Nelson Riddle

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Nelson Riddle

American musician

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Last Updated: May 28, 2025 • Article History

Quick Facts

Born:: June 1, 1921, Oradell, N.J., U.S.

Died:: Oct. 6, 1985, Los Angeles, Calif. (aged 64)

Awards And Honors:: Grammy Award (1985); Grammy Award (1983); Academy Award (1975); Grammy Award (1958)

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Nelson Riddle (born June 1, 1921, Oradell, N.J., U.S.—died Oct. 6, 1985, Los Angeles, Calif.) was an American popular-music arranger, conductor, and composer, regarded as the premier 20th-century arranger for popular singers.

Riddle began his career in the 1940s as a trombonist-arranger for the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Charlie Spivak, and Jerry Wald. His first noted arrangements for a popular singer were the songs “Mona Lisa” and “Too Young,” recorded in 1950 by Nat King Cole, with whom Riddle would work frequently during the next 15 years. During the 1950s Riddle was a staff arranger for Capitol Records and arranged songs for several of the top singers of the day, including Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Rosemary Clooney, Peggy Lee, Margaret Whiting, and Johnny Mathis. He made recordings with Ella Fitzgerald during the late 1950s and early ’60s; Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (1959), with arrangements by Riddle, is often cited as the best of Fitzgerald’s “songbook” albums.

Riddle collaborated with Frank Sinatra over the course of more than 25 years. In one of the most-acclaimed musical partnerships of the 20th century, Sinatra and Riddle released classic albums of swing (Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! [1956], A Swingin’ Affair! [1957]) and ballads (In the Wee Small Hours [1955], Only the Lonely [1958]) that were regarded as benchmark achievements in the careers of both men. Riddle’s up-tempo arrangements were characterized by his “heartbeat rhythm,” which he explained as “the tempo that strikes people the easiest because, without their knowing it, they move to that pace all their waking hours.” His ballad arrangements were noted for their contrapuntal melodies, complex harmonies, and recurring musical motifs.

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Riddle had a few instrumental hits of his own, including “Lisbon Antigua” (1956) and the theme from the television series Route 66 (1960). He also wrote the theme to TV’s The Untouchables (1959) and did the musical scoring and conducting for such series as Naked City (1958–64), Batman (1966–68), and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967–70). In the late 1970s Riddle arranged three best-selling albums of standards for singer Linda Ronstadt; these were regarded as a catalyst for the revival of classic American popular music. Riddle also arranged and conducted the orchestras for the inaugural balls of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

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arrangement

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arrangement

music

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Key People:: Franz Liszt; Anton Webern; Béla Bartók; Maurice Ravel; Mary Lou Williams

Related Topics:: music; transcription

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arrangement, in music, traditionally, any adaptation of a composition to fit a medium other than that for which it was originally written, while at the same time retaining the general character of the original. The word was frequently used interchangeably with transcription, although the latter carried the connotation of elaboration of the original, as in the virtuosic piano transcriptions of J.S. Bach’s organ works by Franz Liszt, the Italian composer-pianist Ferruccio Busoni, and others. In later times the definitions were almost reversed, with arrangement connoting musical liberty in elaboration or simplification. In popular music and jazz, the word is often used synonymously with “score.”

Arrangements of vocal compositions were crucial to the early history of instrumental music. Thus, vocal polyphony of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, including motets, chansons, and parts of the mass, was intabulated (transcribed so as to suggest finger positions rather than pitches) for the use of keyboard and lute players, permitting them to perform singly music written for several singers.

During the Baroque period (c.1600–1750), interest in arrangement declined, perhaps because of the increased importance of instrumental music and the waning significance of vocal writing. Bach, who arranged many of Antonio Vivaldi’s violin concerti for harpsichord and organ, was a notable exception.

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During the 19th century, with its stress on the piano, arrangements again became popular. Liszt transcribed Schubert songs as well as scenes from Wagner’s music dramas. Brahms wrote for orchestra an arrangement of his own Variations on a Theme by Haydn, originally for two pianos, and of Bach’s “Chaconne” from the Partita in D Minor for violin, which he recast as a piano study for the left hand. In the 20th century, Arnold Schoenberg in turn made elaborate orchestral arrangements of music by Bach, Georg Matthias Monn, and Brahms that amount to actual recompositions, quite unlike the popular Bach arrangements by Stokowski, Respighi, and others, which enjoyed a considerable vogue during the pre-World War II era.

Piano arrangements of opera and ballet scores, in particular, have long proven their value in the preparation of performances. Performance editions of problematically notated early scores often carry all the earmarks of highly subjective arrangements.