Albert W. Ham (February 6, 1925 in

Malden, Massachusetts Malden is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 66,263 people. History Malden, a hilly woodland area north of the Mystic River, was settled by Puritans in 1640 on ...

— October 4, 2001 in

Spring Hill, Florida Spring Hill is a census-designated place (CDP) in Hernando County, Florida, United States. The population was 113,568 at the 2020 census, up from 98,621 at the 2010 census. Spring Hill belongs to Florida's Nature Coast region and is in the T ...

) was an American composer and

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

writer. He was notable as the composer of the ''

Move Closer to Your World Move Closer to Your World (MCTYW) is a television news music package composed in 1970 by Walt LissSanders, Nancy (May 22, 2022)Walt Liss Co-Author of Famous News Theme and WKBW Exec Has passed ''Buffalo Broadcasters Association. Retrieved September ...

'' music package used since the 1970s on

WPVI-TV WPVI-TV (channel 6), branded on-air as 6 ABC, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the stati ...

Action News ''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...

broadcasts in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...

, and, most notably,

WKBW-TV WKBW-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. Owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, the station maintains studios at 7 Broadcast Plaza in downtown Buffalo and ...

Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...

, as well as on many other newscasts in the United States throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He was also notable as creator of the adult standards radio format ''

Music of Your Life Music of Your Life is an American syndicated music radio format featuring adult standards music. First created by recording executive Al Ham in 1978, the format achieved popularity in the 1980s among AM radio stations in the United States and C ...

''.

Biography

Ham began as bass player for

Artie Shaw Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led ...

when he was 17. While attending

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...

after

WWII 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 ...

, Ham

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

and played

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar ...

for the Tony Pastor Orchestra when the featured singers were

Rosemary Clooney Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song " Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as " Botch-a-Me", " Mambo Italiano" ...

and her sister Betty. When

Tex Beneke Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke ( ; February 12, 1914 – May 30, 2000) was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. Hi ...

re-formed the

Glenn Miller Orchestra Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was an American swing dance band formed by Glenn Miller in 1938. Arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, and three other saxophones playing harmony, the band became the most popular and c ...

, Ham joined as arranger and bass player, working with

Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini, ; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flautist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Award ...

, then on staff as arranger. While working for Beneke he met and married Mary Mayo, who was singing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. After the birth of their daughter Lorri, Ham and his wife moved to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...

in 1956 where he worked at

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

.German language Wikipedia entry for Mary Mayo He was named director of special

artists and repertoire Artists and repertoire (colloquially abbreviated to A&R) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists (singers, instrumentali ...

(A&R) projects under Mitch Miller and produced records for such artists as The Ray Conniff Singers, The

Ray Conniff Joseph Raymond Conniff (November 6, 1916 – October 12, 2002) was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s. Biography Conniff was born November 6, 1916 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, United St ...

Orchestra, Rosemary Clooney,

Vic Damone Vic Damone (born Vito Rocco Farinola; June 12, 1928 – February 11, 2018) was an American traditional pop and big band singer and actor. He was best known for his performances of songs such as the number one hit " You're Breaking My Heart", an ...

Percy Faith Percy Faith (April 7, 1908 – February 9, 1976) was a Canadian-American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with popularizing the " easy listen ...

Jerry Vale Jerry Vale (born Gennaro Louis Vitaliano; July 8, 1930 – May 18, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter and actor. During the 1950s and 1960s, he reached the top of the pop charts with his interpretations of romantic ballads, including a cover ...

Johnny Mathis John Royce Mathis (born September 30, 1935) is an American singer of popular music. Starting his career with singles of standard music, he became highly popular as an album artist, with several dozen of his albums achieving gold or platinum s ...

Johnnie Ray John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and blu ...

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, Kitty Callen,

Guy Mitchell Guy Mitchell (born Albert George Cernik; February 22, 1927 – July 1, 1999) was an American pop singer and actor, successful in his homeland, the UK, and Australia. He sold 44 million records, including six million-selling singles. In the fa ...

, The Kirby Stone Four,

Tony Bennett Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his bir ...

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, and Oscar Brown, Jr. He was also recording director for original cast albums, and produced LPs of such Broadway hits as ''West Side Story'', ''Most Happy Fella'', ''Gypsy'', ''House of Flowers'', and ''Bells are Ringing''. During his time as a producer at Columbia, Ham brought more to the studio than his knowledge of music and his natural intuition for recognizing hit material. He brought an electronic knowledge that resulted in many technical studio improvements and a "spatial" sound that he put to use when he helped to create the first

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

LPs issued by Columbia. He worked with Dr. Peter Goldmark, creator of the Long - Playing record, on special circuit projects that broke new ground for stereo,

multi-track recording Multi-track may refer to: * Multitrack recording, the process of mixing individual sound sources to a single recording * Multi-track diplomacy, a method of conflict resolution * Multi track, a process of civil litigation in England and Wales ** ...

s and broadcast signal processing. In the commercial field Al worked consistently as a composer and arranger. His commercials have won many awards for best musical theme and scoring, including CLIO Awards and four gold medal winners at the International Film and Television Festivals. As arranger, composer, or both, Al’s many commercials include

State Farm Insurance State Farm Insurance is a large group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. Overview State Farm is the largest property and casualty insurance provider, and the l ...

("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there."), Breck Shampoo, McDonald's (i.e. "You Deserve a Break Today"),

Gillette Gillette is an American brand of safety razors and other personal care products including shaving supplies, owned by the multi-national corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G). Based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was owned by The Gil ...

Kinney Shoes The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from until . Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, symbol KNN, began in March 1923. The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney whose father ran a genera ...

Woolco Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At ...

Kodak The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...

, and Scope. Al also composed, arranged, and conducted news and station image music packages that have been broadcast by scores of TV stations across the country. They include "Move Closer to Your World", "Part of Your Life", "Home Country", "Bringing it Home to You", and "On Top of It All". Al’s film credits include the score of the Electronovision version of ''

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upper ...

'', which produced the song "I Believed it All", (Written with Lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman). An Academy Award nomination for his superb adaptation and scoring of Warner Brothers’ ''

Stop the World – I Want to Get Off ''Stop the World – I Want to Get Off'' is a 1961 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. According to Oscar Levant, the play's title was derived from graffiti. Plot The show, set against a circus back ...

'', which he also conducted. And, a Grammy award for the "Best Spoken Word Recording" for his production of James Whitmore’s ''

Give 'em Hell, Harry! ''Give 'em Hell, Harry!'' is a biographical play and 1975 film, written by playwright Samuel Gallu. Both the play and film are a one-man show about former President of the United States Harry S. Truman. ''Give 'em Hell, Harry!'' stars James Whitm ...

'' on United Artists Records. Al also acted as programmer and associate producer for T.A.M.I. (Teenage Musical International) which featured performances by

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

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James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, dancer, musician, record producer and bandleader. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th century music, he is often referred to by the Honori ...

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Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo a ...

Lesley Gore Lesley Sue Goldstein (May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015), known professionally as Lesley Gore, was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. At the age of 16, she recorded the pop hit " It's My Party", a US number one in 1963. She ...

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, and many other popular music stars. The show was a front runner of the type of concert programming that is now standard TV fare. Ham’s additional musical credits include his arrangement and production of " I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing" by his group, the Hillside Singers (which included his wife Mary and daughter Lorri) for

Metromedia Records Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMon ...

, and the recordings he produced with his group The Midas Touch on MCA records. He also received a Grammy nomination for "Best Spoken Word Recording" for " Senator Sam at Home". In 1978, after years of research, Ham created the

radio format, which played on over 200 radio stations in the United States. His television news music packages were syndicated through his company, Mayoham Music. Ham passed away in October 2001 at the age of 76

News music packages written and composed by Al Ham

* Bringing It Home to You * Home Country * Move Closer to Your World * On Top of It All * Part of Your Life

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ham, Al 1925 births 2001 deaths American male songwriters American television composers Record producers from Massachusetts American jazz double-bassists Male double-bassists Columbia Records 20th-century American composers 20th-century double-bassists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians