Jimmie Haskell

Jimmie Haskell(bornSheridan Pearlman;November 7, 1926 – February 4, 2016) was an Americancomposerand arranger for motion pictures and a wide variety of popular artists, includingElvis Presley,Neil Diamond,Crosby, Stills & Nash,Steely Dan,Billy Joel,Simon & Garfunkelandthe Everly Brothers.His career spanned over six decades.

Biography

Haskell was born inBrooklyn,New York. He entered the music business in the 1950s doing arrangements forImperial Records.His first professional arrangement was a chart of "Nature Boy",sold toLionel Hampton.He became thearrangerof choice forRicky Nelson,arranging and producing around 75 records for the artist, including such hits as "There's Nothing I Can Say"and"Hello Mary Lou".In 1960, he accompanied Elvis Presley on accordion on the"G.I. Blues" soundtrack.Almost four decades later, he provided arrangements onSheryl Crow'salbumThe Globe Sessions.

In 1960, Haskell entered the motion picture soundtrack industry as an uncredited orchestrator forDimitri Tiomkin'sThe Alamo.The following year he composed his first score,Love in a Goldfish Bowl.His composition "The Silly Song" became the theme song of American television'sThe Hollywood Squares.He composed a variety of film scores such asA.C. Lyles' Westerns and arranging"Weird Al" Yankovic's title song forSpy Hard.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Haskell was the arranger of choice forThe Grass Roots.He arranged the signature string section onChicago'ssong "If You Leave Me Now",for which he won aGrammy award,and also provided horn and string arrangements forBlondie's 1980 albumAutoamerican,including for the US and UK No. 1 hit "The Tide Is High".In the mid-1970s, Haskell worked with the bandSteely Dan,providing orchestration on their 1974 albumPretzel Logicand arrangements and horn on their 1975 albumKaty Lied.In 2009, well into his eighties, he provided "a lovely, understated string arrangement" onDavid Rawlings'albumA Friend of a Friend.

In addition to composing and arranging, Haskell would often act as conductor and selected the musicians used.

His birthday is widely reported as 1936 because he lied about his age, figuring he would get more work if people thought he was younger. A statement from his daughter published by The Musicians Union of Los Angeles gives the correct birthday in 1926.

Awards

Haskell was awarded anEmmyfor Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Special (Dramatic Underscore) forSee How She Runs(1978) and has received two other nominations. He was awardedGrammiesfor his arrangements of "Ode to Billie Joe"recorded byBobbie Gentry,"Bridge Over Troubled Water"recorded bySimon and Garfunkel,and "If You Leave Me Now"recorded byChicago.

Selected filmography

• Love in a Goldfish Bowl(1961)
• I'll Take Sweden(1965)
• Town Tamer(1965)
• Apache Uprising(1965)
• Red Tomahawk(1966)
• Johnny Reno(1966)
• Waco(1966)
• Hostile Guns(1967)
• Fort Utah(1967)
• The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz(1968)
• Arizona Bushwhackers(1968)
• Rogue's Gallery(1968)
• Buckskin(1968)
• The Thousand Plane Raid(1969)
• Zachariah(1971)
• The Honkers(1972)
• Night of the Lepus(1972)
• Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry(1974)
• When the North Wind Blows(1974)
• Death Game(1977)
• Joyride(1977)
• Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell(1978)
• A Christmas to Remember(1978)
• The Jericho Mile(1979)
• Guyana: Crime of the Century(1979)
• Goldie and the Boxer(1979)
• Mirror, Mirror(1979)
• The Jayne Mansfield Story(1980)
• Hard Country(1981)
• Jake Spanner, Private Eye(1989)

Television scores

• The Hollywood Squares(1965) (composer)
• Bewitched(1966) (composer)
• The Andy Williams Show(1968) (composer)
• The Doris Day Show(1969) (composer)
• Curiosity Shop(1971)
• Land of the Lost(1974) (composer)
• Cathy(1987) (composer)
• Silent Möbius(1998) (main composer with Suzie Katayama and Kenichi Sudo)

External links

• Official web site
• Jimmie Haskell at Space Age Pop
• Jimmie HaskellatIMDb
• Haskell interview on Ricky Nelson
• "Rockin' in the Orbit (Space Satellite)" - 1957 (Jimmie Haskell and Orchestra) Imperial Records