Angelo Badalamenti

Born in Brooklyn, New York on March 22, 1937, composer and arranger Angelo Badalamenti was best known by his long and successful association with US film producer David Lynch. His most recognizable work can be found on the soundtrack to Lynch’s popular mid-1990s murder mystery TV series Twin Peaks. The accompanying soundtrack included an atmospheric theme tune characterized by a dreamy, ethereal string arrangement overlaid with a starkly simple Duane Eddy-style guitar melody. However, Angelo Badalamenti’s work with David Lynch began years before Twin Peaks. The composer initially collaborated with Lynch on one of the director's most successful creations - the 1986 film Blue Velvet. The film's soundtrack broke away from existing soundtrack convention by blending vintage pop songs with the orchestral score. Lynch had originally briefed Angelo Badalamenti by asking him to write in a style similar to Shostakovich but ‘dark and a little bit scary’. Outside of his collaborations with Lynch, Angelo Badalamenti also scored such films as Gordon’s War (1973), A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Warriors (1987), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), Naked in New York (1993), Auto Focus (2002), The Wicker Man (2006), and Between Worlds (2018). Angelo Badalamenti's distinctive and unorthodox film score work earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Awards and a Henry Mancini Award from the American Society of Composers. He also took home a Grammy Award for his work on the Twin Peaks soundtrack. Outside of his film work, Angelo Badalamenti also co-wrote songs performed by artists such as the Wynton Kelly Trio, Nina Simone, Roy Hamilton, Ed Ames, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Bassey, Melba Moore, and many others. Angleo Badalamenti died on December 11, 2022, at the age of 85.