Arranger, composer, conductor, orchestra leader, and songwriter, born in London, England, and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where he received his musical education from the Chicago School of Music and worked for a short time as an arranger with NBC Radio.
In 1928, he moved to Los Angeles and was hired by the Mutual Broadcasting Network as their orchestra leader. In a move to cut costs, his orchestra was pared back to strings only, and it ironically resulted in the composition of one of his greatest hits, “Holiday For Strings”.
Marital life was no holiday for Rose, however. His marriages to Martha Raye and Judy Garland lasted less than three years apiece. Perhaps they didn’t like his trains: Rose was an avid steam enthusiast who at one time had a small-scale railroad running around his estate. A later marriage to Betty Bartholomew would produce two children and subsequently a musical granddaughter, dance pop songstress Samantha James.
Duty called in the form World War II and Rose’s musical career was justifiably interrupted by his military service. His army-inspired musical, Winged Victory, enjoyed a brief run on Broadway in 1943. After the war, he took up right where he left off, re-uniting his orchestra that he had formed during his Mutual days.
The advent of television was kind to Rose, who served as musical director for Red Skelton for twenty-one years and Little House on the Prairie in the late ’70s. His signature contribution to the medium was the theme song to the TV western Bonanza, for which he also orchestrated. It is not, however, his most ubiquitous composition. That honour falls on a little ditty he wrote in 1958 called “The Stripper”. (Yes, it’s that one.) “The Stripper” sat on a shelf for years until Rose was asked to slap together a recording of “Ebb Tide” to cash in on the popularity of the film Sweet Bird of Youth. ” The Stripper” was the B side but may as well have been the A. It rocketed to #1 on July 7, 1962, and has been used in countless films, adverts and TV shows, ever since.
Rose’s contributions to music during this time were not limited to his instantly accessible songs. He was also one of the purveyors of experimental sound techniques, like 21-track recording, double microphones, and audio-conscious stage architecture. This gave his music a multi-layered and produced sound that would have been otherwise technologically unavailable at the time. In the ’80s, he decided to experiment with classical music, writing a “Concerto for Flute and Orchestra” that was debuted by the L.A. Philharmonic. Rose’s symphonic experience does not stop there: He has conducted orchestras on three of the seven continents, including The Boston Pops, The Hollywood Bowl, The Seattle symphony, as well as a European itinerary of Berlin, Copenhagen, Hamburg, London, Paris, and Rome.
He died of a heart attack on 23rd August 1990. His musical legacy includes fifty albums, four Emmys, and some of the most instantly recognizable instrumentals ever written. He has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6514 Hollywood Blvd.
David Rose recordings
High Chaparral (David Rose)
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