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Joe Harnell (b. August 2, 1924, The Bronx
The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the Five Boroughs of New York City and the newest of the 62 Administrative divisions of New York#county of New York State....
, New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 - July 14, 2005, Sherman Oaks, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
) was an American easy listening
Easy listening

Easy listening music is a style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the mid-20th century, evolving out of Swing music and big band music, and related to Beautiful music and Light music....
 composer and arranger.

His father was a vaudeville
Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a genre of a variety show prevalent on the theatre in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. It developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrel show, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque....
 performer who also played in jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 and klezmer
Klezmer

Klezmer is a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism. Around the 15th century, a tradition of secular Jewish music was developed by musicians called klezmorim or kleyzmurim....
 ensembles. Harnell began playing piano at age six and was performing in his father's ensembles by age 14. He attended the University of Miami
University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida, Florida, United States, a historic suburb of Miami, Florida....
 on a music scholarship in the early 1940s, and in 1943 joined the Air Force, playing with Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller , was an United States jazz musician, arranger, composer, and band leader in the Swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best known "Big band"....
's Air Force Band.






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Joe Harnell (b. August 2, 1924, The Bronx
The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the Five Boroughs of New York City and the newest of the 62 Administrative divisions of New York#county of New York State....
, New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 - July 14, 2005, Sherman Oaks, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
) was an American easy listening
Easy listening

Easy listening music is a style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the mid-20th century, evolving out of Swing music and big band music, and related to Beautiful music and Light music....
 composer and arranger.

His father was a vaudeville
Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a genre of a variety show prevalent on the theatre in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. It developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrel show, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque....
 performer who also played in jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 and klezmer
Klezmer

Klezmer is a musical tradition which parallels Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism. Around the 15th century, a tradition of secular Jewish music was developed by musicians called klezmorim or kleyzmurim....
 ensembles. Harnell began playing piano at age six and was performing in his father's ensembles by age 14. He attended the University of Miami
University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 in the city of Coral Gables, Florida, Florida, United States, a historic suburb of Miami, Florida....
 on a music scholarship in the early 1940s, and in 1943 joined the Air Force, playing with Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller

Alton Glenn Miller , was an United States jazz musician, arranger, composer, and band leader in the Swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best known "Big band"....
's Air Force Band. He studied with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger was an influential French composer, conducting, and music professor. An outstanding music educator at the highest level, she taught many of the most important composers and conductors of the 20th century....
 when stationed in Paris
Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
 and then under William Walton
William Walton

Sir William Turner Walton Order of Merit was a United Kingdom composer and Conductor .His style was influenced by the works of Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev as well as jazz music, and is characterized by rhythmic vitality, bittersweet harmony, sweeping Romantic music melody and brilliant orchestration....
 at Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music

Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatory, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is housed in the elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital , designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren....
 in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
. After his discharge in 1946, he studied at Tanglewood
Tanglewood

Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox, Massachusetts and Stockbridge, Massachusetts and is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival....
 under Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American classical music composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist. Instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, he was widely known as "the dean of American composers." Copland's music achieved a balance between modernism music and American folk styles....
 and Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein

Leonard Bernstein was a multi-Emmy-winning and Academy Award for Original Music Score nominated American Conductor , composer, author, music lecturer and Piano....
.

Eschewing the art-music world, Harnell sought work in pop and jazz, working as a for-hire pianist after returning to New York City
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 in 1950. He played in Lester Lanin
Lester Lanin

Lester Lanin was an American jazz and pop music bandleader.Lanin's brothers, Sam Lanin and Howard Lanin, were also both bandleaders; they came from a family of ten born to a family of Russians - Jewish immigrants....
's band at this time and found work as an accompanist for singers such as Judy Garland
Judy Garland

Judy Garland was an American actress and alto singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years, Garland attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage....
, Maurice Chevalier
Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Auguste Chevalier was a French actor, singer, and popular entertainer. Chevalier's signature songs included "Louise", "Mimi", and "Valentine"....
, and Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich ; was a German-born American actress, singer and entertainer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself....
. From 1958 to 1961, he was Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an United States jazz and traditional pop singer and songwriter and Academy Award-nominated actress. She was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota....
's full-time accompanist and arranger for the albums Anything Goes:Cole Porter and Peggy Lee & the George Shearing Quartet. In 1962, he was hurt in a car crash, and while he recovered, Kapp Records
Kapp Records

Kapp Records was a record label started in 1955 in music by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp . Kapp licensed its records to London Records for release in the UK....
 asked him to work on writing potential hits in the then-hot genre of bossa nova
Bossa nova

Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music popularized by Ant?nio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes and Jo?o Gilberto. Bossa nova acquired a large following, initially by young musicians and college students....
. Harnell's biggest success was with his arrangement of Fly Me to the Moon
Fly Me to the Moon

"Fly Me to the Moon" is a pop standard song written by Bart Howard in 1954. When introduced by Felicia Sanders on the cabaret circuit, it was originally titled "In Other Words"....
, which was a hit in the US in 1963 (#14 Pop
Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard Single popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on airplay and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the airplay tracking-week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday....
, #4 AC) and which won a Grammy Award
Grammy Award

The Grammy Awards ?or Grammys?are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry....
 for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. The song also peaked at #6 in Joe's hometown, on WMCA
WMCA

WMCA, 570 AM broadcasting, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio radio format....
 in New York, on January 16, 1963. The album from which it was taken went to #3 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200

The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling Albums and extended play in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine....
. Harnell would go on to release nearly 20 easy listening albums, on Kapp
Kapp Records

Kapp Records was a record label started in 1955 in music by David Kapp, brother of Jack Kapp . Kapp licensed its records to London Records for release in the UK....
, Columbia
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
, and Motown
Motown Records

Motown Records is a record label originally based in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. on January 12, 1959 as Tamla Records, the company was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960....
 among others.

Starting in 1964, Harnell worked with Gray Advertising as a jingle
Jingle

A jingle is a memorable slogan, set to an engaging melody, mainly Broadcasting on radio and sometimes on television commercials.History ...
 writer, and from 1967 to 1973 he worked as musical director of The Mike Douglas Show
The Mike Douglas Show

The Mike Douglas Show was an United States daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that ran from 1961 to 1982....
. In 1973 Harnell moved to Hollywood and worked in film score
Film score

A film score is a broad term referring to the music in a film, which is generally categorically separated from songs used within a film. The term Soundtrack is often confused with film score, though a soundtrack may also include songs featured in the film as well as previously released music by other artists, while the score does...
 and television composition, composing for The Bionic Woman
The Bionic Woman

The Bionic Woman is an United States Television program which spin-off from The Six Million Dollar Man. It starred Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers , a tennis professional who was nearly killed in a Parachuting accident, and was rebuilt by Oscar Goldman and Dr....
, The Incredible Hulk, Alien Nation
Alien Nation (TV series)

Alien Nation is a science fiction television series, loosely based on Alien Nation . Gary Graham starred as Detective Matthew Sikes, a Los Angeles, California police officer reluctantly working with Tenctonese alien George Francisco , played by Eric Pierpoint....
, and V
V (The Original Miniseries)

V is a two-part science fiction television miniseries, written and directed by Kenneth Johnson . First shown in 1983, it launched V concerning aliens known as "The Visitors" trying to take over Earth....
, for which he was awarded an Emmy in 1986. Following this he became a faculty member at USC
University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private university, nonsectarian, research university located in the University Park, Los Angeles, California neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, California, United States....
's Flora Thornton School of Music as an instructor in film score composition.

Harnell published an autobiography
Autobiography

An autobiography is a biography written by its subject . The term was first used by the poet Robert Southey in 1809 in the English language Periodical publication Quarterly Review, but the form goes back to antiquity....
 entitled Counterpoint in 2000, co-authored with television producer/director Ira Skutch, and died of heart failure on July 14, 2005.

Joe Harnell's son, Jess Harnell
Jess Harnell

Jess Q. Harnell , is an United States voice actor, best known for voicing Yakko, Wakko, and Dot on Animaniacs and Hunter on Road Rovers....
 is a talented voice actor, and is best known for his work as the voice of Wakko Warner on the Steven Spielberg produced animated hit, "The Animaniacs."

External links