Neal Hefti, a former big band trumpeter, arranger and composer who worked with Count Basie and Woody Herman and later composed the memorable themes for the movie “The Odd Couple” and the campy hit TV series “Batman,” has died. He was 85.
Described as “one of the most influential big band arrangers of the 1940s and ’50s” in “The Encyclopedia of Popular Music,” Hefti turned his attention to composing for film and television in the 1960s.
Among his credits as a film composer are “Sex and the Single Girl,” “Harlow” (one of his most famous tunes, Girl Talk, came out of the score), “How to Murder Your Wife,” “Boeing Boeing,” “Duel at Diablo,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “A New Leaf,” “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” and The Odd Couple, whose theme he reprised for the 1970s TV series.
Hefti also gained wide notice for composing the energetic title theme for Batman, the over-the-top 1966-68 superhero series that became an overnight sensation.
It was, Hefti later said, the hardest piece of music he ever wrote.
Hefti’s “Batman” tune became a Top 40 hit — for both the Hefti and the Marketts’ versions — and won a 1966 Grammy Award for best instrumental theme.
The son of a traveling salesman, Hefti was born Oct. 29, 1922, in Hastings, Neb. He began playing the trumpet at age 11.
His family was poor, and in high school he started playing in local bands during summer vacation to help his family financially. Hefti began writing arrangements in high school for local bands, and some of his arrangements also were used by the Earl Hines band.
In 1941, two days before his high school graduation, Hefti was asked to tour with the Dick Barry band, which had lost some of its musicians to the military.
The short-lived job ended in New Jersey. But other band jobs followed, including playing with the Bob Astor, Charlie Barnet, Bobby Byrne, Horace Heidt and Charlie Spivak bands.
Hefti, who was classified 4-F during World War II after being hit by a car in New York and breaking his pelvis, joined Woody Herman’s band in 1944.
He did the arrangements for many of the Herman band’s popular recordings, including composing and arranging “The Good Earth” and “Wild Root.” He also co-arranged, with Ralph Burns, “Caldonia.”
Hefti formed his own band in 1951, with his wife as lead vocalist. But after two years of touring, he returned to arranging and studio work. As a composer and arranger for Basie in the 1950s, Hefti composed numerous tunes that were featured on various Basie albums.
That included the Grammy Award-winning album “Basie,” which Hefti produced. Known as “Atomic Basie” because of the atomic explosion pictured on the cover, the album featured 11 songs composed and arranged by Hefti, including “Splanky,” “Kid from Red Bank” and “Lil’ Darlin,” which Hefti wrote for his daughter.
As head of A&R (Artists and Repertoire) at Reprise in the early ’60s, Hefti arranged and conducted “Sinatra and Basie: A Historical Musical First” and “Sinatra and Swingin’ Brass.”
Hefti retired in 1976.
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