Al Ham
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Al Ham | |
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Born | Albert W. Ham February 6, 1925 |
Died | October 4, 2001 | (aged 76)
Education | Amherst College |
Occupation(s) | Composer, jingle writer, singer |
Albert W. Ham (February 6, 1925 in
Biography
Ham began as bass player for Artie Shaw when he was 17. While attending Amherst College after WWII, Ham arranged and played double bass for the Tony Pastor Orchestra when the featured singers were Rosemary Clooney and her sister Betty. When Tex Beneke re-formed the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Ham joined as arranger and bass player, working with Henry Mancini, then on staff as arranger. While working for Beneke he met and married Mary Mayo, who was singing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.[1]
After the birth of their daughter Lorri, Ham and his wife moved to
During his time as a producer at Columbia, Ham brought more to the studio than his knowledge of music and his intuition for recognizing hit material. He brought an electronic knowledge that resulted in many technical studio improvements and a "spatial" sound that he put to use when he helped to create the first
In the commercial field Ham worked consistently as a composer and arranger. His commercials have won many awards for best musical theme and scoring, including
.Ham also composed, arranged, and conducted news and station image music packages that have been broadcast by scores of TV stations across the country. They include "Move Closer to Your World", "Part of Your Life", "Home Country", "Bringing it Home to You", and "On Top of It All".
Ham's film credits include the score of the Electronovision version of Harlow, which produced the song "I Believed it All", (Written with Lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman). An Academy Award nomination for his superb adaptation and scoring of Warner Brothers’ Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, which he also conducted. And, a Grammy award for the "Best Spoken Word Recording" for his production of James Whitmore's Give 'em Hell, Harry! on United Artists Records. Ham also acted as programmer and associate producer for T.A.M.I. (Teenage Musical International) which featured performances by The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, James Brown, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Lesley Gore, Chuck Berry, and many other popular music stars. The show was a front runner of the type of concert programming that is now standard TV fare.
Ham's additional musical credits include his arrangement and production of "
In 1978, after years of research, Ham created the Music of Your Life radio format, which played on over 200 radio stations in the United States.
His television news music packages were syndicated through his company, Mayoham Music.
Ham died in October 2001 at the age of 76.
News music packages written and composed by Ham
- Bringing It Home to You
- Home Country
- Move Closer to Your World
- On Top of It All
- Part of Your Life
References
- ^ Mary Mayo, Space-age Music Maker: http://www.spaceagepop.com/mayo.htm
External links
- Al Ham at IMDb