Editing Henry Mancini (section)

==Career==
Newly discharged from the military, Mancini entered the music industry. In 1946, he became a pianist and arranger for the newly re-formed [[Glenn Miller Orchestra]], led by 'Everyman' [[Tex Beneke]]. After World War II, Mancini broadened his skills in composition, counterpoint, harmony and orchestration during studies, opening with the composers [[Ernst Krenek]] and [[Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco]].{{sfnp|Mancini|Lees|2001|p=51}}

In 1952, Mancini joined [[Universal Pictures|Universal-International]]'s music department. During the next six years, he contributed music to over 100 movies, most notably ''[[Creature from the Black Lagoon]]'', ''[[The Creature Walks Among Us]]'', ''[[It Came from Outer Space]]'', ''[[Tarantula (film)|Tarantula]]'', ''[[This Island Earth]]'', ''[[The Glenn Miller Story]]'' (for which he received his first [[Academy Award]] nomination), ''[[The Benny Goodman Story]]'' and [[Orson Welles]]' ''[[Touch of Evil]]''. His first hit as a pop songwriter was a single by [[Guy Lombardo]] and His Royal Canadians titled "I Won't Let You Out of My Heart".

Mancini left Universal-International to work as an independent composer/arranger in 1958. Soon afterward, he scored the television series ''[[Peter Gunn]]''<ref name=pc23/> for writer/producer [[Blake Edwards]]. This was the genesis of a relationship in which Edwards and Mancini collaborated on 30 films over 35 years. Along with [[Alex North]], [[Elmer Bernstein]], [[Leith Stevens]] and [[Johnny Mandel]], Henry Mancini was a pioneer of the inclusion of jazz elements in the late romantic orchestral film and TV scoring prevalent at the time. Mancini's scores for Blake Edwards included ''[[Breakfast at Tiffany's (film)|Breakfast at Tiffany's]]'' (with the standard "[[Moon River]]")<ref name=pc23/> and ''[[Days of Wine and Roses (film)|Days of Wine and Roses]]'' (with the title song, "[[Days of Wine and Roses (song)|Days of Wine and Roses]]"), as well as ''[[Experiment in Terror]]'', ''[[The Pink Panther (1963 film)|The Pink Panther]]'' (and all of its sequels), ''[[The Great Race]]'', ''[[The Party (1968 film)|The Party]]'', ''[[10 (1979 film)|10]]'' (including "It's Easy to Say") and ''[[Victor Victoria]]''. Another director with whom Mancini had a longstanding partnership was [[Stanley Donen]] (''[[Charade (1963 film)|Charade]]'', ''[[Arabesque (1966 film)|Arabesque]]'', ''[[Two for the Road (1967 film)|Two for the Road]]''). Mancini also composed for [[Howard Hawks]] (''[[Man's Favorite Sport?]]'', ''[[Hatari!]]'' – which included the "[[Baby Elephant Walk]]"), [[Martin Ritt]] (''[[The Molly Maguires (film)|The Molly Maguires]]''), [[Vittorio de Sica]] (''[[Sunflower (1970 film)|Sunflower]]''), [[Norman Jewison]] (''[[Gaily, Gaily]]''), [[Paul Newman]] (''[[Sometimes a Great Notion (film)|Sometimes a Great Notion]]'', ''[[The Glass Menagerie (1987 film)|The Glass Menagerie]])'', [[Stanley Kramer]] (''[[Oklahoma Crude (film)|Oklahoma Crude]]''), [[George Roy Hill]] (''[[The Great Waldo Pepper]]''), [[Arthur Hiller]] (''[[Silver Streak (film)|Silver Streak]]''),{{sfnp|Mancini|Lees|2001|p=239}} [[Ted Kotcheff]] (''[[Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?]]''), and others. Mancini's score for the [[Alfred Hitchcock]] film ''[[Frenzy]]'' (1972) in Bachian organ andante, for organ and an orchestra of strings was rejected and replaced by [[Ron Goodwin]]'s work.

Mancini scored many TV movies, including ''[[The Moneychangers]]'', ''[[The Thorn Birds (TV miniseries)|The Thorn Birds]]'' and ''[[The Shadow Box]]''. He wrote many television themes, including ''[[Mr. Lucky (TV series)|Mr. Lucky]]'' (starring [[John Vivyan]] and [[Ross Martin]]),<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/music-from-mr-lucky-mw0000653135 |title=Henry Mancini: Music from Mr. Lucky |website=AllMusic |access-date=April 30, 2013}}</ref> ''[[NBC Mystery Movie]]'',{{sfnp|Mancini|Lees|2001|p=240}} ''[[Tic Tac Dough]]'' (1990 version),<ref>{{cite book |last=Terrace |first=Vincent |title=Encyclopedia of Television Pilots, 1937–2012 |year=2013 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc. |isbn=978-0-7864-7445-5 |page=380}}</ref> ''[[Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough (film)|Once Is Not Enough]]'', and ''[[What's Happening!!]]''  In the 1984–85 television season, four series featured original Mancini themes:  ''[[Newhart]]'', ''[[Hotel (U.S. TV series)|Hotel]]'', ''[[Remington Steele]]'', and ''[[Ripley's Believe It or Not]]''. Mancini also composed the "Viewer Mail" theme for ''[[Late Night with David Letterman]]''.{{sfnp|Mancini|Lees|2001|p=240}} Mancini composed the theme for ''NBC Nightly News'' used beginning in 1975, and a different theme by him, titled ''Salute to the President'' was used by NBC News for its election coverage (including primaries and conventions) from 1976 to 1992.  ''Salute to the President'' was published only in a school-band arrangement, although Mancini performed it frequently with symphony orchestras on his concert tours.

Songs with music by Mancini were staples of the [[easy listening]] radio format from the 1960s to the 1980s. To advertisers, Mancini's style symbolized the bright, confident, hospitable voice of bourgeois America.{{sfn|Caps|2012}} Some of the artists who have recorded Mancini songs include [[Duane Eddy]], [[Andy Williams]], [[Paul Anka]], [[Pat Boone]], [[Anita Bryant]], [[Jack Jones (singer)|Jack Jones]], [[Frank Sinatra]], [[Perry Como]], [[Connie Francis]], [[Eydie Gorme]], [[Steve Lawrence]], [[Trini Lopez]], [[George Maharis]], [[Johnny Mathis]], [[Jerry Vale]], [[Ray Conniff]], [[Quincy Jones]], [[The Lennon Sisters]], [[The Lettermen]], [[Herb Alpert]], [[Eddie Cano]], [[Frank Chacksfield]], [[Warren Covington]], [[Sarah Vaughan]], [[Shelly Manne]], [[James Moody (saxophonist)|James Moody]], [[Percy Faith]], [[Ferrante & Teicher]], [[Horst Jankowski]], [[Andre Kostelanetz]], [[Peter Nero]], [[Liberace]], [[Mantovani]], [[Tony Bennett]], [[Julie London]], [[Wayne Newton]], [[Arthur Fiedler]], Secret Agent and the [[Boston Pops Orchestra]],  [[Peggy Lee]], and [[Matt Monro]]. The [[Anita Kerr]] Quartet won a Grammy award (1965) for their album ''We Dig Mancini'', a cover of his songs. [[Lawrence Welk]] held Mancini in very high regard, and frequently featured Mancini's music on ''[[The Lawrence Welk Show]]'' (Mancini made at least two guest appearances on the show). Mancini briefly hosted his own musical variety TV show in a similar format to Welk's, ''The Mancini Generation'', which aired in syndication during the 1972–73 season.{{sfnp|Caps|2012|page=149}}

Mancini recorded over 90 albums, in styles ranging from [[big band]] to light classical to [[popular music|pop]]. Eight of these albums were certified gold by the [[Recording Industry Association of America]]. He had a 20-year contract with [[RCA Victor]], resulting in 60 commercial record albums that made him a household name among artists of [[easy listening]] music. Mancini's earliest recordings in the 1950s and early 1960s were of the jazz idiom; with the success of ''Peter Gunn'', ''Mr. Lucky'', and ''Breakfast at Tiffany's'', Mancini shifted to recording primarily his own music in record albums and film soundtracks. (Relatively little of his music was written for recordings compared to the amount that was written for film and television.) Beginning with his 1969 hit arrangement of Nino Rota's ''A Time for Us'' (as his only [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] top 10 entry, the No. 1 hit "Love Theme from [[Romeo and Juliet (1968 film)|''Romeo and Juliet'']]") and its accompanying album ''A Warm Shade of Ivory'', Mancini began to function more as a piano soloist and easy-listening artist recording music primarily written by other people. In this period, for two of his best-selling albums he was joined by trumpet virtuoso and ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' bandleader [[Doc Severinsen]].

Among Mancini's orchestral scores are (''Lifeforce'', ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'', ''Sunflower'', ''Tom and Jerry: The Movie'', ''Molly Maguires'', ''[[The Hawaiians (film)|The Hawaiians]]''), and darker themes (''Experiment in Terror'', ''The White Dawn'', ''Wait Until Dark'', ''The Night Visitor'').
[[File:Wait Until Dark - ad 1967.jpg|thumb|''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' advertisement, October 14, 1967]] 

Mancini was also a concert performer, conducting over fifty engagements per year, resulting in over 600 symphony performances during his lifetime. He conducted nearly all of the leading symphony orchestras of the world, including the [[London Symphony Orchestra]], the [[Israel Philharmonic]], the [[Boston Pops]], the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic]] and the [[Royal Philharmonic Orchestra]]. One of his favorites was the [[Minnesota Orchestra]], where he debuted the ''Thorn Birds Suite'' in June 1983. He appeared in 1966, 1980 and 1984 in command performances for the [[British Royal Family]]. He also toured several times with Johnny Mathis and also with Andy Williams, who had both sung many of Mancini's songs; Mathis and Mancini collaborated on the 1986 album ''The Hollywood Musicals''. In 1987 he conducted an impromptu charity concert in London in aid of [[Children In Need]]. The concert included [[Tchaikovsky]]'s ''[[1812 Overture]]'' with firework accompaniment over the [[River Thames]].

===Cameos===
Shortly before his death in 1994, he made a one-off cameo appearance in the first season of the sitcom series ''[[Frasier]]'', as a call-in patient to Dr. Frasier Crane's radio show. Mancini voiced the character Al, who speaks with a melancholy drawl and hates the sound of his own voice, in the episode "Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast?"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.destinyland.org/Secret-Henry-Mancini-Cameo-on-Frasier.htm |title=Henry Mancini's cameo on Frasier |website=Destiny-land.org |access-date=September 16, 2008}}</ref> Moments after Mancini's cameo ends, Frasier's radio broadcast plays "Moon River".

Mancini also had an uncredited performance as a pianist in the 1967 film ''[[Gunn (film)|Gunn]]'', based on the ''Peter Gunn'' television series.

In the 1966 Pink Panther cartoon ''Pink, Plunk, Plink'', the panther commandeered an orchestra and proceeded to conduct Mancini's theme for the series. At the end, the shot switched to rare live action, and Mancini was seen alone applauding in the audience. Mancini also made a brief appearance in the title sequence of 1993's ''[[Son of the Pink Panther]]'', allowing the panther to conduct [[Bobby McFerrin]] in performing the film's theme tune.

In 1969 at the [[41st Academy Awards]] ceremony, Mancini played the [[harpsichord]] in a special number. [[Marni Nixon]] sang the rules for nomination in the category of Best Score of a Musical Motion Picture (Original or Adaptation), and together they sang the names of the films and musicians nominated. Mancini was the music director of the 41st Academy Awards broadcast.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jefferson |first=Ed |date=February 7, 2019 |title=The Oscars last went hostless in 1989. It ruined a man's career |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2019/02/oscars-last-went-hostless-1989-it-ruined-man-s-career |journal=[[The New Statesman]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230514153526/https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2019/02/oscars-last-went-hostless-1989-it-ruined-man-s-career |archive-date=May 14, 2023 |access-date=June 25, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Oliver! Wins Adapted Film Score |url=https://www.oscars.org/videos-photos/41st-oscars-highlights?fid=14391 |access-date=June 25, 2024 |website=[[Oscars.org]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=41st Annual Academy Awards Program, April 14, 1969 |url=https://digitalcollections.oscars.org/digital/collection/p15759coll9/id/3669/rec/4 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240702003357/https://digitalcollections.oscars.org/digital/collection/p15759coll9/id/3669/rec/4 |archive-date=July 2, 2024 |access-date=July 1, 2024 |website=[[Margaret Herrick Library]] Digital Collections |publisher=[[Oscars.org]]}}</ref>