Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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ANDERSON, Leroy

(b 29 June 1908, Cambridge MA; d 18 May 1975, Woodbury CT) Composer, arranger, conductor. Graduated with honours from Harvard in 1929, he was a choirmaster, organist, and played bass in orchestras, and began arranging with Arthur Fiedler's Boston Pops from 1935. His clever little orchestral works were often introduced by Fiedler; under own name 'The Syncopated Clock' written in 1946 was no. a 12 hit USA '51, and the lovely 'Blue Tango' in the charts for 38 weeks '51 reaching no. 1. 'Forgotten Dreams' charted in the UK '57. His famous tunes included 'Sleigh Ride', 'Belle of the Ball', and 'Fiddle Faddle'; he also wrote a piano concerto, and in 1958 the tuneful score of a Broadway musical, Goldilocks. A two-CD MCA set of Anderson conducting his own works foolishly included stereo remakes instead of the originals; the best orchestra in the world could not play his music the same way it sounded before the rock era. For the 21st century there are two Naxos CDs of Anderson's bon-bons with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin.