Billy Goldenberg, Emmy-winning composer and musical director of Elvis Presley's 'Comeback Special', dies at 84
American composer and songwriter Billy Goldenberg died on Monday, August 3, at age 84. The Emmy-winner who collaborated with Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, and Diana Ross, and wrote the theme songs for ‘Kojak’, ‘Rhoda’, and provided music for Steven Spielberg's ‘Duel’, died in his Manhattan apartment, as per his friend and screenwriter Gary Gerani.
Gerani is making a documentary about Goldenberg, reportedly titled, 'Fantastic Television'.
Born on February 10, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York City, the musician was the son of the famed percussionist, Juilliard teacher and author, Morris Goldenberg. He was educated at Columbia College, where he composed and arranged the Columbia Varsity Shows, and also Camp Tamiment. He took private music studies with the famous American composer, jazz pianist, and music teacher, Hall Overton.
He began his Broadway career in 1960 writing incidental music for ‘An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May’. He also arranged dance music for ‘Greenwillow’, ‘110 in the Shade’, and ‘High Spirits’. He also worked on the original musicals ‘Let It Ride’, and ‘Henry, Sweet Henry’. His main musical collaborator then was songwriter Larry Alexander.
In an interview in 1999, Goldenberg said, “Theater is what I always wanted to do, but everything changed in the '60s when new musicals came in like ‘Hair’. A lot of us who were writing for the Broadway theater, at that time, really felt alienated from it. We came to California and became film composers.”
Goldenberg wrote the themes for several television shows in the 1970s such as ‘Kojak’, ‘Harry O’, and ‘Rhoda’. He also composed pilot scores for ‘Night Gallery’ and ‘Columbo’. The composer won an Emmy for the TV-movie ‘Queen of the Stardust Ballroom’. He also won Emmys for the miniseries ‘The Lives of Benjamin Franklin’, ‘King’, and ‘Rage of Angels’. Goldenberg had 23 Emmy nominations during his career.
“A composer should be sensitive to what’s happening on the screen,” Goldenberg told the L.A. Times in 1976. “It’s better to underplay and understate, even though it often becomes a personal struggle for me because I’m very emotional, always ready to pour my heart out.”
As per Variety, Goldenberg expanded his ‘Queen of the Stardust Ballroom’ score with lyricists Marilyn and Alan Bergman, into the score of the 1978 Broadway musical ‘Ballroom’, which was directed and choreographed by Michael Bennett. The play earned eight Tony nominations including Best Musical.
For the big screen, Goldenberg worked on films including Woody Allen's ‘Play It Again, Sam’, ‘Up the Sandbox’, ‘The Last of Sheila’, ‘Busting’, ‘Reuben, Reuben’, and ‘18 Again!’. He also served as the musical director on NBC's ‘Elvis: The Comeback Special’ in 1968. He further wrote the score for ‘Change of Habit’, starring Presley and Mary Tyler Moore.
Goldenberg worked with Steven Spielberg on several occasions. First on the 1969 pilot for the anthology series ‘Night Gallery’, then for the telefilm ‘Duel’, and later on an episode of ‘Columbo’ that was directed by Spielberg.
Goldenberg reportedly quit television in the late 1990s. He returned to New York. However, in 2002, he went on the road with his longtime-friend Bea Arthur, playing piano for her one-woman Broadway show ‘…And Then There’s Bea’.
His only known survivors are cousins. A memorial service is expected to be held in California at a later date.