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 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

with his family, where he studied at the Royal Berlin Academy of Music.

Artistic career

Returning to the U.S. in the mid-1920s, he appeared with several orchestras. After this, he returned once more to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

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

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

. 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. 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 owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic ...

, forming his own orchestra in 1941. As instrumentalist, René 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he resumed working for RCA Victor as a conductor and arranger. Henri René's recording of the

Milton Delugg Milton Delugg (December 2, 1918 – April 6, 2015) was an American musician, composer and arranger. Early years Milton Delugg was born in Los Angeles, California. He said, "There aren't any Deluggs. It's not a real name." He believed the family' ...

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 show, panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent American revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists ...

'' 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 database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

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''. René 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 – April 25, 2023) was an American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who popularized calypso music with international audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. Belafonte ...

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987 ...

, the

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

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

and

Dinah Shore Dinah Shore (born Frances Rose Shore; February 29, 1916 – February 24, 1994) was an American singer, actress, television personality, and the chart-topping female vocalist of the 1940s. She rose to prominence as a recording artist during the ...

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 landmark which consists of 2,813 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in the Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood dist ...

Selected filmography

* '' Men Without a Fatherland'' (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