Emmy-winning composer Billy Goldenberg died on August 4, 2020 at the age of 84. Born William Leon Goldenberg in Brooklyn, New York, his parents were both musicians – his mother was a violinist, and his father, Morris Goldenberg, was a percussionist as well as an author and a teacher at Juilliard. The younger Goldenberg began playing the piano at the age of 5, and after his graduation from Columbia College he wrote songs for the popular children’s series The Kukla, Fran and Ollie Show.

He worked steadily on Broadway productions through the 1960s.  He was the pianist and composer of incidental music for An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and provided dance arrangements and dance music for such Broadway musicals as 110 in the Shade (based on The Rainmaker) and Henry, Sweet Henry (based on The World of Henry Orient).

In the late 1960s, he served as musical director for the TV special Elvis ‘68 and began working for Stanley Wilson, music director at Universal Television. It was in television that he would go on to spend most of his scoring career, though he had more than a dozen feature films to his credit, including the Elvis comedy-drama Change of Habit; the coming-of-age romance Red Sky at Morning; Herbert Ross’ film version of Woody Allen’s stage hit Play It Again, Sam, the first film to pair Allen with Diane Keaton; the change-of-pace Barbra Streisand vehicle Up the Sandbox; the cult classic Hollywood murder mystery The Last of Sheila, from a screenplay by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins; Peter Hyams’ feature directing debut Busting; Stanley Kramer’s conspiracy thriller The Domino Principle; and the comedy-drama Reuben, Reuben, which earned Tom Conti a Best Actor nomination, opposite Kelly McGillis in her first film role. (Goldenberg may be one of the few film composers of the past who still has more scores released on vinyl than on CD)

Goldenberg’s scoring career at Universal began with episodes of It Takes a Thief and the supernatural mystery movie Fear No Evil, starring Louis Jourdan (as well as its sequel, Ritual of Evil). His assignment to score the three-story pilot for Rod Serling’s Night Gallery was especially notable as one of the segments was directed by Steven Spielberg. Goldenberg would work with Spielberg again on “Murder by the Book,” the first regular episode of Columbo, “LA 2017,” the off-beat, sci-fi themed episode of The Name of the Game, and, most famously, the movie-of-the-week Duel, directed by Spielberg from a Richard Matheson teleplay and story, which was a critical and popular smash that helped propel Spielberg to his feature directing career. (Years later, Goldenberg would score three episodes of the Spielberg-produced Amazing Stories, including stories directed by Peter Hyams and Paul Bartel, and one written by Spielberg’s sister Anne, co-writer of Big).

Before scoring Spielberg’s Columbo episode, he had scored the second of the show’s two pilot movies, Ransom for a Dead Man, and his witty approach helped set the tone for the show’s music throughout its run, with his main theme showing up as a source cue in several episodes. One of Goldenberg’s most notable TV successes was the original musical Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, directed by legendary editor Sam O’Steen (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown), and starring Maureen Stapleton and Charles Durning. It won three Emmys and received 11 nominations, including an Emmy and two nominations for Goldenberg and lyricists Alan & Marilyn Bergman. Goldenberg and the Bergmans reteamed with teleplay writer Jerome Kass to adapt the film into the 1978 Broadway musical Ballroom, which marked director-choreographer Michael Bennett’s first show after A Chorus Line. The musical, starring Dorothy Loudon and Vincent Gardenia, ran for 116 performances, winning one Tony (for Choreography) and eight nominations.

Particularly during the 1970s and ‘80s, Goldenberg would become one of the most prolific and honored composers in television. He won Emmys for the Lives of Benjamin Franklin episode “The Rebel;” the miniseries King, starring Paul Winfield as MLK and Cicely Tyson as Coretta; the miniseries Rage of Angels, from the Sidney Sheldon book; and the "special musical material" for Stardust Ballroom. He earned a total of 24 Primetime Emmy nominations over the course of his career in a variety of categories, and one Daytime Emmy nomination. His memorable TV projects include the delightful theme for Banacek as well as scores for The UFO Incident, Helter Skelter, and the miniseries remake of Around the World in 80 Days. For one of his final projects, he teamed up with his friend Beatrice Arthur for the one-woman show Bea Arthur on Broadway, serving as her accompanist and receiving co-credit for the show’s conception. (Research sources for this article include the Variety obituary by Jon Burlingame and the Hollywood Reporter obituary by Mike Barnes; special thanks to Jon Burlingame for pointing out some errors in the original posted version of this column, regarding the date of Goldenberg's passing and his total Emmy wins/nominations, which have now been corrected).

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Intrada has announced an entirely unexpected upcoming soundtrack CD, release date unspecified, featuring a never-before-released score by one of film music's most beloved and respected composers. For more information go to this Message Board thread.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Casper - James Horner - La-La Land
Oferenda a la tormenta - Fernando Velazquez - Quartet
The Order - Pino Donaggio - Quartet
The Outpost - Larry Groupe - La-La Land
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire (re-release) - Joel McNeely - Varese Sarabande

Quartet has announced two new releases -- Pino Donaggio's score for the 2001 action-adventure THE ORDER, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Charlton Heston (and not to be confused with the 2003 religious thriller of the same name, starring Heath Ledger); and Fernando Velazquez's score to OFERENDA A LA TORMENTA, the follow-up to El guardian invisible and Legado en los huesos.

The latest release from Caldera is the score for MAN AT THE TOP, the 1973 film inspired by the TV series of the same name, in which Kenneth Haigh played the character first played by Laurence Harvey in the 1959 Best Picture nominee Room at the Top and its 1965 sequel Life at the Top. The music was composed by the late, great Roy Budd (Get Carter, The Wild Geese, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger).

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced this year's nominations for the Primetime Emmys, including the following music categories:

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Dolce far niente/Le ambizioni sbagliate/Gli occhi, la bocca - Nicola Piovani - Music Box
Dracula 2000 - Marco Beltrami - Varese Sarabande
Les colonnes du ciel/Felicien Greveche - Raymond Alessandrini - Music Box

Dragon's Domain and Buysoundtrax have announced four new CD releases -- Craig Safan's score for the 1987 stalker-thriller LADY BEWARE, starring Diane Lane; THE PETER BERNSTEIN COLLECTION VOL. 1, featuring the composer's music for Meggido (Omega Code 2) and Island City; music from the documentary series MEDAL OF HONOR by Richard Stone and Mark Watters; and ALAN HOWARTH LIVE AT HOLLYWOOD THEATER, with Alan Howarth performing pieces from his own scores and the scores he composed with John Carpenter.

The July edition of FSM ONLINE went live last Friday but we forgot to tell you!

This month’s cover story asks the question: Is film music DEAD OR ALIVE? Check out the Top 10 Reasons for each. Also this issue, SEGUN AKINOLA discusses his score for THE LAST TREE, dubbed by critics as the British Moonlight; remembering the late legend, ENNIO MORRICONE; SOUNDTRACK OBSCURITIES rises from the ashes; BRIAN TYLER chats about the third season of YELLOWSTONE and the upcoming film CL