Everything about Ray Ellis totally explained
For the football player of the same name see Ray Ellis (football player).
Ray Ellis (born
July 28,
1923 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American
record producer,
arranger and
conductor. The orchestration for
Billie Holiday's
Lady in Satin is perhaps his best known work in the jazz vein.
Ellis arranged many hit records in the
1950s and
1960s. Included are classics such as "A Certain Smile" by
Johnny Mathis;
Broken Hearted Melody by
Sarah Vaughan; and "Standing On The Corner" by
the Four Lads. In 1970 he produced
Emmylou Harris' debut LP
Gliding Bird.
Ellis work encompassed all areas of music, from records to film, commercials, and television. His television
theme music credits include
NBC News At Sunrise with
Connie Chung and the original cartoon series
Spider-Man. In the early 1960s, Ellis had a contract to produce his own easy listening record albums with
RCA Victor,
MGM, and
Columbia, the most popular probably being
Ellis in Wonderland.
Ellis has also composed two extended themes for
The Today Show, the first in 1971. It was used as the Friday closing theme (and eventually the show's full-time theme) until the end of the decade. The composers of the musical
Godspell took legal action because the melody was too echoic of the play's signature song "Day By Day."
As a result, Ellis composed a second
Today Show theme based on the trademark
NBC chimes. That theme was the NBC show's signature from 1980 to 1985 and has appeared irregularly on the morning program ever since.
Using the name of his wife Yvette Blais as a pseudonym, Ellis composed nearly all of the background music for
cartoon studio
Filmation from 1968 to 1982, according to the booklets for many of the DVDs for the studio's shows. (Full length features
Treasure Island and
Oliver Twist used the name "
George Blais"). He is directly credited, however, for
the Archie Show and
Sabrina the Teenage Witch background music.
Ellis, who currently resides in
Los Angeles, also composed the music for the 1980s US edition of
Sale of the Century theme with his brother
Marc that includes the
Jack Grimsley's score from 1980.
Selective discography
Further Information
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