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Billy May
Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for The Green Hornet (1966), The Mod Squad (1968), Batman (with Batgirl theme, 1967), and Naked City (1960). He collaborated on films such as Pennies from Heaven (1981), and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return, among others.
May wrote arrangements for many top singers, including Frank Sinatra, Yma Sumac, Nat King Cole, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Sandler and Young, Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, The Andrews Sisters and Ella Mae Morse. He also collaborated with satirist Stan Freberg on several classic 1950s and 1960s comedy music albums.
As a trumpet player in the 1940s Big Band era, May recorded such songs as "Measure for Measure", "Long Tall Mama", and "Boom Shot", with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, and "The Wrong Idea", "Lumby", and "Wings Over Manhattan" with Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra. With his own band, he had a hit single, "Charmaine". In the 1950s he released several successful albums of his unique orchestral arrangements and compositions, including Sorta-May and Sorta-Dixie.
May was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started out playing the tuba in the high school band. "I sat in the rear of the [band]stand", he said. "I didn't realize it at the time, but I was intrigued with becoming an arranger and an orchestrator". At the age of 17, he began playing with Gene Olsen's Polish-American Orchestra.
May moved to New York City at age 22 to become chief arranger for the Charlie Barnet Orchestra. He held this position from February 1939 until October 1940, and joined its trumpet section in June 1939. May's contract with Barnet called for writing at extraordinary speed: four new arrangements per week, about 70 of which were recorded and commercially released by RCA Victor on the Bluebird label. May arranged some of Barnet's best-selling records, including "Pompton Turnpike" and "Leapin' at the Lincoln", but it was May's now-classic arrangement of Ray Noble's "Cherokee" that launched Barnet and his band to national stardom.
At Barnet's request, May closely studied the musical language of Barnet's idol, Duke Ellington. May soon developed a harmonic and sonic palette rich with Ellingtonian colors. The Ellington influence is apparent in some of May's arrangements of new pop songs including "Danger in the Dark" and "Strange Enchantment". They are on full display in May's arrangements of Ellington's own compositions, particularly "The Sergeant Was Shy", "Ring Dem Bells", and "Rockin' in Rhythm". Ellington even reciprocated the musical respect by recording his own arrangement of "In a Mizz", a Charlie Barnet original arranged by May in June 1939.
May's first recorded serious composition for jazz orchestra was Wings Over Manhattan, a three-part suite celebrating the "aviation" theme of the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair for which it was written. It is also a musical salute to Ellington, showing the influence of Ellington's longer-form works like Reminiscing in Tempo and Symphony in Black. Composer/historian Gunther Schuller felt that by age 23, Billy May's command of Ellington's compositional language had become so convincing that "the 'disciple' could hardly be distinguished from the 'master'."
May's sense of musical humor—which later became one of the hallmarks of his sound—began to take shape with the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, as evident in his arrangements of novelty numbers like "Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga". May's earliest recorded musical parody—a comedic skill he would later master with comedian Stan Freberg—was "The Wrong Idea", an original song by May and Barnet, with syrupy vocal and comically bad trumpet soloing by May (whom Barnet introduces as "Slappy Habits"). Barnet called "The Wrong Idea" a "flagrant burlesque" of the best-selling "sweet" bands of the day led by Kay Kyser and Sammy Kaye, whose motto "Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye" becomes "Swing and Sweat with Charlie Barnet" when May sings it.
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Billy May
Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for The Green Hornet (1966), The Mod Squad (1968), Batman (with Batgirl theme, 1967), and Naked City (1960). He collaborated on films such as Pennies from Heaven (1981), and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return, among others.
May wrote arrangements for many top singers, including Frank Sinatra, Yma Sumac, Nat King Cole, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Sandler and Young, Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, The Andrews Sisters and Ella Mae Morse. He also collaborated with satirist Stan Freberg on several classic 1950s and 1960s comedy music albums.
As a trumpet player in the 1940s Big Band era, May recorded such songs as "Measure for Measure", "Long Tall Mama", and "Boom Shot", with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, and "The Wrong Idea", "Lumby", and "Wings Over Manhattan" with Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra. With his own band, he had a hit single, "Charmaine". In the 1950s he released several successful albums of his unique orchestral arrangements and compositions, including Sorta-May and Sorta-Dixie.
May was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He started out playing the tuba in the high school band. "I sat in the rear of the [band]stand", he said. "I didn't realize it at the time, but I was intrigued with becoming an arranger and an orchestrator". At the age of 17, he began playing with Gene Olsen's Polish-American Orchestra.
May moved to New York City at age 22 to become chief arranger for the Charlie Barnet Orchestra. He held this position from February 1939 until October 1940, and joined its trumpet section in June 1939. May's contract with Barnet called for writing at extraordinary speed: four new arrangements per week, about 70 of which were recorded and commercially released by RCA Victor on the Bluebird label. May arranged some of Barnet's best-selling records, including "Pompton Turnpike" and "Leapin' at the Lincoln", but it was May's now-classic arrangement of Ray Noble's "Cherokee" that launched Barnet and his band to national stardom.
At Barnet's request, May closely studied the musical language of Barnet's idol, Duke Ellington. May soon developed a harmonic and sonic palette rich with Ellingtonian colors. The Ellington influence is apparent in some of May's arrangements of new pop songs including "Danger in the Dark" and "Strange Enchantment". They are on full display in May's arrangements of Ellington's own compositions, particularly "The Sergeant Was Shy", "Ring Dem Bells", and "Rockin' in Rhythm". Ellington even reciprocated the musical respect by recording his own arrangement of "In a Mizz", a Charlie Barnet original arranged by May in June 1939.
May's first recorded serious composition for jazz orchestra was Wings Over Manhattan, a three-part suite celebrating the "aviation" theme of the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair for which it was written. It is also a musical salute to Ellington, showing the influence of Ellington's longer-form works like Reminiscing in Tempo and Symphony in Black. Composer/historian Gunther Schuller felt that by age 23, Billy May's command of Ellington's compositional language had become so convincing that "the 'disciple' could hardly be distinguished from the 'master'."
May's sense of musical humor—which later became one of the hallmarks of his sound—began to take shape with the Charlie Barnet Orchestra, as evident in his arrangements of novelty numbers like "Six Lessons From Madame La Zonga". May's earliest recorded musical parody—a comedic skill he would later master with comedian Stan Freberg—was "The Wrong Idea", an original song by May and Barnet, with syrupy vocal and comically bad trumpet soloing by May (whom Barnet introduces as "Slappy Habits"). Barnet called "The Wrong Idea" a "flagrant burlesque" of the best-selling "sweet" bands of the day led by Kay Kyser and Sammy Kaye, whose motto "Swing and Sway with Sammy Kaye" becomes "Swing and Sweat with Charlie Barnet" when May sings it.