Ray Ellis (July 28, 1923 – October 27, 2008) was an American

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

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 orchest ...

, conductor, and saxophonist. He was responsible for the orchestration in

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

's '' Lady in Satin'' (1958).

Biography

Raymond Spencer Ellis was born 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. Since ...

. He arranged many hit records in the 1950s and 1960s. Included are classics such as "A Certain Smile" and "Wild is the Wind" by

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 ...

, "

Broken Hearted Melody "Broken Hearted Melody" is a popular song written by Hal David and Sherman Edwards. It was recorded by Sarah Vaughan and it became a hit for Vaughan, reaching No. 7 on ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1958. Background Hal David wrote the lyrics for "Bro ...

" by

Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer. Nicknamed "Sassy" and " The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, and was nominated for a total of nine Grammy Award ...

, and " Standing on the Corner" by

the Four Lads The Four Lads was a Canadian male singing quartet which, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, earned many gold singles and albums. Its million-selling signature tunes include " Moments to Remember"; " Standing on the Corner"; " No, Not Much"; "Who Nee ...

. In 1970, he produced

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, includin ...

' debut LP '' Gliding Bird''. Ellis' work encompassed all areas of music, from records to film, commercials, and television. In the early 1960s, Ellis had a contract to produce his own easy listening record albums with

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 A ...

, MGM, and

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

, the most popular probably being ''Ellis in Wonderland''. His television credits include

theme music 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 ...

for ''NBC News At Sunrise'' with

Connie Chung Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist. She has been an anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von B� ...

and the background and incidental music for the first season of the original ''

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the Si ...

'' cartoons.

NBC News Today

Ellis also composed two extended themes for ''

The Today Show ''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It ...

,'' the first in 1971. It was used as the Friday closing theme (and eventually the show's full-time theme) until the end of the decade. However, in ''Herald Square Music v. Living Music'', the District Court of the Southern District of New York "found the instrumental arrangement and harmonization of defendant's melody to be substantially similar to that of ' Day by Day,'" a Stephen Schwartz song from the musical ''

Godspell ''Godspell'' is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set to lyrics from traditional hym ...

''. As a result, Ellis composed a second ''Today Show'' theme based on the trademark

NBC chimes The NBC chimes are a sequence of three tones played on National Broadcasting Company (NBC) broadcasts. Originally developed in 1927 as seven notes, they were standardized to the current three-note version by the early 1930s, and possibly as early ...

. That theme was the NBC show's signature from 1978 to 1985 and has appeared irregularly on the morning program ever since.

Work with Filmation

Using the name of his wife "Yvette Blais" as a pseudonym, Ellis and

Norm Prescott Norman Prescott (January 31, 1927 – July 2, 2005) was co-founder and executive producer at Filmation Associates, an animation studio he created with veteran animator Lou Scheimer. Life and career Born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Bosto ...

, who used the pseudonym "Jeff Michael" after his sons Jeff and Michael) composed nearly all of the background music for cartoon studio

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and ...

from 1968 to 1982, according to DVD booklets for '' Ark II'', ''

Space Academy ''Space Academy'' is an American science fiction television series produced by Filmation that originally aired Saturday mornings on the CBS television network, from September 10 to December 17, 1977. (Repeats ran on and off until September 1, 1979 ...

'', and ''

Jason of Star Command ''Jason of Star Command'' is a 1978-1979 live action television series by Filmation. The series revolves around the exploits of space adventurer Jason (Craig Littler) and his colleagues, including Professor E.J. Parsafoot (Charlie Dell) and the ...

.'' Before adopting the pseudonym Yvette Blais, Ellis used "Spencer Raymond" on 1968's ''Fantastic Voyage,'' "George Blais" on some of Filmation's early '70s output and its feature films, and the name of his teenaged son Marc Ellis on 1969's ''The Hardy Boys.'' (Marc would later become a composer, assisting his father without credit on Filmation scores receiving credit for co-composing the theme to the 1979 ''

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established '' Buck Rogers'' adv ...

'' cartoon.) On 1978's ''

Fabulous Funnies ''Fabulous Funnies'' is a 1978–1979 American animated children's show produced for Saturday morning television by Filmation. The show aired for one season from September 9, 1978, to December 1, 1978, on NBC, airing 13 episodes. The show was ...

'', Ellis was credited as "Mark Jeffrey" (opposite Lou Scheimer under the pseudonym "David Jeffrey", which he occasionally used in the 1970s). However, Ray Ellis was credited with his real name for background music to ''

The Archie Show ''The Archie Show'' (also known as ''The Archies)'' is an American musical animated sitcom television series produced by Filmation for CBS. Based on the Archie Comics, created by Bob Montana in 1941, ''The Archie Show'' aired Saturday morning ...

'' and ''

Sabrina the Teenage Witch ''Sabrina the Teenage Witch'' is a comic book series published by Archie Comics about the adventures of a fictional American teenager named Sabrina Spellman. Sabrina was created by writer George Gladir and artist Dan DeCarlo, and first appeare ...

'', as well as '' Star Trek: The Animated Series'' in the early 1970s.

Game-show music

Ellis, who resided in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

, also composed the music for the 1980s US edition of ''

Sale of the Century ''Sale of the Century'' (stylized as ''$ale of the Century'') is an American television game show that originally debuted on September 29, 1969, on NBC daytime. It was one of three NBC game shows to premiere on that date, the other two being th ...

'' theme, along with '' Hot Streak'', ''

Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...

'', ''

Scattergories ''Scattergories'' is a creative-thinking category-based party game originally published by Parker Brothers in 1988. Parker Brothers was purchased by Hasbro a few years later, which published the game internationally under its Milton Bradley bra ...

'' and '' Time Machine'' with his son Marc Ellis, that includes the Jack Grimsley's score from 1980 and the famed Reg Grundy Productions fanfare at the end of each broadcast; he also composed the theme from the short-lived US version of '' Catch Phrase''.

Death

Ellis died of complications from

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

on October 27, 2008, at an assisted-living facility in Encino,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. He was survived by sons Marc and Jeffrey.

Selected discography

As arranger or conductor

* ''Mood Jazz'', Joe Castro (1956) * '' Lady in Satin'', Billie Holiday (1958) * ''Chris Connor Sings the George Gershwin Almanac of Song'',

Chris Connor Mary Jean Loutsenhizer, known professionally as Chris Connor (November 8, 1927 – August 29, 2009) was an American jazz singer. Biography Chris Connor was born Mary Loutsenhizer in Kansas City, Missouri, to Clyde Loutsenhizer and Mabel Shir ...

(1961) * '' The Third Album'', Barbra Streisand (1963) * ''

Soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

'', Lena Horne (1966) * ''There Is a Time,''

Liza Minnelli Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, dancer, and choreographer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli is among a rare group of performers awarded an Emmy, Grammy ...

(1966) * ''And I Love Him!'',

Esther Phillips Esther Phillips (born Esther Mae Jones; December 23, 1935 – August 7, 1984) was an American singer, best known for her R&B vocals.Santelli, Robert (2001). ''The Big Book of Blues: A Biographical Encyclopedia''. Penguin Books. p. 376. . She ...

(1965) * ''Seven Letters'',

Ben E. King Benjamin Earl King (né Nelson; September 28, 1938 – April 30, 2015) was an American soul and R&B singer and record producer. He is best known as the singer and co-composer of " Stand by Me"—a US Top 10 hit, both in 1961 and later ...

(1965) * '' Herbie Mann Plays The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd'', Herbie Mann (1965) * '' A Lazy Afternoon'', Harold Land (1995) * '' The Christmas Album'',

(2002)

References

External links

*
Ray Ellis Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (1997) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Ray 1923 births 2008 deaths American jazz composers American male jazz composers American jazz musicians American music arrangers Record producers from Pennsylvania Musicians from Philadelphia MGM Records artists Filmation people RCA Victor artists 20th-century jazz composers Deaths from melanoma Deaths from cancer in California American male conductors (music) 20th-century American composers Jazz musicians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians