Home » Jazz Musicians » Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, tune writer, and arranger. He was perhaps best known for composing the theme music for the Batman television series of the 1960s, and for scoring the 1968 film The Odd Couple and the subsequent TV series of the same name.

He began arranging professionally in his teens, when he wrote charts for Nat Towles. He became a prominent composer and arranger while playing trumpet for Woody Herman; while working for Herman he provided new arrangements for "Woodchopper's Ball" and "Blowin' Up a Storm," and composed "The Good Earth" and "Wild Root." After leaving Herman's band in 1946, Hefti concentrated on arranging and composing, although he occasionally led his own bands. He is especially known for his charts for Count Basie such as "Li'l Darlin'" and "Cute".


Obituary

As the actors Adam West and Burt Ward slid down to the Batcave during the title sequence of the twice-weekly 1960s series Batman, they emerged as Batman and Robin to the accompaniment of one of the best-known television themes of all. Built around a simple 12-bar blues, Neal Hefti’s “Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na Batman!” theme was sung in school playgrounds across the world, and became the most-recorded song of 1966.

Hefti was a brilliant composer and arranger who created the scores for many other television shows and films, notably the two Neil Simon movies The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park. His score for Harlow included the song Girl Talk which has become a jazz standard.

Away from the world of Hollywood Hefti will be remembered as the man who shaped the sound of the postwar Count Basie Orchestra, and who also produced dozens of skilful, well-crafted arrangements for Woody Herman and Harry James.

Born in Hastings, Nebraska, Hefti was a child of the jazz age, and because his mother was a music teacher, he started piano lessons at the age of 3, becoming well-versed in theory and harmony by the time he took up the trumpet at 11. After winning several school prizes, he was to start making his living as a jazz trumpeter in the big bands of Charlie Barnet and Charlie Spivak.

He was already writing arrangements, having taught himself by trial and error in high school. He was supplying local dance bands with music well before he graduated.

After travelling to California with Spivak to make a film, Hefti stayed on the West Coast, joining Woody Herman’s band in 1944. Although he played in the trumpet section, this was when his arranging began to take precedence over his playing.

Read more

Tags

Video / DVD

Neal Hefti at the Movies

Neal Hefti at the Movies

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Like Henry Mancini, arranger-composer Neal Hefti turned to the movies for work in the 1960s and beyond. Best known in the '50s for updating the swing of Count Basie's band, Hefti wrote movie scores in the '60s that were distinctly jaunty, jovial and wistful They crystallized the young-adult mood of those years. He knew how to write simple, catchy melodies and bring strings together with horns and reeds in a way that kept the music hip and light. [Photo above ...

2

Recording

Harry James Plays Neal Hefti

Harry James Plays Neal Hefti

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

By my count, there were four big-band albums that paid tribute to the pen of composer-arranger Neal Hefti between 1957 and 1961: Steve Allen Plays Neal Hefti (1957), Basie Plays Hefti (1958), Frank Capp's Percussion in a Tribute to Neal Hefti (1960) and Harry James Plays Hefti (1961). Or put differently, Hefti composed and arranged for four major bandleaders and had enough star power to get equal billing on the cover.   The Allen album is a smooth swinger; the Basie ...

1

Recording

Neal Hefti: The Band Years

Neal Hefti: The Band Years

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Hearing Neal Hefti: Forever in Time, a newly released double-CD from the U.K.'s Jasmine label, reminded me how superb Hefti was in the 1950s as a composer, arranger and conductor of his own studio orchestras. Most of these dates were of the jazz-pop, dance-band ilk, with an emphasis on clever melodic hooks, patient swing and sectional punch. And the musicians in the bands he assembled for recording were the cream of the studio scene. For example, on Hefti Hot 'N ...

100

TV / Film

Neal Hefti: The Movie Years

Neal Hefti: The Movie Years

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Even among the giants of the orchestra business, Neal Hefti was special. Over just three decades, the composer-arrangerturned out masterful bop, swing and film charts with a distinctly jaunty and jovial feel. In the 1940s, his Repetition (1947) for Norman Granz and his bop charts for Harry James' band in 1949 are perfect examples. In the 1950s, his Verve and Roulette arrangements for Count Basie re-imagined the famed swing band—dropping a new, sportier, finger-snapping engine into the orchestra's instrumental chasis. ...

230

Recording

Marc Hoffman Channels Neal Hefti for Tribute Single

Marc Hoffman Channels Neal Hefti for Tribute Single

Source: blueplate pr

CHARLOTTE, NC -- Ahead of the release of his remixed and remastered CD Curioso, North Carolina jazz composer/performer Marc Hoffman has released a single entitled “Hefti" that's dedicated to Neal Hefti, the popular composer and arranger most people remember for the “Odd Couple," “Batman," and “Barefoot in the Park" theme songs.

Hoffman studied film composition under Neal Hefti at the University of Southern California. And like much of Hefti's more popular tunes, Hoffman's “Hefti" is light and effervescent, with a ...

179

Obituary

Neal Hefti is Gone

Neal Hefti is Gone

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

The last thing I want is for Rifftides to become a death watch. Nonetheless, as James Moody says his grandmother once told him, “Folks is dyin' what ain't never died before." Or, to use Bill Crow's words in the subject line of a message today about the arranger, composer and former trumpet player Neal Nefti, “The parade continues."

Hefti died at home in the Toluca Lake community of Los Angeles on Saturday, the same day and a few miles from ...

232

Obituary

Neal Hefti Former Big Band Trumpeter, Arranger and Composer Dies

Neal Hefti  Former Big Band Trumpeter, Arranger and Composer Dies

Source: Michael Ricci

Neal Hefti, a former big band trumpeter, arranger and composer who worked with Woody Herman and Count Basie and later composed the memorable themes for the movie “The Odd Couple" and the campy hit TV series “Batman," has died. He was 85. Hefti died Saturday at his home in Toluca Lake, said his son, Paul. He did not know the cause of death, but said his father had been in good health. Everybody in the music business loved Neal Hefti. ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Neal Hefti Jazz Pops

Collector's Choice Music
2007

buy

Batman Theme / The...

Present Eye Music
1989

buy

Barefoot In The Park

Higher Octave Music
1967

buy

Definitely Hefti!

Higher Octave Music
1967

buy

Lord Love A Duck...

Present Eye Music
1966

buy

Lord Love A Duck

Higher Octave Music
1966

buy

Videos

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.