George Greeley born 23 July 1917

George Greeley (July 23, 1917 – May 26, 2007) was an Italian-American pianist, conductor, composer, arranger, recording artist and record producer who is known for his extensive work across the spectrum of the entertainment industry. 

Greeley was born Giorgio Guariglia in Westerly, Rhode Island, soon after his family emigrated from Italy. Most of the family's members were musically gifted and could play many instruments. His father, James, had three music schools and a traveling orchestra. Georgio was taught to read music at an early age and was playing piano and mandolin when he was five. He often played four-handed piano pieces with his father, and they gave father-son recitals. He studied music at Columbia University, where he met and formed a long-time friendship with composer, arranger and bandleader Paul Weston, with whom Greeley worked in later years at Capitol Records and Columbia Records. Greeley won a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied piano and composition, graduating in 1939. He also studied music at the University of Southern California, and studied composition privately with Ernst Toch. 

George Greeley entered the music business after meeting Sy Oliver, Duke Ellington's arranger. Oliver taught him the art of arranging for big bands, and Greeley began his career arranging music for several popular figures such as Tommy Dorsey, Glen Gray, Abe Lyman, Leo Reisman, and Kay Kyser. He joined the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra as pianist on the same day that Frank Sinatra became the band's new vocalist in January 1940. After about a year with Dorsey, Greeley defected to Abe Lyman because "the money was better, and Abe had me writing three arrangements a week. I'd studied composition and orchestration at Juilliard, and wanted to practice what I'd learned." Greeley then spent time during World War II conducting a U.S. Air Force band at the Santa Ana, California Army Air Base. He also became involved in the Hollywood radio scene, working as arranger on several nationally broadcast variety programs. 

                                   

A virtuoso trumpet player that Greeley had met in the Air Corps (Mannie Klein) helped arrange an audition with Columbia Pictures and Greeley went to work there as staff pianist and orchestrator. As orchestrator, Greeley would fill out the sketches supplied by composers that included Max Steiner, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Leonard Bernstein, and Dimitri Tiomkin. As pianist, he performed on about two hundred motion pictures, including Picnic and The Eddy Duchin Story. George Greeley is credited as composer of original music on some twenty movies between 1949 and 1960.  Several films of which Greeley was especially proud included working as pianist on the Leonard Bernstein score for the 1954 drama On the Waterfront; and coaching Tyrone Power for The Eddy Duchin Story. In addition to performing the soundtrack songs when Eddy Duchin played uncredited, it was Greeley's hands that performed the piano parts which Power mimed during filming.

Concurrent with his work at Columbia Pictures, Greeley worked for Capitol Records, where he was a music director, arranger, and conductor for various artists including Gordon MacRae, Dean Martin, Ella Logan, Tony Martin, Dorothy Warenskjold, Jane Powell, Jane Froman, and Keely Smith. At the behest of his friend Paul Weston, Greeley also played piano (and harpsichord) on recording sessions for acts including Frankie Laine, Jo Stafford, Hoagy Carmichael, Sarah Vaughan, Eartha Kitt, and Doris Day. Many of those recordings have been now re-mastered and re-issued as CDs. 

George Greeley was among the earliest artists signed to the Warner Bros. Records label when it was founded in the late 1950s, and he was instrumental in providing that company with the same elegant instrumental pop sounds that Billy Vaughn brought to Dot Records and Percy Faith brought to Columbia Records. As a recording artist for Warner Bros. Records, Greeley produced and performed as pianist (and occasionally as conductor) on fourteen popular albums between 1957 and 1967. 

In the 1960s, he segued into television when he created the background music and theme for “My Favorite Martian” starring Ray Walston and Bill Bixby. The Martian theme, punctuated by the sound of the theremin, a high-pitched instrument, established an immediate recognition of the show and created almost a cult following of Martian fans.

In addition to his film and TV work, Greeley performed as a piano soloist and guest conductor in Australia, Canada, Korea and Brazil. George Greeley also performed as guest pianist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. At the time of Greeley's death, Jon Burlingame, who was a USC professor teaching a class on the history of film scoring, stated that Greeley was an "extraordinary pianist". 

Greeley died of emphysema at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in Los Angeles, May 26, 2007. He was 89. 

(Edited from Wikipedia & LA Times)