Marty Manning

Marty Manning was one of the most in-demand arrangers and conductors on the New York studio scene during the era when singers such as Perry Como, Brenda Lee, and Jerry Vale were cranking out records. He also conducted and arranged for some of the best jazz singers, including Dinah Washington and Sarah Vaughan. Were Manning alive to appreciate the new millennium, he no doubt would be amused to see so much new respect evolving for his involvement with what has come to be known as space age pop. Many of these projects were simply amusing goofs at the time for musicians whose normal jobs were spent creating incredibly earthbound and mundane music, but have gained credibility for their creative use of studio musicians and technology. Manning wrote music for the instrumental guitar band the Ventures when the success of the "Telstar" record established something else for such bands to focus on thematically besides surf boards and hot rods. To space age pop listeners, however, Manning is best-known for an album he created inspired by Rod Serling's classic science fiction television series, The Twilight Zone. Manning's effort boasted cool new recordings of a variety of spaced-out tunes, including the well-known theme from this show. Even though the Grateful Dead did their own cover version of this theme for the '80s revival of the series, Manning's interpretation continued to hold a special place for hipsters, as would any portion of an album partially titled Cocktail Music for Robots. Manning's taste in superb musicians is one of the main reasons. The lineup includes the interesting Jerry Murad on harmonica, brilliant jazz guitarist Mundell Lowe, custom electronic sound effects by Attilio Mineo, and vocalist Lois Hunt providing oh-so-weird wordless vocals. Manning himself is heard to good effect noodling on a variety of weird keyboards, including the Ondioline, Ondes Martenot, and a keyboard simply called the "serpent." Manning got his professional start during the heyday of the big band era and began working as a freelance arranger in the early '40s. By the end of this decade, he had picked up radio work arranging and conducting for a group of NBC and CBS programs. In the early '50s, he began what would be a long relationship with the Columbia label. Many of Tony Bennett's early hits, such as the prophetic "Rags to Riches," featured Manning's tasteful orchestrations, leading to his popularity providing orchestral backing for most of the label's roster of singers through the late '60s. This was the same cast of characters who would wind up being nearly nuked by the oncoming popularity of rock & roll music, including Vic Damone, Buddy Greco, Andy Williams, Robert Goulet, and Barbra Streisand. His work with Bennett continued to be one of his best collaborations, and the pair's biggest hit, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," won a Grammy in 1962. His arrangements for some of the other aforementioned crooners also garnered him Grammy nominations. Manning's death was caused by an undiagnosed congenital aneurysm, which caused a sudden and massive stroke. ~ Eugene Chadbourne