Ferrante & Teicher

Ferrante & Teicher in 1969.

Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American piano players, known for their light arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes.

Career

Arthur Ferrante (September 7, 1921, New York City – September 19, 2009), and Louis Teicher (August 24, 1924, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – August 3, 2008) met while studying at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.[1][2] Musical prodigies, they began performing as a piano duo while still in school. After graduating, they both joined the Juilliard faculty.

In 1947, they launched a full-time concert career, at first playing nightclubs, then quickly moving up to playing classical music with orchestral backing. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith relates the story that in the 1950s the two students practiced in the home of his grandmother Constance Neidhart Tallarico.[3] Between 1950 and 1980, they were a major American easy listening act, and scored four big U.S. hits: "Theme From The Apartment" (Pop #10), "Theme From Exodus" (Pop #2), "Tonight" (Pop #8), and "Midnight Cowboy" (Pop #10).[4] They performed and recorded regularly with pops orchestras popular standards by George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and others. In 1973, they did the Hollywood Radio Theater theme for the Rod Serling radio drama series, The Zero Hour.[5][6]

The duo also experimented with prepared pianos, adding paper, sticks, rubber, wood blocks, metal bars, chains, glass, mallets, and other found objects to piano string beds. In this way they were able to produce a variety of bizarre sounds that sometimes resembled percussion instruments, and at other times resulted in special effects that sounded as if they were electronically synthesized.[7]

Both men were initiated as honorary members of Tau Kappa Epsilon at Central State University (now University of Central Oklahoma) while on tour.

Ferrante and Teicher ceased performing in 1989 and retired to Longboat Key and Siesta Key, respectively, close to each other on the west coast of Florida. They continued to play together occasionally at a local piano store.

CDs of their music, some of it not previously released, have continued to appear.[8]

Louis Teicher died of a heart attack in August 2008, three weeks before his 84th birthday.[9] Arthur Ferrante died of natural causes on September 19, 2009 at the age of 88[10] (he had once said he wanted to live one year for each piano key). Arthur is survived by his wife, Jena; his daughter, Brenda Eberhardt; and two granddaughters.[11]

Discography

Singles

Year Titles (A-side, B-side)
Both sides from same album except where indicated		 Chart positions Album
US US – AC CB
1951 "Susannah's Last Stand"
b/w "Caravan"		 - - - Hi-Fireworks
1952 "Tabu"
b/w "Semper Fidelis"		 - - -
1958 "Che Si Dice (Keh See Deechay)"
b/w "How High The Moon"		 - - - Ferrante and Teicher With Percussion
"Aflame"
b/w "How High The Moon"		 - - -
1959 "Side Saddle"
b/w "Prairie Blues"		 - - - Non-album tracks
"Lovers Symphony"
b/w "Dream Concerto"		 - - - Dream Concerto
1960 "Theme From The Apartment"
b/w "Lonely Room"		 10 - 9 The World's Greatest Themes
"Exodus"
b/w "Twilight" (from Tonight)		 2 - 1 Golden Piano Hits
1961 "Love Theme From One Eyed Jacks" / 37 - 39 Love Themes
"Gone With The Wind" - - 110
"Goodbye Again"
b/w "Possessed" (from The Many Moods Of Ferrante & Teicher)		 85 - 84 Non-album track
"Tonight"
b/w "Dream Of Love" (from The Many Moods Of Ferrante & Teicher)		 8 2 6 Music From The Motion Picture West Side Story
and Other Motion Picture and Broadway Hits
1962 "Smile" / 94 18 93 Tonight
"Street Of Palms" - - 133 Non-album tracks
"Lisa" / 98 - 81
"Negligee" - - tag Pianos In Paradise
"Lida Rose"
b/w "Take Me Along"		 - - 144 Themes From Broadway Shows
"Theme From Taras Bulba"
b/w "Theme From The Eleventh Hour" (from Concert For Lovers)		 116 - 107 Non-album tracks
1963 "Theme From Lawrence Of Arabia"
b/w "Paris Joy Ride" (from Holiday For Pianos)		 84 - 102
"Antony and Cleopatra Theme"
b/w "Caesar and Cleopatra Theme"		 83 - 115 Love Themes From Cleopatra
"Crystal Fingers"
b/w "Greensleeves" (from Concert For Lovers)		 127 - 132 Non-album tracks
1964 "It's All Right"
b/w "Corn Pone"		 - - -
"The Seventh Dawn"
b/w "You're Too Much" (from The Keys To Her Apartment)		 124 - -
1965 "The Greatest Story Ever Told"
b/w "To Spring" (from Springtime)		 101 - 143 By Popular Demand
"Country Boy"
b/w "The Knack" (From "A Man and A Woman" and Other
Motion Picture Themes)		 - - - Only The Best
1966 "Khartoum"
b/w "Firebird"		 - 21 - You Asked For It!
"A Man and A Woman"
b/w "Dark Eyes" (from The Piano Artistry Of Ferrante & Teicher)		 - 24 - "A Man and A Woman" and Other Motion Picture Themes
1967 "Live For Life"
b/w "Pavanne" (from In The Heat Of The Night)		 - 27 - Live For Life
1968 "Here Is Where I Belong"
b/w "Rock-A-Bye Baby" (from Midnight Cowboy)		 - - - Non-album tracks
"A Boy and A Girl"
b/w "Prelude To Love" (from Love In The Generation Gap)		 - - -
1969 "Andrea"
b/w "Joanna"		 - - - Listen To The Movies With Ferrante & Teicher
"Midnight Cowboy"
b/w "Popi" (original pressings)
"Rock-A-Bye-Baby" (later pressings)		 10 2 10 Midnight Cowboy
1970 "Lay Lady Lay"
b/w "Theme from 'Z' (To Yelasto Pedi)"		 99 16 71 Getting Together
"Pieces Of Dreams"
b/w "Magical Connection"		 - 28 - Love Is A Soft Touch
1971 "The Music Lovers"
b/w "Love Is Now"		 - 39 - The Music Lovers
"Diamonds Are Forever"
b/w "There's A New Day Coming"		 - - - Ferrante & Teicher Play The Hit Themes
1972 "Love Theme From The Godfather"
b/w "There's A New Day Coming"		 - 28 110
"Everything You Always Wanted To Know
About Sex But Were Afriad To Ask"
b/w "Tranquillo"		 - - - Hear and Now
1973 "American Pie"
b/w "Oh To Be Young Again"		 - - -
"Last Tango In Paris"
b/w "Grass Roots" (from Salute Nashville)		 - - 115 Killing Me Softly
1976 "Theme From Breakheart Pass"
b/w "Theme From Mahogany" (from Piano Portraits)		 - - - Non-album track
"Gonna Fly Now (Theme From 'Rocky')"
b/w "You Take My Heart Away" (Non-album track)		 - - - Rocky and Other Knockouts
1977 "Theme From 'New York, New York'"
b/w "A Bridge Too Far (Main Theme)"		 - - -
1978 "Theme From Star Trek"
b/w "Swinging On A Star"		 - - - Star Wars

Albums

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

Track appearances

References

  1. ↑ Lanza, Joseph (2004). Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong. University of Michigan Press. pp. 98–100. ISBN 978-0-472-08942-0.
  2. ↑ Whitburn, Jowl (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. Billboard Books. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-8230-7499-0.
  3. ↑ Davis, Stephen; Aerosmith (2003). Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith. It Books. pp. 19–20. ISBN 978-0-06-051580-5.
  4. ↑ Smith, Jeff (1998). The Sounds of Commerce. Columbia University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-231-10863-8.
  5. ↑ Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. p. 744. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3.
  6. ↑ Speer, David (June 1974). "Curtain Going Up-In Minnesota". The Rotarian: 33.
  7. ↑ Huey, Steve; Rovi. "Ferrante & Teicher Biography". CMT. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
  8. ↑ "NME Artists". NME.
  9. ↑ Thedeadrockstarsclub.com 1 - accessed April 2011
  10. ↑ Thedeadrockstarsclub.com 2 - accessed April 2011
  11. ↑ Arthur Ferrante dies at 88, Los Angeles Times

External links

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