Ira Newborn

Who is Ira Newborn?

Ira Newborn is an American musician and composer, best known for his work composing motion picture soundtracks.

Among the many movies Newborn has scored or for which he has written songs are Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Mallrats, the smoky jazz score for Into the Night, for which he wrote music for B.B. King, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. He frequently worked with director John Hughes. He also stepped in as musical director and producer for The Blues Brothers. Newborn's many film credits also include a small acting role in Xanadu, in which he appears as a 1940's band leader.

Newborn’s most famous association is possibly as the soundtrack composer for the Naked Gun series of police satires starring Leslie Nielsen. Newborn’s brassy big band/blues theme song for the franchise first appeared on the TV series that inspired the movies, 1982’s Police Squad!.

Newborn has also worked in concerts, commercials, Broadway, and the recording industry as performer, arranger, composer and conductor.

Newborn is also a professor at New York University, from which he received his bachelor’s degree in 1972. Influenced by everything from Johann Sebastian Bach to James Brown to the Beatles, guitarist Newborn led and played in several musical groups before signing on as the musical director for the vocal group The Manhattan Transfer.