Joe Harnell & His Orchestra

Born Joseph Hittelman on 2 August 1924 in the Bronx, New York City, USA, and passing away on 14 July 2005 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA, Harnell served as conductor and director across numerous television programmes while also securing several chart singles, one of which climbed into the US Top 20 during 1963. His classical training took place at Tanglewood under the guidance of Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland. After completing his studies he returned to New York, where he first worked freelance as a pianist alongside Lester Lanin and later shifted into nightclubs, taking on musical-director duties for performers that included Robert Goulet, Peggy Lee, Marlene Dietrich and Frank Sinatra. A car accident in 1962 left him injured, forcing him to spend the remainder of that year recovering. The next year he capitalised on the bossa-nova wave then popular across the USA; enlisting Al Caiola, Milt Hinton and Tony Mottola, he cut the instrumental “Fly Me To The Moon Bossa-Nova” for Kapp Records—an arrangement of Bart Howard’s “In Other Words,” later recorded vocally by artists such as LaVern Baker and Tony Bennett. The accompanying album remained on the US charts for more than twelve months. Although “Diane” in 1963 proved to be his sole additional chart entry, he continued to record for Epic Records, Columbia Records, Jubilee Records and Motown Records.

Steady employment as musical director for Grey Advertising preceded his transition into television at the beginning of the 1970s, when he relocated to Philadelphia for work on the daytime programme The Mike Douglas Show. Further success as an arranger-conductor followed, leading to musical-director roles on series including The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, V and Alien Nation. Beginning in the late 1980s, Harnell devoted himself primarily to charitable and educational pursuits.