Henri René (born Harold Manfred Kirchstein; December 29, 1906 – April 25, 1993), was an American musician who had an international career in the recording industry as a producer, composer, conductor and arranger.

Early years

Born in New York City of a German father and a French mother, young Harold traveled to Germany with his family where he studied at the Royal Berlin Academy of Music.

Artistic career

Returning to the U.S. in the mid-1920s, he began appearing with several orchestras. Some time after these experiences, he returned once more to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, working as a composer in the German film industry, and as an arranger with a German

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

. While touring Europe with his band some years before the war, he was appointed musical director of the two largest moving picture firms in Europe, Tobis and

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. In 1936, René returned to the U.S. and became musical director and chief arranger for RCA Victor, forming his own orchestra in 1941. As instrumentalist, Rene played the piano, saxophone, and Musette accordion. He was responsible for the original "Beer Barrel Polka" disk, which played an important role in the development of the music machine to its present status as a powerful entertainment medium. Shortly after returning to the USA, he began recording regularly for Standard and became its No. 1 artist, his disks selling in quantities comparable to those of the largest commercial dance bands. Among his most successful records have been "Cuckoo Waltz," "Waltzing on the Kalamazoo," "Tap the Barrel Dry," "Pete, the Pickelman" and "Tommy's Mustache." After service with the Allies in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, he resumed working for RCA Victor as a conductor and arranger. Henri Rene's recording of the Milton Delugg composition "Roller Coaster" was used as the closing theme for the

Goodson-Todman Productions Mark Leo Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions. Early life and e ...

panel show

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

from the early 1950s until its cancellation in 1967. In the mid 1950s, he issued several successful LPs which

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

has called "forerunners of the space-age pop aesthetic"; among the albums were ''Music for Bachelors'', ''Music for the Weaker Sex'', ''Compulsion to Swing'' and ''Riot in Rhythm''. Rene composed music themes and scores for several popular television series.Henri René at IMDb
Retrieved March 14, 2013 After this René worked in production for RCA Victor, with

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

, Perry Como, the

Ames Brothers The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet, consisting of four siblings from Malden, Massachusetts, who were particularly famous in the 1950s for their traditional pop music hits. Biography The Urick brothers were born in Malden, Massachusetts. ...

and Eartha Kitt among others. He left RCA Victor in 1959 to work freelance for the rest of his active career.

Honours

For his contributions to the

recording industry A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

, René has a Star at 1610 Vine Street on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Selected filmography

* '' Men Without a Fatherland'' (1937) * '' Togger'' (1937)

References

External links

Henri René at IMDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rene, Henri 1906 births American male conductors (music) Record producers from New York (state) American television composers RCA Victor artists Imperial Records artists A&R people 1993 deaths 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American composers American people of French descent American people of German descent 20th-century American businesspeople American expatriates in Germany 20th-century American male musicians Goldene Sieben members