Johnny Mandel Biography

Johnny Mandel (born 23 November 1925 in New York) is an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz.

Among the musicians he has worked with are Count Basie (for whom he arranged in the 1950s), Frank Sinatra (for whom he arranged Ring a Ding Ding, 1960) and Shirley Horn.

In 1966 he and Paul Francis Webster won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for The Shadow of Your Smile (Love Theme from The Sandpiper), which has been performed by hundreds of artists including Tony Bennett, for whom it became a recognition song.

He won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) in 1992 for Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" and again in 1993 for Shirley Horn's "Here's to Life".

At the age of 80, he contributed importantly on Tony Bennett's Grammy-awarded 2004 The Art Of Romance as the arranger and conducting the orchestra. Both had collaborated before on Bennett's classic Movie Song Album in 1966, for which Mandel arranged and conducted his own two standard film songs and was the album's musical director.

Among Mandel's most famous compositions are "Suicide is Painless" (theme from the movie and TV series M*A*S*H), "Close enough for love", "Emily" and "A Time for Love". He has written a great many film scores, perhaps most notably The Sandpiper.

Mandel and Paul Francis Webster collaborated on the Oscar-winning song "The Shadow of Your Smile" from the film The Sandpiper in 1965.