Spice
- 1972 His Way
- 1972 Dream Dancing
- 1972 Changing Colors
- 1972 Communication
- 1972 Portrait of Steve
- 1973 Vive Legrand!
- 1975 That's Entertainment
- 1978 The Rare Sinatra
- 1981 Top Hat
- 1982 The Best Is Yet To Come
- 1983 Romance Fire and Fancy
- 1983 What's New
- 1984 Lush Life
- 1985 Blue Skies
- 1986 'Round Midnight
- 1986 For Sentimental Reasons
- 1987 The Unreleased
- 19?? Music For Wives And Lovers