Dick Jacobs (29 March 1918 – 20 May 1988) was an American musician, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, music director and an artists-and-repertoire director for several

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

s (

Coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

, Decca, Brunswick and Springboard). He helped Jackie Wilson, Buddy Holly,

Bobby Darin Bobby Darin (born Walden Robert Cassotto; May 14, 1936 – December 20, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor who performed Pop music, pop, Swing music, swing, Folk music, folk, rock and roll, and country music. Darin started ...

and others early in their careers in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Life and career

Jacobs was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, United States, and graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he served in the

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, then returned to the city and spent several years arranging for Tommy Dorsey. After that, he partnered with Sy Oliver to pursue freelance arranging work. When he was hired to be the musical director for the television series, '' Your Hit Parade'', for its 1957–58 season, he replaced most of the existing studio orchestra members with his own choices including Dick Hyman, Don Lamond, Al Caiola and

Jerome Richardson Jerome Richardson (December 25, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an American jazz musician and woodwind player. He is cited as playing one of the earliest jazz flute recordings with his work on the 1949 Quincy Jones arranged song "Kingfish". Caree ...

. At that point, the Hit Parade orchestra became one of the first on-screen orchestras to become integrated. In 1953, he produced a number of acts, including the McGuire Sisters and

Teresa Brewer Teresa Brewer (born Theresa Veronica Breuer; May 7, 1931 – October 17, 2007) was an American singer whose style incorporated pop, country, jazz, R&B, musicals, and novelty songs. She was one of the most prolific and popular female singers of th ...

, and by 1958 had a hit single, the theme tune from the movie ''Kathy-O''. In 1956, his recording of " Man with the Golden Arm" sold over one million copies as a single and was awarded a gold disc. According to ''The Ultimate Book of Songs and Artists'', by Joel Whitburn, Jacobs's biggest hits were "Main Title" and "Molly-O" (1956), "Petticoats of Portugal" (1956), and "Fascination" (1957). Jacobs brought a lush

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

l sound to a number of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

s in the late 1950s, notably those for Buddy Holly and Cirino Colacrai and his vocal quartet, the Bowties. Eventually retiring in the late 1970s, he and Harriet Jacobs wrote ''Who Wrote That Song?'', a reference book on popular songs and songwriters. He died in 1988 in New York City, at the age of 70.

Selected discography

Singles

61606 - "Molly-O" / "Butternut" (1956) *Coral 61692 - "Seven Wonders of the World" / "Theme from "East of Eden"" (1956) *Coral 61724 - " Petticoats of Portugal" / "Song of the Vagabonds-Only A Rose" (1956) *Coral 61794 - "Big Beat" / "Tower's Trot and Then You Do That Step" (1957) *Coral 61864 - "Fascination" / "Summertime in Venice" (1957) *Coral 61907 - "Place Pigalle" / "Lovely Ladies of Milano" (1957) *Coral 61951 - " Mambo No. 5" / "Marchin' Drummer Blues" (1958) *Coral 62086 - "A Touch of Pink" / "Happy People of Monterrey" (1959)

Albums

*''Main Title'' (with George Cates Orchestra & Chorus) - Coral CRL-57065 *''The Man With the Golden Baton'' - Coral CRL-57127 *''Themes from Horror Movies'' - Coral CRL-57240 *''Written In the Stars (The Zodiac Suite)'' - Coral CRL-57339 *''Fascination'' - Vocalion VL-3672

Sidework

Jacobs did arrangements for jazz and popular singers and musicians, ranging from Cab Calloway,

and Xavier Cugat to Buddy Holly and Jackie Wilson.

References

Bibliography

* Press, Jaques Cattell (Ed.). ''ASCAP Biographical Dictionary of Composers, Authors and Publishers'', 4th edition, R. R. Bowker, 1980. * Nite, Norm N.; Clark, Dick. ''Rock on. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock n' Roll. The Solid Gold Years'', Harper & Row, 1982. * Whitburn, Joel. ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 5th edition, Watson-Guptill Publications, 1992.

External links

*
Dick Jacobs recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobs, Dick 1918 births 1988 deaths Record producers from New York (state) Songwriters from New York (state) American male conductors (music) 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American businesspeople Classical musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians United States Army personnel of World War II New York University alumni American male songwriters 20th-century American songwriters