Earle Hagen

[ghost of miles]

I've had a recent curiosity about the composer of the theme music for The Dick van Dyke Show. Learned the other day that it was Earle Hagen--looked him up on the web and found the following listing on Space Age Pop (a fun website, btw):

Earle Hagen

He wrote "Harlem Nocturne," which was news to me, as well as the theme for The Mod Squad and The Andy Griffith Show.

The whole transition of jazz writers, arrangers, and performers to the 1960s studio scene really fascinates me. Has anybody written a book or lengthy article on the topic?

[ghost of miles]

More on Hagen, from the AMG bio. He played w/Isham Jones, Goodman, and Dorsey in the 1930s:

The composer of the perennial "Harlem Nocturne," Earle Hagen also authored some of television's most distinctive theme songs, among them The Andy Griffith Show and Perry Mason. Born July 9, 1919, he studied the trombone as a teen and after high school played behind Isham Jones, Benny Goodman, and Jimmy Dorsey. Directly inspired by the music of Duke Ellington, in 1940 Hagen composed "Harlem Nocturne" for a local radio show, and within a year it was the theme song for bandleader Randy Brooks; saxophonist Herbie Fields popularized the song a decade later, and it has subsequently been recorded by everyone from Stan Kenton to King Curtis to Esquivel. During World War II, Hagen served with the Army Air Corps' Radio and Film Unit in Santa Ana, CA; after the war, he settled in Hollywood, and in 1947 earned his first major credit for orchestrating the score to the cult classic Kiss of Death. Hired as a second-line composer at 20th Century Fox under the legendary Lionel Newman, Hagen's breakthrough came in television, not film, when in 1957 he authored the memorable theme to the courtroom drama Perry Mason; perhaps his most instantly recognizable theme, however, was the whistled introduction to the classic comedy The Andy Griffith Show. Themes for small-screen favorites including I Spy, The Mod Squad, That Girl and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. followed, and in 1971 Hagen also published the influential book Scoring for Films. A sequel, Advanced Techniques for Film Scoring, followed in 1990.

[JSngry]

Check out Frank Comstock.

[Jim Alfredson]

I've been looking for a Frank Comstock record forever. And guess what? I can't remember the title right now, but it has something to do with space. It features prominently the Hammond Novachord, which was a weird-ass all tube synthesizer that Hammond made in the 30s.

[JSngry]

The cat played in Benny Carter's band w/J.J. Johnson: http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/jim5.shtml

[ghost of miles]

The cat played in Benny Carter's band w/J.J. Johnson: http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/jim5.shtml

Thanks, Jim, I'll keep an eye out for that. Wonder if Comstock is on the Carter sides in the Capitol Mosaic box--I'll have to take a look when I get home. That was a damned good band.

[maren]

Lots of names and stories packed into this interview with Frank Comstock: http://www.rfsoc.org.uk/jim5.shtml