| Birth: | Jun. 29, 1908 | | Death: | May 18, 1975 | 
Composer. In his time he was America's most popular creator of light music. His delightful miniature "Sleigh Ride" (1948) is a Yuletide favorite, both in its original version and as a song with lyrics by Mitchell Parrish. Other breezy Anderson items, including "Fiddle-Faddle" (1947), "The Typewriter" (1950), and "The Sandpaper Ballet" (1954), are still staples of the "pops" orchestral repertoire. Anderson was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and at Harvard. In 1936 conductor Arthur Fiedler hired him as an arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra, and commissioned his first concert pieces. After serving as an Army intelligence officer during World War II, he scored his first big hit with "The Syncopated Clock" (1945). CBS in New York used this tune as the theme of TV's "The Late Show" from 1950 to 1976. Anderson later conducted recordings of his music and his "Blue Tango" (1951) became the first instrumental single to sell 1 million copies. He eventually grew disenchanted with his fame as a composer of bon-bons but met with frustration in his attempts at writing more ambitious works. "Goldilocks" (1958), his only Broadway musical, was not a success. In 1953 Anderson completed his Piano Concerto in C but felt it had structural flaws and withdrew it for revision. He tinkered with the score for 20 years before abandoning it, shortly before his death. The Concerto was finally premiered in 1988. That same year Anderson was posthumously inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. (bio by: Robert Edwards)
Search Amazon for Leroy Anderson | | | Burial:
North Cemetery
Woodbury
Litchfield County
Connecticut, USA |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Record added: Jan 01, 2001
Find A Grave Memorial# 1807 |
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