|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZFERRANTE & TEICHER(Arthur Ferrante, b 7 September 1921, NYC; d 19 September 2009, Longboat Key FL and Louis Teicher, b 24 August 1924, Wilkes-Barre PA; d 3 August 2008, Highlands NC) Duo-pianists. They met while studying at Juilliard; majored in piano, took up teaching and performing (both joined the Juilliard faculty) and began as a duo in 1947. They toured USA and Canada with leading orchestras playing Rodgers, Kern, Gershwin, etc. They played modified pianos in contemporary avant-garde music (see John Cage) and recorded duo-piano arrangements of classics. Their speed and facility made them first-class artists of their kind; their pianos seemed to talk to each other. Then at the United Artists label in 1960, producer-arranger-conductor Don Costa brought them film themes, and immediately they had top 10 pop hits. 'All of a sudden,' said Scott Smith, their manager, 'they’d show up at some small theater, or a church or wherever they were supposed to play, and people would be lined up outside the doors to get in, and they’d be saying, "Are you going to play ‘The Apartment'?" And they’d say, "No, we’re going to play Bach and Tchaikovsky." And the people would say, "But we came to hear ‘The Apartment'!" Literally overnight, they had to come up with a whole new two-hour program. They said, "People think we’re pop stars!" ' (Quotes from Teicher's New York Times obituary) They were pop stars whether they liked it or not. 'Theme From The Apartment' and 'Exodus' were hits in '60; they had eleven Hot 100 entries altogether '60-70 included six more film songs: 'Tonight' '61 (from West Side Story) and 'Midnight Cowboy' '69 were also top 10. The last hit was an arrangement of Bob Dylan's 'Lay Lady Lay' at no. 99. thirty albums charted in Billboard '61-72 with six in top 40; the biggest seller was West Side Story & Other Motion Picture & Broadway Hits '61. They made about 150 albums altogether, the last dozen or so on their own (tongue-in-cheek?) label, Avant-Garde Records.
|