The amazing Neal Hefti was born today in 1922. Neal may not be a name that you recognize, but I bet that you recognize at least one of the songs that he has composed.

He was a jazz trumpet player, arranger, and composer. He began arranging songs in his teens and went on to arrange songs for Woody Herman and his band, including the famous Woodchopper’s Ball. After leaving Herman’s band he did freelance work for Buddy Rich, Billy Butterfield and Harry James.

In 1950, he began to arrange charts for Count Basie. He was a key factor in the “Basie sound.” Basie liked his stuff so much, Basie had him arrange some charts for Basie and Frank Sinatra. When Frank and Basie recorded together, they recorded standard songs that Frank had recorded before, however, Hefti’s arrangements were done so that the band complimented Sinatra’s singing.

Hefti led his own band in the 50’s and did so until moving back to California in 1960. When he returned, he began to do work for the film industry. He enjoyed a lot of success writing movie and television music. His film music included songs for The Odd Couple, Sex and the Single Girl, and Barefoot in the Park.

The music for the Odd Couple movie led to him writing music for the television series. He wrote the theme song and background music for the Odd Couple and a little super hero show that took the nation by storm in 1966 – Batman.

He received three Grammy nominations for his television work and received one award for his Batman television score. The Batman Theme was “a simple cyclic twelve-bar blues-based theme” that became a Top 10 single for The Marketts (and also for himself).

My brother and I watched Batman in syndication and we love the campiness of it to this day. The them is iconic (and easy to sing along with). Happy 102nd Birthday, Mr. Hefti!

The Marketts version:

Cool jazz version from the WDR Big Band