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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZWINTERHALTER, Hugo(b 15 August 1909, Wilkes-Barre PA; d 17 September 1973, Greenwich CN) Arranger, conductor. Studied at New England Conservatory, wrote for for Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Claude Thornhill, Will Bradley, others. He was Music Director at MGM '48-9, Columbia '49-50, RCA '50-63, and Kapp. At RCA his arrangements for Eddie Fisher, Dinah Shore, the Ames Brothers and others had a distinctive freshness. His own biggest hit was 'Canadian Sunset' '56 with its composer Eddie Heywood on piano; it sold two million copies. His recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue '53 with the excellent Byron Janis on piano made it swing more than most, and is still this writer's favorite. He lost a son in Vietnam: PFC Hugh Winterhalter (b '33) was said to have been a door gunner on a Huey helicoptor but switched to the engineers; he was driving a bulldozer in a land clearance project when a large tree limb broke off and fell on him. The machine did not have a steel cage over the driver. |