Dick Jacobs (29 March 1918 – 20 May 1988) was an American

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

, conductor,

arranger 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 orches ...

orchestrator Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

music director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...

and an artists-and-repertoire director for several

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

s (

Coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

, Brunswick and Springboard). He helped

Jackie Wilson Jack Leroy Wilson Jr. (June 9, 1934 – January 21, 1984) was an American singer and performer of the 1950s and 60s. He was a prominent figure in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. Nicknamed "Mr. Excitement", he was considered a mas ...

Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...

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

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 or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, United States, and graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. During

World War II 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 opposin ...

he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, then returned to the city and spent several years arranging for

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-toned trombo ...

, then partnered with

Sy Oliver Melvin James "Sy" Oliver (December 17, 1910 – May 28, 1988) was an American jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader. Life Sy Oliver was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. His mother was a piano teacher, and his ...

to pursue freelance arranging work. When he was hired to be the musical director for the television series, ''

Your Hit Parade ''Your Hit Parade'' was an American radio and television music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1953 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During its 24-year r ...

'', for its 1957–58 season, he replaced most of the existing studio orchestra members with his own choices including

Dick Hyman Richard Hyman (born March 8, 1927) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Over a 70-year career, he has worked as a pianist, organist, arranger, music director, electronic musician, and composer. He was named a National Endowment for the Art ...

Don Lamond Donald Douglas Lamond Jr. (August 18, 1920 – December 23, 2003) was an American jazz drummer. Biography Born in Oklahoma City, Lamond attended the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore in the early 1940s, and played with Sonny Dunham and Boyd ...

Al Caiola Alexander Emil Caiola (September 7, 1920 – November 9, 2016) was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of ...

and

Jerome Richardson Jerome Richardson (November 15, 1920 – June 23, 2000) was an American jazz musician, tenor saxophonist, and flute player, who also played soprano sax, alto sax, baritone sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, alto flute and piccolo. He played with Ch ...

. 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 The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...

, including the

McGuire Sisters The McGuire Sisters were a singing trio in American popular music. The group was composed of three sisters: * Ruby Christine McGuire (July 30, 1926 – December 28, 2018) * Dorothy "Dottie" McGuire (February 13, 1928 – September 7, 2012) * Ph ...

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 A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

, the

theme tune Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

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 Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

. 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 is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

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: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l sound to a number of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or 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 Africa ...

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

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 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

*Coral 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 "Mambo No. 5" is an instrumental mambo and jazz dance song originally composed and recorded by Cuban musician Dámaso Pérez Prado in 1949 and released the next year. German singer Lou Bega sampled the original for a new song released under th ...

" / "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

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 The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...

. {{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