George Greeley (1917–2007)[1] was an American pianist, conductor, composer, and arranger, recording artist and record producer who is known for his extensive work in film and television.
Greeley was born Georgio Guariglia in Westerly, Rhode Island on 23 July 1917. He was taught to read music at an early age by his musician father and was playing piano at five years old. He won a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied piano and composition, graduating in 1939.[2]
He began his career arranging music for several popular bands, including the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra. At Capitol Records he was a music director and arranger for artists including Gordon MacRae, Jane Powell and Jane Froman. During World War II he led a U.S. Air Force band.[3]
Greeley became a staff pianist at Columbia Pictures in the 1950s, performing on hundreds of motion pictures, including Leonard Bernstein's score for the 1954 drama On the Waterfront, as well as working as a composer and orchestrator. Greeley coached Tyrone Power for The Eddy Duchin Story and performed the piano parts which Power mimed.[4]
As a recording artist for Warner Bros. Records in the late 1950s and early 1960s Greeley produced and performed on fifteen albums. Moving into television in the 1960s, he composed the theme and background music for popular TV series including My Favorite Martian starring Ray Walston and Bill Bixby, and My Living Doll starring Robert Cummings and Julie Newmar. He also wrote background music for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Nanny and the Professor.[5]
Greeley's theme for My Favorite Martian (1963–66) is notable as one of the first uses of an electronic instrument in a television theme and prominently features an electro-theremin, played by Paul Tanner, co-creator of the instrument, who was at the time the lead trombonist for the ABC Orchestra.[6] The electro-theremin was also regularly used as a sound effect when Walston's character Uncle Martin raised his antennae or used his powers of levitation.[7] Greeley's use of the electro-theremin in My Favorite Martian influenced Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, who hired Tanner to play his instrument on several famous Beach Boys recordings including "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times", "Good Vibrations" and "Wild Honey".[8]
In addition to his film and TV work, Greeley performed as a piano soloist and guest conductor in Australia, Canada, Korea, and Brazil, and also performed with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.[9]
Greeley died from emphysema at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in Los Angeles[10] on 26 May 2007, aged 89.[11]