Biography

Joseph Harnell

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Composer/songwriter who wrote the United Artists logo music for film/TV. Educated at the University of Miami and Trinity College, he studied with Aaron Copland, Darius Milhaud, Ernst Toch, and Leonard Bernstein, played piano in dance bands, and was music director for Harry Richman, Jane Froman, Peggy Lee, Carol Lawrence, Robert Goulet, and Marlene Dietrich, and made many recordings. Joining ASCAP in 1959, his popular-song compositions include "Cinderella Twist" and "Funny Bunny".
- IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the pianist, conductor and composer worked with Peggy Lee in concerts and on several of her albums. Harnell conducted the orchestra on Lee's albums "Anything Goes: Cole Porter" and "Peggy Lee and the George Shearing Quintet," and played piano on another of her albums, "Things Are Swingin.'" He also worked with singers like Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Pearl Bailey.
His youngest son, Jason, is a jazz drummer and educator who has performed, recorded and toured with many jazz musicians including Maynard Ferguson.
He has composed over 400 hours of original music for motion pictures and for television shows.
In 1973, Harnell moved to Hollywood and worked in film score and television composition, composing for The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, including "The Lonely Man Theme" with which all episodes of The Incredible Hulk ended, playing over David Bruce Banner walking down yet another lonely road, Alien Nation, and V, for which he received an Emmy nomination in 1983.
In May 1982, with the release of "Rocky III", Harnell also wrote the famous signature tune for the United Artists logo introducing United Artists movies in the early 1980s, during the MGM merger with United Artists, as well as the theme music for the NBC daytime soap Santa Barbara.

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