1. Joe Harnell's father was a vaudeville performer who played in jazz and klezmer ensembles.
12 Facts About Joe Harnell
1. 2.
Joe Harnell began playing piano at age six and was performing in his father's ensembles by age 14.
3.
Joe Harnell attended the University of Miami on a music scholarship in the early 1940s, and in 1943 joined the United States Army Air Forces, playing with Glenn Miller's Army Air Forces Band.
4.
Joe Harnell studied with Nadia Boulanger when stationed in Paris and then under William Walton at Trinity College of Music in London.
5.
Joe Harnell played in Lester Lanin's band at this time and found work as an accompanist for singers such as Judy Garland, Maurice Chevalier, and Marlene Dietrich.
6.
Joe Harnell's biggest success was with his arrangement of "Fly Me to the Moon", which was a hit in the US in 1963 and which won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.
7.
Joe Harnell went on to release nearly 20 easy listening albums, on Kapp, Columbia, and Motown among others.
Related searches
Nadia Boulanger Maurice Chevalier Marlene Dietrich Judy Garland Dinah Shore Jess Harnell 8.
Joe Harnell was an integral part of The Dinah Shore Chevy Show as the "house pianist" on many episodes.
9.
In 1973, Joe Harnell moved to Hollywood and worked in film score and television composition, composing for The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, including "The Lonely Man Theme" with which all episodes of The Incredible Hulk ended, playing over David Bruce Banner walking down yet another lonely road, Alien Nation, and V, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 1983.
10.
Joe Harnell wrote the famous signature tune for the United Artists logo introducing United Artists movies in the early 1980s, during the MGM merger with United Artists, as well as the theme music for the NBC daytime soap Santa Barbara.
11.
Joe Harnell's son, Jess Harnell, is a voice actor and singer, best known as the voice of Wakko Warner on the Steven Spielberg-produced animated television series Animaniacs, Crash Bandicoot in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, and the announcer of America's Funniest Home Videos, which he has announced since 1998.
12.
Joe Harnell died on July 14,2005, in Sherman Oaks, California, at the age of 80.