Randy Edelman (born June 10, 1947) is an American musician, producer, and composer for film and television. He began his career as a member of Broadway's pit orchestras; he later produced solo albums for songs that were picked up by leading music performers including The Carpenters, Barry Manilow, and Dionne Warwick. He is known for his work in comedy films. He has been awarded many prestigious awards along with two nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and twelve BMI Awards. Edelman was given an honorary doctorate in fine arts by the University of Cincinnati in 2004. Some of Edelman's best known films scores include Twins, Ghostbusters II, Kindergarten Cop, Drop Dead Fred, Beethoven, The Distinguished Gentleman, Gettysburg, Angels in the Outfield, The Mask, Pontiac Moon, The Indian in the Cupboard, Dragonheart, Daylight, and XXX. He also wrote the theme of the popular television series MacGyver. Many of his musical pieces have been reused in television advertising, trailers, Disney movies, and award shows.

Life and career

Edelman was born on 10 June 1947 in Paterson, New Jersey, to a Jewish family. He was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, the son of a first-grade teacher and an accountant, and graduated from Teaneck High School in 1965. He attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before heading to New York where he played piano in Broadway pit orchestras. He produced several solo albums of songs, some of which were later recorded by The Carpenters ("I Can't Make Music", "Piano Picker" and "You"), Barry Manilow ("Weekend in New England"), "If Love Is Real" from Olivia Newton-John's Making a Good Thing Better, Dionne Warwick ("The Laughter and the Tears"), Blood, Sweat & Tears ("Blue Street") and many others before moving to Los Angeles. Edelman started to work there in television and film scoring, while producing his solo albums which found a cult following in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Japan.

Musical scores

One of his first film scores was for the 1973 film Executive Action, which put forward a conspiracy theory concerning the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963. In 1977 Edelman contributed the orchestral piece 'Grey' to the multi-composer suite Colours, put together and conducted by Vic Lewis. In the mid-1980s, Edelman wrote the theme to and scored many episodes of MacGyver, a popular television series starring Richard Dean Anderson. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he also collaborated with Ivan Reitman, producing scores for several of his comedies, including Drop Dead Fred, Ghostbusters II, Pontiac Moon, Twins, and Kindergarten Cop. He also contributed to Beethoven; The Last of the Mohicans; The Distinguished Gentleman; The Mask; Daylight; Anaconda; XXX; Gettysburg; My Cousin Vinny; While You Were Sleeping; Dragonheart; Shanghai Noon; Six Days, Seven Nights; The Indian in the Cupboard; Billy Madison; Angels in the Outfield; and EDtv to name a few. Edelman was honored with the Richard Kirk Award at the 2003 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. In 2004, he received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the University of Cincinnati. He and three other honorees distinguished in other fields, including Coretta Scott King were given the degree. He produced the scores for the 2008 film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. This score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, where in 2010 Edelman also recorded and composed the Irish flavored music score for Amy Adams's film Leap Year. He was awarded the Goldspirit Award (named in honor of Jerry Goldsmith) for best comedy score of 2011 for the Leap Year soundtrack CD on Varèse Sarabande.

Scores reused elsewhere

While some of the films scored by Edelman were not commercial successes, the music was often reused elsewhere. Themes he wrote for Kindergarten Cop (in particular Rain Ride), Dragonheart, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (including the film's love theme Bruce and Linda), Gettysburg, and other films have been widely used in television advertising, film trailers, Disney movies including Mulan, and during the Academy Awards. Themes from his score for Come See the Paradise have been used in film trailers more than cues from any other film soundtrack.

NBC Sports

His music from The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. is featured during NBC's Olympic Games coverage when upcoming events are being announced. In addition it was used during NBC's coverage of the 1997 World Series. At the end of the 1996 Summer Olympics, NBC used the closing music of Gettysburg. In the 1990s, Edelman composed the popular theme music for NBC's NFL telecasts which was used for the 1995–97 seasons through Super Bowl XXXII.

Personal life

Edelman has been married to singer Jackie DeShannon since June 3, 1976. DeShannon is known for 1960s hits including "When You Walk in the Room", "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" and "What the World Needs Now Is Love". DeShannon had a few months' long, annulled first marriage. She and Edelman have a son, Noah D. Edelman.

Musical discography (as artist and songwriter)

Solo albums

Charted solo singles

Artists who have covered Edelman's songs (both music and lyrics)

(this is a partial list)

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards, milestones and announcements

Platinum and gold Records Barry Manilow Greatest Hits, Live, This One's for You Saturn Awards International Film Music Critics Association Nomination Best Original Score for Television for ABC's mini-series Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Emmy Awards Golden Globes Award British Academy of Film and Television Awards Nomination Kautz Alumni Masters Awards Goldspirit Awards ** Long Island International Film Expo**