John Alfred Mandel (November 23, 1925June 29, 2020) was an American composer and arranger of popular songs,

film music A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. The musicians he worked with include

Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and the ...

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

Peggy Lee Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, and actress whose career spanned seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local r ...

Anita O'Day Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self-proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band appe ...

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand ( ; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress, songwriter, producer, and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success across multiple fields of entertainment, being the ...

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (August 3, 1926 – July 21, 2023), known professionally as Tony Bennett, was an American jazz and traditional pop singer. He received many accolades, including 20 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, ...

, Diane Schuur and

Shirley Horn Shirley Valerie Horn (May 1, 1934 – October 20, 2005) was an American jazz singer and pianist. She collaborated with many jazz musicians including Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Toots Thielemans, Ron Carter, Carmen McRae, Wynton Marsalis and oth ...

. He won five

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

s, from 17 nominations; his first nomination was for his debut film score for the multi-nominated 1958 film '' I Want to Live!''

Early life

Mandel was born in the borough of Manhattan in New York City on November 23, 1925. His father, Alfred, was a garment manufacturer who ran Mandel & Cash; his mother, Hannah (Hart-Rubin), had aimed to be an opera singer and discovered her son had perfect pitch at the age of five. His family was Jewish. They moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1934, after his father's business collapsed during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Mandel was given piano lessons, but switched to the trumpet and later the trombone.

Career

Mandel studied at the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music a ...

and the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

. In 1943, he played the trumpet with jazz violinist Joe Venuti. The following year, he worked with Billy Rogers and played

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

in the bands of

Boyd Raeburn Boyd Albert Raeburn (October 27, 1913 – August 2, 1966) was an American jazz bandleader and bass saxophone, bass saxophonist. Career He was born in Faith, South Dakota, United States. Raeburn attended the University of Chicago, where he led a ...

, Jimmy Dorsey, Buddy Rich, Georgie Auld and Chubby Jackson. In 1949 he accompanied the singer

June Christy June Christy (born Shirley Luster; November 20, 1925 – June 21, 1990) was an American singer, known for her work in the cool jazz genre and for her silky smooth vocals. Her success as a singer began with The Stan Kenton Orchestra. She pursued ...

in the orchestra of Bob Cooper. From 1951 until 1953 he played and arranged music in Elliot Lawrence's orchestra, and in 1953 with

. He subsequently resided in Los Angeles, where he played the

bass trumpet The bass trumpet is a type of low trumpet which was first developed during the 1820s in Germany. It is usually pitched in 8' C or 9' B today, but is sometimes built in E and is treated as a transposing instrument sounding either an octave, a sixth ...

for

Zoot Sims John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...

. A 1944 Band graduate of New York Military Academy, in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York, he wrote jazz compositions including "Not Really the Blues" for Woody Herman in 1949, "Hershey Bar" (1950) and "Pot Luck" (1953) for

Stan Getz Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wis ...

, "Straight Life" (1953) and "Low Life" (1956) for

, as well as "Tommyhawk" (1954) for

Chet Baker Chesney Henry "Chet" Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and ...

. Mandel composed, conducted and arranged the music for numerous movie sound tracks. His earliest credited contribution was to '' I Want to Live!'' in 1958, which was nominated for three

s. His other compositions include " Suicide Is Painless" (theme song for the movie and TV series '' M*A*S*H''), " Close Enough for Love", " Emily" and "A Time for Love" (nominated for an Academy Award). "Emily" was a favorite of pianist Bill Evans and alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, both of whom included it in live performances until they died, and Evans included it in a duo recording with Tony Bennett. Mandel wrote numerous film scores, including the score of '' The Sandpiper''. The love theme for that film, " The Shadow of Your Smile", which he co-wrote with Paul Francis Webster, won the 1965

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the Film industry, motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who h ...

and the

Grammy Award for Song of the Year The Grammy Award for Song of the Year is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. The Song of the Year award is one of the four most prestigious categories at ...

in 1966. Mandel performed an interpretation of

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (born 17 May 18661 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conservatoire but was an undi ...

's " Gnossiennes #4 and #5" on the piano for the film ''

Being There ''Being There'' is a 1979 American satirical comedy-drama film starring Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, and Melvyn Douglas. Directed by Hal Ashby, it is based on the 1971 novel '' Being There'' by Jerzy Kosiński, and adapted for the scr ...

'' (1979). He won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) in 1981 for

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

's song ''Velas'', and again in 1991 for

Natalie Cole Natalie Maria Cole (February 6, 1950 – December 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was the daughter of singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to prominence in the mid-1970s, with the release of her debut ...

and

Nat King Cole Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, alternatively billed as Nat "King" Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor. Cole's career as a jazz and Traditional pop, pop ...

's "

Unforgettable Unforgettable may refer to: Film * ''Unforgettable'' (1996 film), a thriller starring Ray Liotta * ''Unforgettable'' (2014 film), a Bollywood film * ''Unforgettable'' (2016 film), a South Korean film * ''Unforgettable'' (2017 film), an America ...

", and one year later once more for

's album '' Here's to Life''. In 2004, Mandel arranged

's album '' The Art of Romance''. Bennett and Mandel had collaborated before on Bennett's '' The Movie Song Album'' (1966), for which Mandel arranged and conducted his songs "Emily" and "The Shadow of Your Smile", and was also the album's musical director. ''Johnny Mandel, A Man and His Music'', featuring The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and vocalist Ann Hampton Callaway was recorded live at

Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz at Lincoln Center is an organization based in New York City. Part of Lincoln Center, the organization was founded in 1987 and opened at Time Warner Center (now Deutsche Bank Center) in October 2004. The organization seeks to “represent th ...

's Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola in May 2010, and released by Arbors Records in March 2011.DIVA: Sherrie Maricle
Retrieved February 10, 2014. In 2012, he worked on one of

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

's most recent songs at the time, "My Valentine". He provided the song with a new and original arrangement. It appeared on McCartney's expanded version of his album '' Kisses on the Bottom'' in November of that year.

Personal life, death and honors

Mandel married Lois Lee in 1959, and Martha Blanner in 1972, and had a daughter, Marissa, born in 1976. Mandel was also the cousin of fellow film composer

Miles Goodman Elliott Miles Goodman (August 27, 1948 – August 16, 1996) was an American composer for television and film. He frequently collaborated with film director Frank Oz, for whom Goodman scored such films as '' Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'' (1988), ' ...

. Mandel was awarded an honorary doctorate from

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

in 1993. He was inducted to the

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work represent and maintain the heri ...

in 2010. He was a recipient of the 2011 NEA Jazz Masters Award. He subsequently received The Grammy Trustees Award in 2018, which is awarded by The Recording Academy to "individuals who, during their careers in music, have made significant contributions, other than performance, to the field of recording". Mandel died on June 29, 2020, at his home in

Ojai, California Ojai ( ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara, California, Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east– ...

. He was 94, and suffered from a heart ailment.

Selected works

Compositions

* "A Christmas Love Song" (lyrics by Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman) * " Close Enough for Love" (lyrics by Paul Williams) * " Emily" (lyrics by

Johnny Mercer John Herndon Mercer (November 18, 1909 – June 25, 1976) was an American lyricist, songwriter, and singer, as well as a record label executive who co-founded Capitol Records with music industry businessmen Buddy DeSylva and Wallichs Music Cit ...

) * "Little Did I Dream" (lyrics by David Frishberg) * " The Shadow of Your Smile" (lyrics by Paul Francis Webster) * " Suicide Is Painless" (lyrics by Mike Altman) * "Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams" (lyrics by Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman) * "A Time for Love" (lyrics by Paul Francis Webster) * "Where Do You Start?" (lyrics by Alan Bergman & Marilyn Bergman) * "You Are There" (lyrics by Dave Frishberg) * "The Moon Song" (aka "Solitary Moon")

Arrangements

* 1956: '' Hoagy Sings Carmichael'' by

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor, author and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s, a ...

* 1960 '' Jo + Jazz'' by

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical tr ...

* 1960: ''

Ring-a-Ding-Ding! ''Ring-a-Ding-Ding!'' is the twentieth studio album by Frank Sinatra, released on May 7, 1961. It was the inaugural record on Sinatra's Reprise label and, as the initial concept was "an album without ballads", it consisted only of uptempo swi ...

'' by

* 1962: '' I Dig the Duke! I Dig the Count!'' by

Mel Tormé Melvin Howard Tormé (September 13, 1925 – June 5, 1999), nicknamed "the Velvet Fog", was an American musician, singer, composer, arrangement, arranger, drummer, actor, and author. He composed the music for "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts Roa ...

* 1966: " Emily" and " The Shadow of Your Smile" from '' The Movie Song Album'' by

* 1975: "

Mirrors A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...

" by

* 1979: "Coolsville" and "Company" from

Rickie Lee Jones Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. Over the course of a career that spans five decades and 15 studio albums, she has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, pop, soul, an ...

* 1981: "Velas" from '' The Dude'' by

* 1991: "

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, ...

", "

Smile A smile is a facial expression formed primarily by flexing the muscles at the sides of the mouth. Some smiles include a contraction of the muscles at the corner of the eyes, an action known as a Duchenne smile. Among humans, a smile expresses d ...

", " Lush Life", " That Sunday That Summer", " Too Young", " Our Love is Here to Stay", "

" from '' Unforgettable... with Love'' by

* 1992: '' Here's to Life'' by

* 1992: "God Bless the Child" and "Body and Soul" from ''In Tribute'' by Diane Schuur * 1992: '' The Christmas Album'' by Manhattan Transfer * 1993: " Will You Be There" by

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

* 1995: ''Pearls'' by

David Sanborn David William Sanborn (July 30, 1945 – May 12, 2024) was an American alto saxophonist. He worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age o ...

* 1999: '' When I Look in Your Eyes'' by

Diana Krall Diana Jean Krall (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, including over six million in the US. On December 11, 2009, ''Billboard (magazi ...

* 2001: '' You're My Thrill'' by Shirley Horn * 2003: " Summer Wind" ," That's All (1952 song)" by Michael Buble * 2004: '' The Art of Romance'' by Tony Bennett * 2009: '' Love Is the Answer'' by

Filmography

Johnny Mandel composed and/or arranged music for the following motion pictures or television programs: * 1958: '' I Want to Live!'' * 1960: '' The 3rd Voice'' * 1961: '' The Lawbreakers'' * 1963: '' Drums of Africa'' * 1964: '' The Americanization of Emily'' * 1965: '' The Sandpiper'' * 1965: '' Mister Roberts'' (TV series; 1 episode) * 1966: '' Harper'' * 1966: '' An American Dream'' * 1966: '' The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming'' * 1966: '' Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre'' (TV series; 2 episodes) * 1967: '' Point Blank'' * 1968: '' Pretty Poison'' * 1969: '' Heaven with a Gun'' * 1969: '' That Cold Day in the Park'' * 1969: '' Some Kind of a Nut'' * 1970: '' M*A*S*H'' * 1970: '' The Man Who Had Power Over Women'' * 1972: '' M*A*S*H'' (TV series) * 1972: '' Journey Through Rosebud'' * 1972: '' Molly and Lawless John'' * 1973: '' The Last Detail'' * 1973: '' Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams'' * 1974: '' W'' * 1975: '' Escape to Witch Mountain'' * 1976: '' Freaky Friday'' * 1976: '' The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea'' * 1979: '' Agatha'' * 1979: ''

'' * 1979: '' The Baltimore Bullet'' * 1980: '' Too Close for Comfort'' (TV series; 2 episodes) * 1980: '' Caddyshack'' * 1982: '' Deathtrap'' * 1982: '' Lookin' to Get Out'' * 1982: ''

The Verdict ''The Verdict'' is a 1982 American legal drama film directed by Sidney Lumet and written by David Mamet, adapted from Barry Reed's 1980 novel of the same name. The film stars Paul Newman as a down-on-his-luck alcoholic lawyer in Boston who acc ...

'' * 1986: ''

Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearance ...

'' (TV series; 1 episode) * 1989: '' Brenda Starr''

Discography

* 1953: '' Dance Session'' with Count Basie ( Clef) * 1966: ''Quietly There'', Bill Perkins Quintet ( Riverside) * 1958: ''A Sure Thing: David Allen Sings Jerome Kern'' ( Pacific Jazz) * 2011: ''Johnny Mandel, A Man and His Music'', with The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and Ann Hampton Callaway ( Arbors)

References

External links

* * * *
Interview with Marc Myers
at JazzWax
Alumni of Distinction
at New York Military Academy archives page
NAMM Oral History Interview
August 26, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mandel, Johnny 1925 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American composers 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male musicians Best Original Song Academy Award–winning songwriters American film score composers American male film score composers American male songwriters American music arrangers American television composers Composers from New York City Grammy Award winners Jewish American film score composers Jewish American songwriters Jewish American television composers American male television composers New York Military Academy alumni Songwriters from New York (state) NEA Jazz Masters