David Raksin dies

[brownie]

From AP:

David Raksin, Oscar-nominated composer, dies at 92

LOS ANGELES -(AP)- David Raksin, an Oscar-nominated composer who arranged music for Charlie Chaplin's silent classic "Modern Times" and wrote the memorable theme for 1944's "Laura," died Monday, his son said. He was 92.

Raksin, who had been ailing for several years and had early stage Alzheimer's disease, died at his Van Nuys home, according to son Alex Raksin.

Although he wrote music for nearly 170 films and television shows, he is best known for the theme song to "Laura," a murder mystery directed by Otto Preminger.

He wrote it after his first wife separated from him.

"She wrote him a 'Dear John' letter, and he only had two days to write the score or else they were going to use another. He turned to the letter for inspiration," Alex Raksin said. "The studio saw a mystery. ... He saw a love story."

After the film debuted, Johnny Mercer wrote lyrics for the song, which was later performed by Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Ella Fitzgerald among others.

Raksin received Academy Award music nominations for 1947's "Forever Amber," a drama set in the 1600s, and 1958's "Separate Tables," a romance.

Raksin was born Aug. 4, 1912, in Philadelphia and was educated at the University of Pennsylvania.

At 23, Raksin came to Hollywood to work with Chaplin, after toiling in dance bands and arranging for Broadway shows. He told the Los Angeles Times in 2002 that while working on "Modern Times," he transcribed Chaplin's hummed and whistled tunes and arranged them into a score.

His other credits include music for "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1947), "Force of Evil" (1948), "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952), "Apache" (1954), and the TV shows "Wagon Train" (1957), "Ben Casey" (1961) and "Medical Center" (1969), as well as the 1983 nuclear-apocalypse TV movie "The Day After."

He also worked as a music professor at the University of Southern California.

[Free For All]

"Laura" really is a masterpiece. A beautiful, haunting tune.

[Spontooneous]

You know who's the only singer I've ever heard live who was brave enough to tackle "Laura"?

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. I kid you not.

Sang it beautifully too.

[B. Goren.]

"Laura" really is a masterpiece. A beautiful, haunting tune.

I have to agree.

[JSngry]

You know who's the only singer I've ever heard live who was brave enough to tackle "Laura"?

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson. I kid you not.

Sang it beautifully too.

Woody Herman had a hit w/it.

Singing too!

[maren]

I can "never quite recall" whether I read an interview with Raksin or saw it on TV, but what is vivid is his excitement about his hands-on manipulation of tape in scoring "Laura" to get the effects he wanted to hear but that didn't quite exist electronically at the time. Here's all I could find by Googling today:

"Notable early experiments with electronically processed sound included the modified piano chords in Raksin’s Laura (1944), from which the initial attack was removed..."

[Free For All]

Woody Herman had a hit w/it.

Singing too!

Yes, he got a gold record for it as a matter of fact. He sang it regularly right up to the end. Say what you will about Woody's vocal skills, he always sounded good singing Laura. Dignified, nostalgic, romantic and classy. IMHO.

[medjuck]

Didn't Raksin also write "The Bad and the Beautiful"?

[brownie]

Didn't Raksin also write "The Bad and the Beautiful"?

Yes, one of his best film score.

Some background on Raksin is here:

http://www.dlynnwaldron.com/DavidRaksin.html