Johnny Mandel
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Johnny Mandel (born 23 November 1925 in New York) is an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz.
Among the musicians he has worked with are Count Basie (for whom he arranged in the 1950s), Frank Sinatra (for whom he arranged Ring-A-Ding-Ding, [1960]) and Shirley Horn.
Mandel's most famous compositions include "Suicide Is Painless" (theme from the movie and TV series M*A*S*H), "Close Enough for Love", "Emily" and "A Time for Love". He has written a great many film scores, perhaps most notably The Sandpiper.
His song The Shadow of Your Smile (Love Theme from The Sandpiper), co-written with Paul Francis Webster, won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Song Oscar and the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1966.
He performed an interpretation of Erik Satie's "Gnossiennes #4 and #5" on the piano for the 1979 movie "Being There".
He won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) in 1992 for Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" and again in 1993 for Shirley Horn's "Here's to Life".
At the age of 80, he contributed importantly on Tony Bennett's Grammy-awarded 2004 The Art of Romance as the arranger and conducting the orchestra. Both had collaborated before on Bennett's classic Movie Song Album in 1966, for which Mandel arranged and conducted his own two standard film songs and was the album's musical director.
In 2006, Australian comic band Tripod released their CD "Songs From Self Saucing" which features a song titled "Theme From Mash Guy" all about Johnny Mandel (though his name is never mentioned).
[edit] Selected discography
- 1958 I Want to Live
- 1965 The Sandpiper
- 1966 The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
- 1970 MASH
