Reg Tilsley
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Reginald Longueville Tilsley (16 August 192615 October 1987) was a British composer, arranger, and conductor born at
Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...
. He was a prolific composer of
library music Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libraries. Backgrou ...
, whose work has been featured in various films and television programmes.


Life

Tilsley the son of composer Harry Tilsley, co-writer of "Lady of Spain". He was a chorister at Westminster Abbey before attending the
London College of Music London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London. History LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at ...
. He later studied conducting in Stuttgart under Polish composer Jerzy Gert. After serving in the
Second World War 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 joined the Leslie Douglas Orchestra as pianist-arranger before forming his own orchestral group. In later years he moved to
Westport, County Mayo Westport (, historically anglicised as ''Cahernamart'') is a town in County Mayo in Republic of Ireland, Ireland.Westport Before 1800 by Michael Kelly published in Cathair Na Mart 2019 It is at the south-east corner of Clew Bay, an inlet of the ...
,
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
where he lived with his wife Maisie. He was also a regular conductor with the RTE Concert Orchestra.


Career

Tilsley principally composed production music for the library of De Wolfe Music. Many of his titles were used as themes in television programmes from the 1970s onwards. De Wolfe also licensed albums of Tilsley's music for commercial use. Tilsley released several
easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...
albums for the domestic market, principally on
Fontana Records Fontana Records is a record label that started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. Fontana Distribution, an independent label distributor, takes its name from the label. History Fontana began in the 1950s as a subsidi ...
. He was arranger and/or orchestral conductor on albums by Roberto Cardinali,
Ruby Murray Ruby Florence Murray (29 March 1935 – 17 December 1996) was a Northern Irish singer. One of the most popular singers in Britain and Ireland in the 1950s, she scored ten hits in the UK Singles Chart between 1954 and 1959. She also made pop ch ...
and Johnnie Gray. In the 1960s he also arranged music on albums by
The Pretty Things ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...
and
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich are an English rock band active during the 1960s. Formed in Salisbury in 1964, the band consisted of David Harman (Dave Dee), Trevor Ward-Davies (Dozy), John Dymond (Beaky), Michael Wilson (Mick) and Ian Ame ...
. He collaborated several times with Cliff Twemlow.


Film

Tilsley was the conductor and composer for the soundtracks of the 1968 film ''Love in Our Time'' and the 1969 films ''
The Body Stealers ''The Body Stealers'', also known as ''Invasion of the Body Stealers'' and ''Thin Air'', is a 1969 British science fiction film directed by Gerry Levy, and starring George Sanders and Maurice Evans. Two investigators uncover an alien plot to st ...
'', '' What's Good for the Goose'', and '' Horror House''. His compositions continue to be used in films, most notably "Chianti Country" in '' Letters to Juliet'' (2010) and "Super Diana" in '' Laggies'' (2014). As uncredited stock music, his song "We Are The Champions" was featured in '' Dawn of the Dead'' (1978).


Television

"Hold the Road" was used as the theme music for ''The Eight O'Clock Movie'' on New York television station
WPIX WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City, serving as the ''de facto'' flagship of The CW Television Network. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, the station is operated by CW majority owner Nexstar Media Group under a local market ...
from 1975 to 1980. A modified version of "Slow Moody Blues" was used as the title music of ''
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'' is an American adult animated television sitcom created by Michael Ouweleen and Erik Richter for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim. The first season of ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney ...
''. "Summer Convertible" was used as the title music of the English language learning programme '' Follow Me!'' As uncredited stock music, "Return to Summer" was featured in ''
The Benny Hill Show ''The Benny Hill Show'' is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill that aired on the BBC and ITV between 15 January 1955 and 1 May 1989. The show consisted mainly of sketch comedy, sketches typified by slapstick, mime, parody, and ...
'' as well as two episodes of ''
Breaking Bad ''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan for AMC (TV channel), AMC. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Breaking Bad), Walter White (Bryan Cran ...
''. Tilsley's music has been used in commercials such as th
Magnavox 'Total Automatic Color' TV commercial
using the song "Soft Spectrum" from ''Tilsley Orchestral No. 4''. Other companies which have used his work in commercials include Mobil, Carnation Milk, and Lunn-Poly. An edited version of "Diffusion" was used by Mississippi ETV (now Mississippi Public Broadcasting) for their
production logo A production logo, studio logo, vanity card, vanity plate, or vanity logo is a logo used by Film studio, movie studios and television production company, production companies to brand what they produce and to determine the production company an ...
from 1979 to 1984.


Sampling

Tilsley's song "Warlock" has been sampled by artists such as
KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from the Bronx. He rose to prominence as part of the ...
and
Cam'ron Cameron Ezike Giles (born February 4, 1976), known Mononym, mononymously as Cam'ron, is an American rapper. Beginning his career in the early 1990s as Killa Cam, Giles signed with Lance Rivera, Lance "Un" Rivera's Lance Rivera, Untertainment, a ...
, and in the song "We Made It" by
Drake Drake may refer to: Animals and creatures * A male duck * Drake (mythology), a term related to and often synonymous with dragon People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family ...
and
Soulja Boy DeAndre Cortez Way (born July 28, 1990), known professionally as Soulja Boy (formerly Soulja Boy Tell 'Em), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to prominence with his self-released 2007 debut single, "Crank That ...
.https://www.whosampled.com/Reg-Tilsley-Orchestra/Warlock/


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tilsley, Reg 1926 births 1987 deaths Musicians from London People from Croydon Musicians from Surrey 20th-century English composers Easy listening musicians English film score composers English male film score composers