Angelo Badalamenti

The filmmaker David Lynch turned to his haunting work again and again, for “Blue Velvet,” “Mulholland Drive” and other neo-noir films.

Mr. Lynch, who described Mr. “It’s the dead of night,” Mr. He and Mr. The notes finally came to him in the shower, he recalled, and he hurried downstairs to his piano. Lynch met when Mr. “It has a violence and a sincere sentimentality — sadness but not despair.” “It’s very romantic but can be terrifying,” Mr. The station videotaped and broadcast the show, and the Monday after Christmas, Mr. [“Gordon’s War,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0fSppLA-qM&list=OLAK5uy_lJvJY_NqZlavvpd5Gi89q8Rt2CNvnoJG0) a 1973 blaxploitation film. [“I Hold No Grudge,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R24tPPzX0l8) in 1965. [she sang “Blue Velvet”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP-X1eZLEtQ) at the Slow Club in Lumberton, N.C., a flower-filled, picket-fence kind of town with a very dark side.

He collaborated with director David Lynch on movies including “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” as well as the cult TV series “Twin Peaks.”

On paper, he was a strange match for Lynch, the coifed, Midwestern oddball Mel Brooks once described as “Jimmy Stewart from Mars.” But somehow they formed a singular artistic mind, and a brotherly bond. Badalamenti’s name conjured the image of an old-world maestro, but he was in fact a wisecracking, golf-playing grandfather with a rough-hewed Brooklyn burr. [“Inside the Actors Studio,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn_tp45FoYA) hosted by James Lipton on the Bravo cable network. He gave Schrader’s “The Comfort of Strangers,” a 1990 drama about a young couple that encounters a mysterious Christopher Walken in Venice, an [“Mysteries of Love,”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOOKkPS47WQ) became the template for “Lynchian” music. Badalamenti wrote the melody in one afternoon, sitting at his Fender Rhodes keyboard with Lynch next to him describing the scene: “It’s the dead of night, we’re in a dark wood, there’s a full moon out. The director soon asked Mr. When Lynch was unable to license the Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren,” he also commissioned an original song and advised him, “Make it like the wind, Angelo. “We went over and played it for David Lynch, who was shooting the last scene. Caruso knew of the composer’s experience working with singers, and star Isabella Rossellini needed a vocal coach for her songs. He co-wrote a number of popular songs, including the brassy torch song Badalamenti cast a spell of dreamlike melancholy, dread and jazzy humor in the director’s surreal body of work, epitomized in “Twin Peaks.” Set in a fictional small town in the Northwest, the series mixed elements of murder mystery and bizarro soap opera, and aired for two seasons on ABC in the early 1990s before being resurrected on Showtime in 2017.

Angelo Badalamenti, the composer best known for creating otherworldly scores for many David Lynch productions, from “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” to ...

He also wrote “The Flaming Arrow” Torch Theme for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics and the theme for “Inside the Actors Studio.” But it’s his work with Lynch that hovers above them all, which would include “The Straight Story,” “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me," “Lost Highway” and “Mulholland Drive.” He wanted the music to be dark and abstract,” he said. He also wrote songs for films like “Gordon’s War” and “Law and Disorder” but his big break came in 1986 when, through a series of industry connections starting with unit manager Peter Runfolo, he was asked to help Isabella Rossellini sing “Blue Velvet” for Lynch’s iconic film. “They were shooting down in North Carolina, and so they flew me down to meet with Isabella and to see what I could do. He composed a Christmas carol for his students that ended up on PBS and essentially launched his career in entertainment, where he wrote songs for Nina Simone (“Another Spring”) and Nancy Wilson (“Face It Girl, It’s Over”). During the summers he would play piano at resorts in the Catskills for the Borscht Belt acts.

A tribute to Angelo Badalamenti (1937-2022), the legendary composer of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr.

[Roger Ebert](/cast-and-crew/roger-ebert) beautifully captured the tone of Badalamenti’s score in his four-star review, writing, “There are fields of waving corn and grain here, and rivers and woods and little bed barns, but on the soundtrack the wind whispering in the trees plays a sad and lonely song, and we are reminded not of the fields we drive past on our way to picnics, but on our way to funerals, on autumn days when the roads are empty.” Of all the tracks on that album, the one I treasure the most is “Rose’s Theme,” which we first hear as Alvin and his devoted daughter Rose ( [Sissy Spacek](/cast-and-crew/sissy-spacek)) savor a night sky filled with stars. Badalamenti is equally fearsome and oddly hilarious in his cameo as one of the thuggish suits in “Mulholland Dr.” who swoop in to take ownership of a director’s film, all the while criticizing the coffee offered to them in the most grotesque manner imaginable. The film’s score engineer and re-recording mixer, John Neff, told me earlier this year [in an interview](https://indie-outlook.com/2022/05/02/john-neff-on-the-straight-story-mulholland-dr-and-inland-empire/) how he recorded the score, mixed it, and then mixed it into the film in 5.1 surround. Whether she’s stepping out of the darkness or delivering her hopeful monologue about the robins, Sandy is the score’s ray of light, which contrasts with the melancholy glow of Dorothy ( [Isabella Rossellini](/cast-and-crew/isabella-rossellini)), whose crooning of the title tune is accompanied in the film by Badalamenti himself on the piano. Badalamenti and I shared a birthday, March 22nd, and it was in the year of my birth, 1986, that the composer forged his first phenomenally successful collaboration with Lynch in the director’s fourth feature, “ Anderson) snapping away to “Dance of the Dream Man,” Audrey Horne (

A look at 10 highlights from the career of composer Angelo Badalamenti, from his 'Twin Peaks's score for David Lynch to work with David Bowie.

George and Ira Gershwin’s balladic salute to rainy days and rainier romance never sounded as gorgeously glum as it did in the hands of Bowie and Badalamenti for their contribution to the “Red Hot + Rhapsody: The Gershwin Groove” package. Times](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-09-29-ca-1142-story.html)) in 1990, “Some of the happiest moments I’ve ever had have been working with Angelo. Tinged with the fatality of “Strange Fruit,” this is Badalamenti and Scott at their mournful, trembling saddest. Lustrous orchestration and small combo jazz sounds for Lynch works such as “Blue Velvet” and “ [Twin Peaks](https://variety.com/t/twin-peaks/)” tweaked the senses while underscoring the grotesquerie below the surface of the American dream. The stage at BAM during the winter New Music America Festival found Lynch directing a noisy yet celestial set of industrial soundscapes composed and played by Badalamenti and sung by Cruise (don’t forget dozens of rubber baby dolls lowered from the rafters with their eyeballs burnt out). [Angelo Badalamenti](https://variety.com/t/angelo-badalamenti/), composer and renowned collaborator of filmmaker-musician [David Lynch](https://variety.com/t/david-lynch/), died on Sunday at age 85, he left behind some of the most evocative soundscapes known to cinema.

Angelo Badalamenti, the David Lynch composer whose music for Twin Peaks gave television one of its most haunting and memorable themes, died of natural ...

He wrote “The Flaming Arrow” torch theme for the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, and won a BAFTA for his The Comfort of Strangers score. The pairing worked: Badalamenti ended up scoring the film and wrote the featured song “Mysteries of Love” with the director. Stayed true to his roots and family, never leaving North Jersey for LA. He launched his film work with scores for Gordon’s War in 1973 and Law and Disorder in ’74. His lifelong collaboration with Lynch began in 1986, when the Eraserhead director hired him as a vocal coach for Blue Velvet star Isabella Rossellini. Much of his Twin Peaks music (with lyrics by Lynch) was featured on the 1989 debut album of singer Julee Cruise titled Floating Into The Night.

Marianne Faithfull pays tribute to 'Twin Peaks' composer Angelo Badalamenti, who made her album 'A Secret Life' with her.

“He came to me with this idea and asked me to write the words, and I did,” she said. “He was really charming, and so, so talented,” she says. “I’m going to miss him a lot.” “And then he wrote the music and then it turned out really beautifully. “I really adored him,” she says. “It was just outstanding and so good and exactly the sort of music I wanted to do,” she tells Rolling Stone by phone from her London home.

A frequent collaborator with David Lynch, Badalamenti composed dozens of film and TV scores. angelo badalamenti. Composer Angelo Badalamenti has died.

[Julee Cruise](https://collider.com/julee-cruise-dead-at-65-twin-peaks/). He also composed for TV; in addition to Twin Peaks and Lynch's short-lived surrealist sitcom On the Air, he composed the themes for Profiler and Inside the Actors Studio. He returned for Lynch's subsequent Twin Peaks works, the 1992 film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and the 2017 Showtime revival [Twin Peaks: The Return](https://collider.com/twin-peaks-theme-song-video/). He also composed the stirring theme for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona. When a Christmas musical he'd written for schoolchildren was broadcast by PBS station WNET in 1964, he came to the attention of a music publisher, and went on to arrange and compose a number of songs, many under the alias Andy Badale. Badalamenti came into David Lynch's orbit when he was hired as Isabella Rossellini's vocal coach in 1986's Blue Velvet.

The post continued, “A true musical and artistic inspiration for me and countless others. Stayed true to his roots and family, never leaving North Jersey for LA ...

His other work includes A Very Long Engagement, The Wicker Man, Secretary, The Comfort of Strangers, and the video game Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in North America). Badalamenti would end up composing the score for the film in what would be the first of a career-long collaborative relationship with Lynch spanning TV and film. Meanwhile, the show’s soundtrack was a huge hit, reaching Gold status in 25 countries. He went on to work as a music teacher in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, while also writing songs and orchestrating for various popular performers. Stayed true to his roots and family, never leaving North Jersey for LA. The post continued, “A true musical and artistic inspiration for me and countless others.

Angelo Badalamenti, the composer behind several beloved soundtracks, including David Lynch's cult hit "Twin Peaks," has died at 85.

“I tried to make the music have a haunting feeling,” Badalamenti said in 2019 of his “Twin Peaks” score. “The advice was not to follow your dreams, that is too willy-nilly,” she said in a statement to CNN. “Today – no music.” And that’s what he did and now he leaves us with these gifts of true art, this beautiful, visceral art.” And even on those projects, Badalamenti injected some of his unique musical trademarks – namely, the subtle darkness he infused most of his scores with. When producers were seeking a composer to score the film, Badalamenti won Lynch’s favor with an original song, to which Lynch later wrote lyrics, called “The Mysteries of Love.” It’s how I use certain dissonant things, and I pride myself on that.” He taught at a Brooklyn public school after graduating from college and composed music for a televised production of “A Christmas Carol.” He The creative dynamos collaborated closely: While composing Laura Palmer’s theme for “Twin Peaks,” Lynch sat beside Badalamenti’s keyboard and set the scene: Lynch saw dark woods, heard a soft wind blowing through a sycamore tree and an owl hooting. It’s a far more hopeful, personal tale than typical Lynch fare, with a score to match. When Lynch finished dictating the scenes, he leaped up to hug Badalamenti. During this time, he often worked under the pseudonym Andy Badale.

Badalamenti soundtracked several films over five decades, working with directors like Jane Campion, Danny Boyle and Paul Schrader. But he's perhaps best known ...

Angelo Badalamenti, the renowned composer who wrote the haunting theme to filmmaker David Lynch's Twin Peaks, scored Lynch's Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, ...

[Spirit & Flesh](https://spiritandfleshmag.com/interviews/interview-with-angelo-badalamenti/) magazine’s Yelena Deyneko about how he composed some of the early music for Twin Peaks. The next year, he scored the crime drama [Law and Disorder](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071743/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0), then focused on other projects for a decade before getting a call from Lynch. Some of his earliest songs include “ [I Hold No Grudge](https://open.spotify.com/track/4MfrKRT9jwsFcfYPXHSHbz?si=2b30d5f64fb340e7)” (1965), which Nina Simone recorded, and “ [Face It, Girl, It’s Over](https://open.spotify.com/track/7tmxs6OLPktPdNVrJgKWEN?si=d9d4503bee7d4d20)” (1968), performed by Nancy Wilson. “I sit with Angelo and talk to him about a scene, and he begins to play those words on the piano,” Lynch said. Don’t change a note.’ And of course I never did.” I got it.’ I said, ‘I’ll go home and work on it.’ ‘Work on it?! [Manhattan School of Music](https://www.msmnyc.edu/), graduating in 1960. [A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093629/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) (1987), [Naked in New York](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110623/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) (1993) and [The Wicker Man](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450345/) (2006). [Wild at Heart](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100935/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) (1990), [Lost Highway](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116922/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) (1997) and [The Straight Story](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166896/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) (1999), as well as the various iterations of Twin Peaks, including the 1992 film [Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105665/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) and the 2017 reboot [Twin Peaks: The Return](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4093826/). The number went on to win a Grammy that year for best instrumental pop performance. [theme](https://open.spotify.com/track/7FO7BolIZsl1o8DDSjeOph?si=8b822e5e26d947a0) to Twin Peaks, Lynch and [Mark Frost](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004111/)’s cult TV drama that premiered in 1990. [David Lynch](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000186/)’s [Twin Peaks](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098936/), scored Lynch’s [Blue Velvet](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0) and [Mulholland Drive](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166924/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0), and collaborated with artists like [Nina Simone](https://www.ninasimone.com/) and [Nancy Wilson](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/obituaries/nancy-wilson-dead-jazz-singer.html), died on December 11 at age 85.