Neal Hefti; noted arranger wrote theme songs to 'Batman,' 'Odd Couple'

NEAL HEFTI (Wally Wingert/4-i's Production/file)

LOS ANGELES - Neal Hefti, a former big band trumpeter, arranger, and composer who worked with Count Basie and Woody Herman and later composed the memorable themes for the movie "The Odd Couple" and the campy hit TV series "Batman," died Saturday at his suburban Los Angeles home. He was 85.

His son, Paul, said he did not know the cause of death but said his father had been in good health.

"Everybody in the music business loved Neal Hefti," radio and television personality Gary Owens, a longtime friend, said yesterday. "He was one of the really great arrangers and composers of all time. He worked with all those guys - Charlie Spivak, Harry James, Woody Herman - and he made arrangements that were just spectacular."

Described as "one of the most influential big band arrangers of the 1940s and '50s" in "The Encyclopedia of Popular Music," Mr. Hefti turned his attention to composing for film and television in the 1960s.

Among his credits as a film composer are "Sex and the Single Girl," "Harlow" (one of his most famous tunes, "Girl Talk," came out of the score), "How to Murder Your Wife," "Boeing Boeing," "Duel at Diablo," "Barefoot in the Park," "A New Leaf," "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" and "The Odd Couple," a theme he reprised for the 1970s TV series.

Mr. Hefti also gained notice for composing the energetic title theme for "Batman," the over-the-top 1966-68 superhero series that became an overnight sensation.

It was, Mr. Hefti said, the hardest piece of music he wrote.

"I tore up a lot of paper," he told Jon Burlingame, author of "TV's Biggest Hits," a 1996 book on television themes. "It did not come easy to me. . . . I just sweated over that thing, more so than any other single piece of music I ever wrote. I was never satisfied with it."

"Batman," he said, "was not a comedy. This was about unreal people. Batman and Robin were both very, very serious. The bad guys would be chasing them, and they would come to a stop at a red light, you know. They wouldn't break the law even to save their own lives. So there was a grimness and a self-righteousness about all this."

Mr. Hefti said it took him "the better part of a month" to come up with the theme.

His "musical solution to a combined dramatic and comedic problem," Burlingame wrote in his book, "was perfect: bass guitar, low brass and percussion to create a driving rhythm, while an eight-voice chorus sings 'Batman!' in harmony with the trumpets. It was part serious, part silly: just like the series."

Mr. Hefti's "Batman" tune became a Top 40 hit and won a 1966 Grammy Award for best instrumental theme.

The son of a traveling salesman, Neal Hefti was born in Hastings, Neb. He began playing the trumpet at age 11. His family was poor, and in high school he started playing in local bands during summer vacation to help his family financially.

He began writing arrangements in high school for local bands, and some of his arrangements were used by the Earl Hines band.

In 1941, two days before his high school graduation, Mr. Hefti was asked to tour with the Dick Barry band, which had lost some of its musicians to the military.

The short-lived job ended in New Jersey. But other jobs followed, including playing with the Bob Astor, Charlie Barnet, Bobby Byrne, Horace Heidt, and Charlie Spivak bands.

Mr. Hefti, who was classified 4-F during World War II after being hit by a car in New York and breaking his pelvis, joined Woody Herman's band in 1944.

He did the arrangements for many of that band's popular recordings, including composing and arranging "The Good Earth" and "Wild Root." He also co-arranged, with Ralph Burns, "Caledonia."

In 1945, Mr. Hefti married the Herman band's lead female vocalist, Frances Wayne. They remained together until her death in 1978.

He formed his own band in 1951, with his wife as lead vocalist. But after two years of touring, he returned to arranging and studio work.

As a composer and arranger for Basie in the 1950s, Mr. Hefti composed numerous tunes that were featured on Basie albums.

That included the Grammy Award-winning album "Basie," which Mr. Hefti produced. Known as "Atomic Basie" because of the atomic explosion pictured on the cover, the album featured 11 songs composed and arranged by Mr. Hefti, including "Splanky," "Kid from Red Bank," and "Lil' Darlin," which Mr. Hefti wrote for his daughter.

He retired in 1976.

In addition to his son, Paul, a music composer, Mr. Hefti leaves a brother, Joe; a sister, Pat Wacha; and three grandchildren.