Composer John Beal: Earle Hagen Biography
Earle Hagen 
July 9, 1919 - May 26, 2008

Composer Earle Hagen
 
 
 

More than just a composer/arranger, Earle Hagen has exerted great influence on other film and television composers, acting as one of the industry's leading educator/mentors. His two ground-breaking texts, "Scoring for Films" (1971) and "Advanced Techniques for Film Scoring" (1990), created with the assistance of music editor Ken Johnson, are still widely used at film music educational facilities and hold respected positions in every Hollywood film composer's library. 

Taking up the trombone in his early teens, he began working professionally after high school, playing with Ben Pollack, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. During WW2, Earle worked in the Army Air Corps' Radio and Film Unit in Santa Ana, California. After his service discharge, he remained in the Hollywood movie studios, continuing to work as a musician and arranger with such great talents as Hugo Friedhofer.

In the early 1950s, Twentieth Century Fox hired him to work under Lionel Newman. Earle worked as a second-line composer until he got his big break when he composed the hit theme for the "Perry Mason" TV show. He followed this with his whistling theme for "The Andy Griffith Show."

From here, Earle went on to provide the theme, and soundtrack release, of his Emmy award wining music from the Bill Cosby/Robert Culp series "I Spy." Among his other TV works are "Make Room for Daddy," "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "Mayberry RFD," "Gomer Pyle, USMC", "The Mod Squad," Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and "That Girl." He also scored some films including "Man on a Tightrope" and "The New Interns." Hagen's later work included the score and theme for Norman Lear's offbeat opera/comedy, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman."  During his career, Earle Hagen scored over 2,000 episodes of top rated television shows and still continued studying, most notably with composer George Tremblay, and teaching eager composers in Hollywood.
 
 


Hagen wrote "Harlem Nocturne" for a radio series as a conscious imitation of the Duke Ellington sound. Randy Brooks, a white big band leader, picked it up as his theme song in 1941. About ten years later, saxophonist Herbie Fields, released it as a single, soon after, virtually every sax player in the R & B business had his own version of it out, as well as covers by artists ranging from Mantovani to Tito Puente.

Sax-heavy honky-tonk R & B was beginning to fade at the time, but the smooth, sultry sound of "Harlem Nocturne" made it a good transition into the more sophisticated jump bands. Johnny Otis, a white vibe player who considered himself "black in soul" covered it for one of his early hits on Savoy.  Finally, in 1959, a New Jersey band, the Viscounts, had a minor hit with it, introducing an eerie guitar effect that's been retained in most of the subsequent covers.  Years later, "Harlem Nocturne" re-emerged as the signature theme for the "Mike Hammer" television movies and series, reviving a timeless classic.
 

Earle Hagen Recordings Include: 

  • I Only Have Eyes for You (with Herb Spencer), Vik LX-1000 
  • The Essence of Romance (with Herb Spencer), Liberty LRP-3063/LST-7063 

    •           (with Lincoln Chase) The Explosive Lincoln Chase, Liberty LRP-3076 
  • I Spy, Capitol ST-2839 
  • I Spy, Warner Brothers WBS 1637 
  • The Andy Griffith Show, Capitol T1611 
  • The New Interns, Colpix SCP-473 
  • Nothing But the Best, Colpix SCP-477

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    Earle Hagen's Internet Movie Database Listings