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You probably noticed the obituaries for Pete Rugolo, the composer-arranger-conductor who died at age 95.  Unless you're into jazz orchestration the man and his achievements likely don't register.  But if you're over 40, you've heard a hell of a lot more Pete Rugolo than you realize: on the themes of some classic (and not-so-classic) TV shows.

Born in Italy, Rugolo, like Dave Brubeck, studied composition with the celebrated  classical composer Darius Milhaud.  Trained in symphonic music, Rugolo made his first real splash writing and arranging for the Stan Kenton Orchestra. The bandleader hired Rugolo right out of the Army.

Kenton, based in California, was one of the big band greats to emerge as World War II ended, near the end of the Big Band Era itself. He created a complex and bombastic sound, criticized by many as blasting too much and swinging too little.  Even so, Kenton had his run of fame, and Rugolo's compositions and arrangements in the eyes of many defined the Kenton style especially on things like "Machito." Warning: this is NOT "swing dance" music.

Rugolo caught on big with Capitol Records, Kenton's label and wound up doing extensive arranging work for some of their top vocalists including Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole.  Take note how skillfully Rugolo integrates the King Cole Trio into the big band arrangement (band conducted by Les Baxter) of "That's My Girl."

But enough of that.  HERE is where Rugolo and you may connect.  New, younger TV producers began recruiting him to write bombastic, complex and sometimes feverish theme songs for 50's TV shows like these.   A fair amount of these have been on TV Land, though not all.

Thriller 1960-62 (with Boris Karloff) The original video was pulled off, but you can hear the theme here at 2:16

The Thin Man ( 1957-59) Starring onetime Rat Packer Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk in a TV adaptation of the classic novels and the William Powell-Myrna Loy movie

And one of Rugolo's gems: the second theme song for the all but forgotten Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1957-1960) starring David Janssen of Fugitive fame and (legs only) Mary Tyler Moore as "Sam," Diamond's secretary.  This is a whole episode if you want to watch it. I watched them all when I was in grade school.

Rugolo also wrote the theme for The Fugitive (1963-67) itself.

And for the adventure show Run For Your Life (1965-68) starring Ben Gazzara as a dying lawyer trying "to squeeze 30 years of living into one or two."

Surprisingly, Rugolo did almost no major movie work, unlike Pittsburgh area native Henry Mancini, who did both TV and big screen projects. Rugolo stuck with TV and made himself a nice living, remaining active into the 1990's.  Here he is at a 1999 session recording "Minor Riff," the song he did for Kenton. He's in a real recording studio--the band recording live--no overdubs, no computers or Autotune crap, either.

1999 recording session in LA—old school recording.

People like Rugolo deserve to be celebrated, not just for their skills but for the fact they brought cool jazz to the masses--without any of them even realizing it.

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