Trivia

Hugo's son Hugh F. Winterhalter, 33, died in Vietnam on December 29, 1966. He was attached to the US Army's 169th Combat Engineer Battalion and had been a combat helicopter gunner with the 20th Aerial Artillery, receiving the Air Medal with six clusters. He was interred at Arlington on January 6, 1967.

Conducted the Milwaukee (WI) Symphony Orchestra.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1600 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.

Winterhalter remained with RCA Victor until 1963, at which time he moved to Kapp. He recorded a handful of albums for Kapp including The Best of '64 and its follow-up, The Big Hits of 1965, before leaving the label to work on Broadway.

Winterhalter's last US chart single was "Theme From 'Popi'", released by Musicor in 1969. It reached #35 in the Billboard Easy Listening Top 40.

After graduating, he taught school for several years before turning professional during the mid-1930s, serving as a sideman and arranger for Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Raymond Scott, Claude Thornhill and others.

He studied violin and reed instruments at the New England Conservatory of Music.

With pianist Eddie Heywood, he had a minor hit with "Land of Dreams" in 1954 and reached the number one spot on Billboard with "Canadian Sunset" in 1956.

Winterhalter also notched a series of chart hits, including "Mr. Touchdown, U.S.A.", "A Kiss to Build a Dream On", "Blue Tango", "Vanessa", "The Little Shoemaker", and "Song of The Barefoot Contessa".

He graduated from Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1931, where he played saxophone for the orchestra and sang in two of the choirs.

His record "Canadian Sunset" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.

He also worked in the late sixties in television as well, and continued recording the occasional LP for various budget labels.

In 1950, Winterhalter moved to RCA Victor, where he arranged sessions for most of the label's pop recording artists including Perry Como, Harry Belafonte, Eddie Fisher, Jaye P. Morgan and the Ames Brothers; he also recorded several instrumental albums, among them 1952's Great Music Themes of Television, believed to be the first collection of TV theme songs ever recorded.

His parents Hugo Winterhalter and Mary Gallagher were both second generation German-Americans.

Winterhalter also arranged and conducted sessions for singers including Dinah Shore and Billy Eckstine, and in 1948 he was named musical director at MGM Records. After two years with the label, he joined Columbia Records, where he scored a pair of hits with his recordings of "Jealous Heart" and "Blue Christmas".