Hal Borne (December 26, 1911,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, Illinois - February 25, 2000, Tarzana, California) was an American popular song

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

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 ...

leader,

music 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 orchestr ...

and

musical 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 di ...

, who studied music at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Uni ...

. He often collaborated with lyricists Sid Kuller and Ray Golden, including songs for the

Marx Brothers The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...

("Sing While You Sell") and Tony Martin ("Tenement Symphony"). At the beginning of his career Hal Borne worked for

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

as the

rehearsal A rehearsal is an activity in the performing arts that occurs as preparation for a performance in music, theatre, dance and related arts, such as opera, musical theatre and film production. It is undertaken as a form of practising, to ensure t ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

for

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

. He became a key musical contributor to the Fred Astaire-

Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...

musicals, arranging new

Jerome Kern Jerome David Kern (January 27, 1885 – November 11, 1945) was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in ove ...

and

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russ ...

songs; Hal Borne came up with the familiar three-note obbligato to Berlin's "

Cheek to Cheek "Cheek to Cheek" is a song written by Irving Berlin in 1934–35, specifically for the star of his new musical, Fred Astaire. The movie was ''Top Hat'', co-starring Ginger Rogers.

" ("Heaven... bbligatoI'm in heaven bbligato) in the 1935 film ''

Top Hat A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditional ...

''. In 1941 he collaborated with

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was bas ...

Paul Francis Webster Paul Francis Webster (December 20, 1907 – March 18, 1984) was an American lyricist who won three Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and was nominated sixteen times for the award. Life and career Webster was born in New York City, United St ...

and Kuller on the progressive all-black revue '' Jump for Joy'', which was supported by many

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywoo ...

liberals of the time, such as

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, singer, television star and vaudeville performer. He is generally considered to have been a master of quick wit an ...

Mickey Rooney Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...

, and

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

. Borne became a big-band orchestra leader and in February 1942 signed as the music director for RCM's

Soundies Soundies are three-minute American musical films, and each short displays a performance. The shorts were produced between 1940 and 1946 and have been referred to as "precursors to music videos" by UCLA. Soundies exhibited a variety of musical gen ...

(musical shorts filmed for

jukeboxes A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...

) for which his trio often provided backings. Borne joined

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

in 1942 and was one of the composers for Ray Golden's 1950 revue Alive and Kicking, featuring

Jack Cassidy John Joseph Edward Cassidy (March 5, 1927 – December 12, 1976), was an American actor, singer and theater director known for his work in the theater, television and films. He received multiple Tony Award nominations and a win, as well a ...

Bobby Van Robert Jack Stein (December 6, 1928 – July 31, 1980), known by his legalized stage name Bobby Van, was a musical actor and dancer, best known for his career on Broadway, in films and television from the 1950s through the 1970s. He was also a ...

and

Carl Reiner Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922 – June 29, 2020) was an American actor, stand-up comedian, director, screenwriter, and author whose career spanned seven decades. He was the recipient of many awards and honors, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, ...

and the debut of

Gwen Verdon Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (January 13, 1925October 18, 2000) was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for t ...

. For many years Borne was associated with Tony Martin and became his regular music director for live and TV appearances throughout the 1950s and 60s. In 1963 he composed most of the songs for the infamous first topless mainstream movie '' Promises! Promises!'', starring

Jayne Mansfield Jayne Mansfield (born Vera Jayne Palmer; April 19, 1933 – June 29, 1967) was an American actress, singer, nightclub entertainer, and ''Playboy'' Playmate. A sex symbol of the 1950s and early 1960s while under contract at 20th Century Fox, Man ...

and Marie ''(the Body)'' McDonald—not to be confused with the subsequent

Neil Simon Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 26, 2018) was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received mo ...

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gr ...

musical '' Promises, Promises''. His other film work included the scores to ''

The Explosive Generation ''The Explosive Generation'' is a 1961 film directed by Buzz Kulik. It stars William Shatner and Patty McCormack. Plot The story is about Peter Gifford, a teacher who wants to teach high school students to think for themselves and express themse ...

'' (1961), ''

Flight of the Lost Balloon ''Flight of the Lost Balloon'' is a 1961 film produced, written and directed by Nathan Juran and stars Mala Powers and Marshall Thompson. The film was inspired by Jules Verne's 1863 novel ''Five Weeks in a Balloon'' and beat the major Irwin All ...

'' (1961) and ''

Hillbillys in a Haunted House ''Hillbillys in a Haunted House'' is a 1967 American musical horror comedy film starring Ferlin Husky and Joi Lansing, and directed by Jean Yarbrough. The film is a sequel to '' The Las Vegas Hillbillys'' (1966), with Joi Lansing replacing Mamie V ...

'' (1967). He was celebrated for his piano improvisations and often jammed in duets with Ellington on the

spinet A spinet is a smaller type of harpsichord or other keyboard instrument, such as a piano or organ. Harpsichords When the term ''spinet'' is used to designate a harpsichord, typically what is meant is the ''bentside spinet'', described in this s ...

.Lax, David, ''One Man Show'', Washington Irving Gallery, 1976, p. 158 Among his many albums, he supported Marie McDonald for her 1957 musical foray ''"The Body Sings"''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borne, Hal 1911 births 2000 deaths Musicians from Chicago American male composers Music directors American music arrangers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians