Angelo Badalamenti

Best-known for the hauntingly atmospheric scores he created in tandem with filmmaker David Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti entered the world in Brooklyn, New York, in 1938. A classically trained musician, he began his professional life performing in the Catskills resort circuit before moving into songwriting and arranging for vocalists such as Shirley Bassey and country artist Mel Tillis. Adopting the pseudonym Andy Badale, he broke into film scoring in 1973 with Gordon's War, followed by contributions to Law and Disorder in 1974 and Across the Great Divide in 1976, yet he stayed largely obscure until his partnership with Lynch on the 1986 feature Blue Velvet. Their subsequent projects included the films Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, and The Straight Story. The most widely recognized outcome of their alliance was the indelible theme for the cult television series Twin Peaks. Together they also wrote and produced two albums for Julee Cruise, Floating into the Night in 1989 and The Voice of Love in 1993, while mounting the avant-garde stage work Industrial Symphony No. 1.

Badalamenti further demonstrated his range by conducting at the opening ceremony of the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. In 1993 he joined American thrash metal band Anthrax on the Sound of White Noise album for the Twin Peaks-referencing track “Black Lodge.” He next orchestrated and produced Marianne Faithfull’s 1995 release A Secret Life, then collaborated with James singer Tim Booth on the 1996 album Booth and the Bad Angel. Additional film scores followed for Dark Water, The Wicker Man, and Edge of Love. In 2008 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Soundtrack Awards, and three years later ASCAP presented him with the Henry Mancini Award. He remained active through the 2010s, most prominently contributing both new and previously composed material to the 2017 third season of Twin Peaks, selections that appeared on Twin Peaks [Limited Event Series Original Soundtrack] and Twin Peaks: Music from the Limited Event Series. Badalamenti passed away at his New Jersey residence on December 11, 2022, at the age of 85.