Billy Goldenberg, Emmy-Winning Composer and Songwriter, Dies
at 84
Variety
By John Burlingame
August 5, 2020
the Emmy-winning composer and songwriter, died Monday night
at his home in New York City.
He was 84.
Goldenberg wrote the themes for such 1970s TV series as “Kojak,”
“Harry O” and “Rhoda,” composed the pilot scores for “Night Gallery” and
“Columbo,” and won Emmys for the TV-movie “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom” and
miniseries “The Lives of Benjamin Franklin,” “King” and “Rage of Angels.”
He expanded his 1975 “Queen of the Stardust Ballroom” song
score, with lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman, into the score of the 1978
Broadway musical “Ballroom,” directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett of
“A Chorus Line” fame. It earned eight Tony nominations including Best Musical.
The prolific Goldenberg scored some of television’s most important films.
Omitted from his list of 25 Emmy nominations were his dark and frightening
music for Steven Spielberg’s 1971 “Duel”; his combination of electronic and
orchestral music for Rod Serling’s 1969 “Night Gallery” pilot; and his grandly
romantic 1971 “Ransom for a Dead Man,” the second “Columbo” pilot that sold the
famous Peter Falk series.
His versatility was demonstrated by his banjo and
guitar theme for the western “Alias Smith and Jones,” dignified French horns
for the George Peppard mystery series “Banacek,” eerie synthesizer sounds for
“Ghost Story,” and the children’s chorus he featured in “Rhoda.”
Goldenberg was born Feb. 10, 1936 in Brooklyn,
the son of a violinist mother and percussionist father. He started piano at 5
and became a protege of Broadway songwriter Frank Loesser (“Guys and Dolls”).
Jobs as rehearsal pianist turned into dance arrangements, orchestrations for TV
shows like “Hullabaloo,” and incidental music for acts including comedians Mike
Nichols and Elaine May.
He was musical director for “Elvis ’68,” Presley’s legendary
comeback special that reignited the pop star’s career. He held similar posts
for TV specials starring Petula Clark, Leslie Uggams, Diana Ross and
Ann-Margret. He also wrote a musical based on Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine”
that enjoyed a brief New York
run in 1967.
In late 1968, Goldenberg became assistant to Universal TV
music director Stanley Wilson, who assigned him scores for series as
“Ironside,” “It Takes a Thief” and “The Name of the Game.” He met Spielberg on
“Name of the Game” and later did the director’s television work including
“Night Gallery,” “Duel” and three installments of “Amazing Stories” in the
1980s.
“They told me to write a score for ‘Fear No Evil,’ a story
about demonology,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1976. “I thought, wow, I’m
really in over my head. I worried a lot, but I worked my tail off,
experimenting until I found a way to combine romantic music with a strong
flavor of horror. It clicked, and suddenly I’d found a place where I belonged.”
He scored several features including Presley’s “Change of
Habit,” “The Grasshopper,” “Red Sky at Morning,” Woody Allen’s “Play It Again,
Sam,” “Up the Sandbox,” “The Last of Sheila,” “Busting,” “The Domino Principle”
and “Reuben, Reuben.”
But Goldenberg was best known as a television composer, earning additional Emmy
nominations for TV-movies “The Marcus-Nelson Murders,” “The Migrants,” “Helter
Skelter,” the remake of “Dark Victory,” “The Gangster Chronicles,” “Jacqueline
Bouvier Kennedy,” “Bare Essence,” and “Nutcracker: Money, Madness and Murder.”
He also scored “The Atlanta Child Murders,” “Kane and Abel,” “Lucky / Chances”
and “Miss Rose White.”
His TV series themes also included “The Sixth Sense,”
“Executive Suite,” “Delvecchio,” “The Lazarus Syndrome,” “Skag,” “Love,
Sidney,” and “Our House.” His acclaimed documentary scores included the
National Geographic special “The Incredible Machine” in 1975.
“A composer should be sensitive to what’s happening on the
screen,” Goldenberg told the L.A. Times. “It’s better to underplay and
understate, even though it often becomes a personal struggle for me because I’m
very emotional, always ready to pour my heart out.”
He quit television in the late 1990s and returned to New York, although he
went on the road with Bea Arthur, playing piano for her one-woman show “…And
Then There’s Bea” in the early 2000s. He is the subject of a documentary
currently nearing completion by author Gary Gerani (“Fantastic Television”).
The only known survivors are cousins. A memorial service is
expected to be held in California
at a later date.
GOLDENBERG, Billy
(William Leon Goldenberg)
Born: 2/10/1936, Brooklyn, New
York, U.S.A.
Died: 8/3/2020, New York City, New
York, U.S.A.
Billy Goldenberg’s
westerns – composer:
Alias Smith and Jones (TV) – 1971-1973
Poker Alice (TV) - 1987
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