Richard Hayman

Born on 27 March 1920 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Richard Hayman developed an early interest in music by mastering the harmonica and accordion without formal instruction, joining neighborhood ensembles prior to relocating westward. During the closing years of the 1930s he contributed as both performer and arranger for a three-year tenure with Borrah Minevitch’s Harmonica Rascals and subsequently collaborated with Leo Diamond; he also toured the vaudeville circuit and secured minor screen roles. In the first half of the 1940s Hayman supplied background scoring for the motion pictures Girl Crazy (1943), Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) and State Fair (1945). The latter part of the decade found him serving as longtime arranger for Vaughan Monroe, while the opening years of the 1950s saw him assume the dual posts of musical director and arranger for Bobby Wayne, shaping the accompaniments on the singer’s successes “Let Me In” and “Oh Mis’rable Lover.”

Hayman launched his own Mercury Records sessions in 1953, fronting an orchestra that spotlighted his harmonica work alongside guest solos by Jerry Murad of the Harmonicats. Among the resulting chart successes were “Ruby” from the film Ruby Gentry, “April in Portugal,” “Limelight (Terry’s Theme),” “Eyes of Blue” drawn from Shane, the title theme “The Story of Three Loves,” “Off Shore” and “Sadie Thompson’s Song” from the Rita Hayworth vehicle Miss Sadie Thompson. His final appearance on the charts arrived in 1956 with “A Theme from the Threepenny Opera (Moritat),” which featured pianist Jan August; additional sides were issued under the billing Dick Hayman and the Harmonica Sparklers. Original compositions credited to Hayman encompass “Dansero,” “No Strings Attached,” “Serenade to a Lost Love,” “Carriage Trade,” “Skipping Along” and “Valse d’Amour.”

For more than three decades he functioned as arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra while holding the position of pops conductor with the St. Louis Symphony. Entering the twenty-first century he led ensembles across the country, among them the Grand Rapids Symphony. A 2010 concert with the St. Louis Symphony marked his final podium appearance, staged in honor of his ninetieth birthday. Hayman died on 5 February 2014 at age 93 in a Manhattan nursing home.