The composer and producer Herbert Chappell has died. Chappell had his fingers in a lot of pies. For television, he wrote music for “The Pallisers” and “Paddington Bear.” He also worked in feature films in the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.
He achieved a popular and critical success with his documentary “African Sanctus,” which follows composer David Fanshawe on his quest to write and record his most famous work. The piece juxtaposes the Latin Mass with traditional African music.
Without doubt, however, Chappell’s greatest coup was the deal he cut on behalf of Decca records for his production of the first “Three Tenors” telecast. No one, not even the tenors themselves, anticipated its staggering success. This led to some resentment on behalf of the artists, who had taken their cut upfront. (Luciano Pavarotti, a Decca artist, was able to renegotiate his contract for an additional $1.5 million.)
Let’s just say that Herbert Chappell was not your stereotypical starving artist.
To include in my “31 Days of Halloween” posts, I was hoping to locate an online audio file of Chappell’s “Boy Wizard,” an overture clearly inspired by Harry Potter. Instead, I came up with countless videos of “The Gonk,” which achieved cult status thanks to its use in George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead.”
More recently the music has been used to sell Newcastle Brown Ale:
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7I07/newcastle-brown-ale-great-times
Herbert Chappell was 85 years-old.
A more complete biography:
http://www.musicsalesclassical.com/composer/short-bio/herbert-chappell
“The Gonk:”
A little more substantial, Chappell’s “Caribbean Concerto” for guitar and orchestra:
PHOTOS: (counterclockwise from top) Chappell, the Three Tenors, and three zombies
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