Joe Harnell
b. Jospeh Hittelman, 2 August 1924, the Bronx, New York City, USA, d. 14 July 2005, Sherman Oaks, California, USA. Harnell was a conductor and director for various television programmes who also placed a couple of singles in the charts, one of which reached the US Top 20 in 1963. Harnell studied classical music under Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland at Tanglewood. Upon his graduation he moved back to New York where he began freelancing as a pianist with Lester Lanin, before drifting towards the nightclub circuit where he became a musical director for singers such as Robert Goulet, Peggy Lee, Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra. Harnell was injured in a car accident in 1962 and spent the rest of the year recuperating. The following year he took advantage of a bossa nova music craze that was sweeping the USA, and with the help of Al Caiola, Milt Hinton and Tony Mottola recorded an instrumental, "Fly Me To The Moon Bossa-Nova", for Kapp Records, based on the Bart Howard-penned "In Other Words", which would later chart in vocal versions for artists including LaVern Baker and Tony Bennett. An attendant album stayed in the US charts for over a year. Harnell only placed one further single on the charts, "Diane", in 1963, but carried on recording for Epic Records, Columbia Records, Jubilee Records and Motown Records.
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Top Tracks
- Cast Your Fate To the Wind
- My Cherie Amour
- Green Grow The Lilacs
- Midnight Cowboy
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