Billy May

Who was Billy May?

William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet, Batman, and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven, and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among others.

May also wrote arrangements for many top singers, including Frank Sinatra, Nat "King" Cole, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Sandler and Young, Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, The Andrews Sisters and Ella Mae Morse. He also collaborated with satirist Stan Freberg on several classic 1950s and 1960s satirical music albums.

As a trumpet player, during the 1940s big-band era, May recorded such songs as "Measure for Measure", "Long Tall Mama", and "Boom Shot", with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, and "The Wrong Idea", "Lumby", and "Wings Over Manhattan" with Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra. With his own band, May had a hit single, "Charmaine", in 1952, and he released an album, Sorta-May.