Henri René (born Harold Manfred Kirchstein; December 29, 1906 – April 25, 1993), was an American musician who had an international career in the recording industry as a producer, composer, conductor and arranger.

Early years

Born in New York City of a German father and a French mother, young Harold traveled to Germany with his family where he studied at the

Royal Berlin Academy of Music The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

Artistic career

Returning to the U.S. in the mid-1920s, he began appearing with several orchestras. Some time after these experiences, he returned once more to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, working as a composer in the German film industry, and as an arranger with a German

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 ...

. While touring Europe with his band some years before the war, he was appointed musical director of the two largest moving picture firms in Europe, Tobis and

UFA Ufa ( ba, Өфө , Öfö; russian: Уфа́, r=Ufá, p=ʊˈfa) is the largest city and capital of Bashkortostan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Belaya and Ufa rivers, in the centre-north of Bashkortostan, on hills forming the ...

. In 1936, René returned to the U.S. and became musical director and chief arranger for

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

, forming his own orchestra in 1941. As instrumentalist, Rene played the piano, saxophone, and Musette accordion. He was responsible for the original "Beer Barrel Polka" disk, which played an important role in the development of the music machine to its present status as a powerful entertainment medium. Shortly after returning to the USA, he began recording regularly for Standard and became its No. 1 artist, his disks selling in quantities comparable to those of the largest commercial dance bands. Among his most successful records have been "Cuckoo Waltz," "Waltzing on the Kalamazoo," "Tap the Barrel Dry," "Pete, the Pickelman" and "Tommy's Mustache." After service with the Allies in

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 resumed working for RCA Victor as a conductor and arranger. Henri Rene's recording of the Milton Delugg composition "Roller Coaster" was used as the closing theme for the

Goodson-Todman Productions Mark Leo Goodson (January 14, 1915 – December 18, 1992) was an American television producer who specialized in game shows, most frequently with his business partner Bill Todman, with whom he created Goodson-Todman Productions. Early life and e ...

panel show

What's My Line? ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent U.S. revivals. The game uses celebrity panelis ...

from the early 1950s until its cancellation in 1967. In the mid 1950s, he issued several successful LPs which

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

has called "forerunners of the space-age pop aesthetic"; among the albums were ''Music for Bachelors'', ''Music for the Weaker Sex'', ''Compulsion to Swing'' and ''Riot in Rhythm''. Rene composed music themes and scores for several popular television series.Henri René at IMDb
Retrieved March 14, 2013 After this René worked in production for RCA Victor, with

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing ...

, the

Ames Brothers The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet, consisting of four siblings from Malden, Massachusetts, who were particularly famous in the 1950s for their traditional pop music hits. Biography The Urick brothers were born in Malden, Massachusetts. ...

and

Eartha Kitt Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Ba ...

among others. He left RCA Victor in 1959 to work

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

for the rest of his active career.

Honours

For his contributions to the

recording industry A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

, René has a Star at 1610 Vine Street on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...

Selected filmography

* ''

Men Without a Fatherland ''Men Without a Fatherland'' (german: Menschen ohne Vaterland) is a 1937 German drama film directed by Herbert Maisch and starring Willy Fritsch, Maria von Tasnady and Willy Birgel.Richards p. 371 The film's sets were designed by the art directo ...

'' (1937) * '' Togger'' (1937)

References

External links

Henri René at IMDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rene, Henri 1906 births American male conductors (music) Record producers from New York (state) American television composers RCA Victor artists Imperial Records artists A&R people 1993 deaths 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American composers American people of French descent American people of German descent 20th-century American businesspeople American expatriates in Germany 20th-century American male musicians Goldene Sieben members