While I wouldn’t ordinarily equate them with Sergei Prokofiev and Sergei Eisenstein, the symbiotic relationship of Angelo Badalamenti and David Lynch – and their working methods – were astonishingly similar. Badalamenti could never have done what Prokofiev did on “Alexander Nevsky,” but at the same time, Prokofiev, despite his fondness for the grotesque, could never have crafted the moody scores conjured by Badalamenti for “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks.”
Lynch’s musical good luck charm also appeared as an espresso-obsessed gangster in “Mulholland Drive” and accompanied Isabella Rossellini from the piano in her onscreen performance of “Blue Velvet.”
Julee Cruise, with whom Badalamenti collaborated several times, including on the hit single “Falling” (her vocals overlaid onto the “Twin Peaks” theme music), died earlier this year, in June. Lynch can currently be seen in an amusing cameo, as crusty director John Ford, in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.”
Angelo Badalamenti died yesterday at the age of 85. R.I.P.
Badalamenti’s “Twin Peaks” theme (instrumental):
With Cruise’s vocals:
TOP: Badalamenti has Rossellini’s back
BOTTOM: With Lynch and Cruise