Composer, arranger, big band trumpeter Neil Heft has died at 85. Two of the most memorable theme songs: The Odd Couple and Batman were written by him. Everyone can sing both of them. Hefti said the Batman theme was the hardest music he ever wrote. From the LA Times:
"I tore up a lot of paper," he told Jon Burlingame, author of "TV's Biggest Hits," a 1996 book on television themes. "It did not come easy to me. . . . I just sweated over that thing, more so than any other single piece of music I ever wrote. I was never satisfied with it."
"Batman," he said, "was not a comedy. This was about unreal people. Batman and Robin were both very, very serious. The bad guys would be chasing them, and they would come to a stop at a red light, you know. They wouldn't break the law even to save their own lives. So there was a grimness and a self-righteousness about all this."
Hefti said it took him "the better part of a month" to come up with the theme.
"I was almost going to call them and say, I can't do it," he said. "But I never walk out on projects, so I sort of forced myself to finish."
Hefti's "musical solution to a combined dramatic and comedic problem," Burlingame wrote in his book, "was perfect: bass guitar, low brass and percussion to create a driving rhythm, while an eight-voice chorus sings 'Batman!' in harmony with the trumpets. It was part serious, part silly: just like the series."
Hefti's "Batman" tune became a Top 40 hit -- for both the Hefti and the Marketts' versions -- and won a 1966 Grammy Award for best instrumental theme.
Miles Davis credited him with making the Count Basie Band sound as good as it did. Hefti produced, composed and arranged for Count Basie. He also served as head of A&R for Reprise Records in the early 60's. He also composed music for films including Sex and The Single Girl, Barefoot in the Park and How to Murder Your Wife.
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