Prolific Composer Dies at 88

You may not know the name Earle H. Hagen, but odds are very good you’re quite familiar with his music. It’s Earle who wrote and whistled the folksy theme tune for The Andy Griffith Show, but he also wrote themes for a surprising number of popular TV shows, including I Spy, The Mod Squad, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and nearly 3,000 others. But Hagen wasn’t just a writer of TV theme music. He was just 20 years old when he collaborated with Dick Rogers and wrote the jazz classic, “Harlem Nocturne” for the Ray Noble Orchestra in 1939. Hagen learned the trombone and was so proficient at it, he graduated early, and by age 16 was playing and touring with big bands, such as Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. In 1941, at age 22, Hagen took a job as staff musician at CBS, but the very next year, he enlisted in the military. When the war ended, he worked as both composer and orchestrator for 20th Century Fox studios on dozens of movies, including the Marilyn Monroe classic, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. In 1960, he and Dick Rogers again collaborated on another Marilyn Monroe film, Let’s Make Love, which earned them an Academy Award nomination for best musical score. He retired from TV work in 1986, then taught a workshop on film and television scoring, and also wrote three famous books on scoring. According to his wife, “The music just flowed out of him, and he would take off one hat and put on another and move on to the next show.” Hagen passed away on Monday, March 26 at age 88.