Artist Playlists
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Henry Mancini was one of the most successful composers in film and TV history. He wrote several classic songs and scores throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, many of which became hits in their own right. After getting his start as an arranger in the waning days of the big band era, Mancini moved into film at Universal Pictures in the early ‘50s. From the start, he was a hitmaker. He struck up a particularly strong collaborative rapport with director Blake Edwards, for whom he'd pen scores for such classics as The Pink Panther and Breakfast at Tiffany's. - The best scores for film and television complement visual information, but the richly varied output of composer Henry Mancini has frequently stood on its own. His deep understanding of jazz explains why Quincy Jones and Sarah Vaughan devoted entire albums to his songs, while his indelible guitar lick from the Peter Gunn theme, played by twang master Duane Eddy, became an '80s hit when recast by synth-pop stars Art of Noise.
- Henry Mancini's luscious, jazzy music saturated the films of the ‘50s and ‘60s, leaving a fabulous legacy of velvety sounds for future composers to draw from. Lalo Schifrin's music for the movie Bullitt, for example, reflects the cool, detective story vibes of Mancini's Peter Gunn and The Pink Panther; Pink Martini's “Segundo” embodies the spicy calm of “Baby Elephant Walk” from Hatari!
- Henry Mancini is one of pop music’s most quoted instrumental composers. His biggest hits are ubiquitous, like 1959’s surf-guitar–driven <i>Peter Gunn</i> theme, interpolated by The B-52's and Mr. Bungle. The textures in his arrangements, when repurposed as hip-hop and R&B samples, provide a gauzy atmosphere (Amber Mark’s “Generous”) or a sense of tropical luxury (Tyler the Creator’s “Hot Wind Blows”). Occasionally, his beats lend themselves to looping, like the 1976 <i>Police Woman</i> groove that The Chemical Brothers warp into a frenetic breakbeat on “Base 6".