Keith Mansfield

Born in 1941, British composer and arranger Keith Mansfield created many of the best-known television themes and pieces of library music. He began working at KPM (Keith Prowse Maurice) in 1964, initially as a copyist. Alan Moorhouse, the established freelance arranger who had penned Lulu’s Eurovision-winning hit “Boom Bang-A-Bang,” provided Mansfield’s first opportunity by letting him ghost several compositions for the label. Around the same time, Mansfield produced tracks for Dusty Springfield’s 1969 album Dusty… Definitely.

KPM head Robin Phillips spotted the young musician’s promise and asked him to record a set of Christmas carols. Once those recordings succeeded in the United States, Phillips granted Mansfield the chance to cut his own orchestral works. Between the late 1960s and the 1970s Mansfield turned out three or four arrangements daily, a stretch that yielded his most lasting themes, including the BBC’s Grandstand signature and “Funky Fanfare.” The latter track resurfaced when Quentin Tarantino incorporated Astro Daters’ “Our Next Attraction” into the opening sequences of Kill Bill and Grindhouse; the piece has also been sampled by Danger Mouse, Madlib, and Fatboy Slim.

Mansfield’s extensive KPM catalogue remains a staple for crate-diggers and listeners. Royalties from those samples financed his own recording projects well into the 2000s.