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Remembering David Rose, 1910-1990
Composer, arranger, conductor and orchestra leader David Rose died ten years ago today in Burbank, California, on August 23, 1990, at the age of 80, from heart failure.
One of Hollywood’s busiest musical craftsmen, Rose scored 36 films and wrote themes and background music for 24 television series, while also enjoying major success as a recording artist. His best-known compositions included “Holiday for Strings” and the chart-topping instrumental “The Stripper.”
David Daniel Rose was born in London on June 15, 1910, and grew up in Chicago. He began playing piano professionally as a teenager and by the early 1930s was leading the house orchestra at radio station WGN. Moving to California in 1940, he became increasingly active in radio and subsequently joined MGM as a musical director. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army and worked on the musical Winged Victory, where he met comedian Red Skelton.
Rose’s first major popular composition was “Holiday for Strings,” recorded in the early 1940s and soon established as one of the most familiar pieces of American light orchestral music. His Hollywood career developed alongside his recording work, and in 1944 he received an Academy Award nomination for the Bob Hope comedy The Princess and the Pirate. The following year, “So in Love,” written with lyricist Leo Robin for Wonder Man, brought him a second Oscar nomination. Read more…
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