Harry Randell Van Horne Jr. (February 10, 1924 – September 26, 2007) was an American singer and musician. Van Horne's musical group, the Randy Van Horne Singers, performed the

theme song 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 ...

s for many classic

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

cartoons including ''

The Flintstones ''The Flintstones'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighb ...

'', ''

Top Cat ''Top Cat'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and originally broadcast in prime time on the ABC network. It aired in a weekly evening time slot from September 27, 1961, to April 18, 1962, for a single season of ...

'', ''

The Jetsons ''The Jetsons'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It originally aired in prime time from September 23, 1962, to March 17, 1963, on ABC, then later aired in reruns via syndication, with new episodes produced f ...

'' and ''

The Huckleberry Hound Show ''The Huckleberry Hound Show'' is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and the second series produced by the studio following ''The Ruff and Reddy Show''. The show first aired in syndication on September 2 ...

''.

Early life

Harry Randell Van Horne Jr. was born on February 10, 1924, in

El Paso, Texas El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the county seat, seat of El Paso County, Texas, El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau w ...

. Van Horne dropped out of high school 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 ...

and enlisted 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 ...

. He returned to school after the war and attended the

Peabody Conservatory of Music The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, The Johns Hopkins University is a Private university, private music school, conservatory and College-preparatory school, preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and ...

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, Maryland, and the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

to study music. Van Horne married his first wife, Tanya Ingwersen, in the mid-1950s. They had one son, Mark. The marriage ended in divorce. He married and divorced three more times during his life.

Career

Randy Van Horne's career began in the late 1940s as a Los Angeles

studio musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

. He formed his first musical group, the Encores, in the early 1950s with three other musicians. The Encores broke up in the late 1950s. He went on to create the Randy Van Horne Singers in the late 1950s following the breakup of the Encores. Several members of the Randy Van Horne Singers would eventually become successful solo recording artists, such as

Marni Nixon Margaret Nixon McEathron (February 22, 1930 – July 24, 2016), known professionally as Marni Nixon, was an American soprano and ghost singer for featured actresses in musical films. She is now recognized as the singing voice of leading ac ...

. The group was known for its easy style of music and remained predominantly a studio musical group. However, the Randy Van Horne Singers did make occasional television performances, such as on ''The Nat King Cole Show'' in 1957. The group recorded the theme songs for several high-profile

cartoons, including ''

'' and ''

''. They were hired by Hanna-Barbera's music composer,

Hoyt Curtin Hoyt Stoddard Curtin (September 9, 1922 – December 3, 2000) was an American composer and music producer, the primary musical director for the Hanna-Barbera animation studio from its beginnings with ''The Ruff & Reddy Show'' in 1957 until his ret ...

, to complete the theme songs. However, the group also continued to record for

commercials A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

and radio station spots 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 ...

s. Many of the jingles were written by Randy Van Horne. The Randy Van Horne Singers also recorded several albums including ''Other Worlds Other Sounds'' in 1958 with

Juan García Esquivel Juan García Esquivel (January 20, 1918 – January 3, 2002), often known mononymously as Esquivel!, was a Mexican band leader, pianist, and composer for television and films. He is recognized today as one of the foremost exponents of a sophisti ...

, a Latin musician famous for his "

space age pop Space age pop is a subgenre of pop and easy listening music associated with Mexican and American composers and songwriters in the Space Age of the 1950s and 1960s. Also known as bachelor pad music or lounge music,''Pulse'' (Monthly music digest ...

" style of music, and the winter-themed LP ''Sleighride'' (1960, Everest). The Randy Van Horne Singers officially disbanded in the early 1970s but Van Horne reincarnated the group after 2000, which is led by Alan Wilson as of 2018. Van Horne continued to perform in clubs in the Los Angeles area. He also worked as the bandleader of a group called the Alumni Association, which was made up of musicians from the

Big Band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

era. Van Horne created a

symphonic suite A suite, in Western classical music and jazz, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes and grew in scope to comprise up to five dances, sometimes with ...

called ''The Running of the Bulls'', which premiered at

La Mirada La Mirada (Spanish for "The Look") is a city in southeast Los Angeles County, California United States, and is one of the Gateway Cities. The population was 48,527 at the 2010 census, up from 46,783 at the 2000 census. The La Mirada Theatre for ...

Civic Theatre in 1981.

Death

Randy Van Horne died of cancer at the

Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital The Motion Picture & Television Fund (MPTF) is a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to those in the motion picture and television industries and their families with limited or no resources, including services such as tempo ...

Woodland Hills, Los Angeles Woodland Hills is a neighborhood bordering the Santa Monica Mountains in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. Geography Woodland Hills is in the southwestern region of the San Fernando Valley, which is locate ...

, California, on September 26, 2007, at the age of 83.

References

External links

Boston Globe: Randy Van Horne; sang TV themes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Horne, Randy 1924 births 2007 deaths Musicians from El Paso, Texas American people of Dutch descent Hanna-Barbera people Theme music Peabody Institute alumni University of Texas at El Paso alumni Deaths from cancer in California United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II