Frank Gari

Frank Gari (born Frank Daniel Garofalo[1] in New York City on April 1, 1944[2]) is a singer, songwriter, and composer.

Early life

Gari was a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a performer are "Utopia", "Lullaby of Love", and "Princess", all of which hit the U.S. Billboard top 40 charts in 1961.[3] Contributing to this early acclaim was Gari's unique rich voice blending with carefully selected melodic instrumentation and backup singers, all of which created a deep sense of magic, ethereal perfection, sincerity and emotion. With song writing partner Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, they wrote the song "Beach Ball" while working with singer Bobby Darin. Gari and McGuinn appeared on Capitol Records billed as the City Surfers. Frank performed his records on shows such as The Merv Griffin Show, The Steve Allen Show, and American Bandstand. He also performed at the world-famous "Empire Room" of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City with the Woody Herman Band. That year, he moved to Cleveland, becoming a jingle writer for television commercials. Some of his early jingles were for Ohio Bell, Genie garage doors, and early commercials for Wendy's. Frank has won numerous Emmy and Clio awards, and was later honored with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the broadcast industry.

News music compositions

Gari is best known today as a music composer and producer for television, and is also one of the most sought after composers of music for television newscasts in America. His first television theme and image campaign was the popular "Catch 5", originally written for WEWS-TV in Cleveland in 1970.

"Hello..." image campaign.

Gari created and produced the "Hello" image campaign, which has been described as "one of the most popular local television campaigns ever made"[4].

Despite an opening lyric of "There's a feeling in the air/that you can't get anywhere but..." it was recorded with localized lyrics and imagery in approximately 120 markets in the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Australia - after originating in 1977 as "Hello Milwaukee" for WISN-TV.[5].

In 2014, Gari was interviewed about the campaign on This American Life[6], Episode 520 ("No Place Like Home") after host Ira Glass interviewed a fan of "Hello Calgary" and played other renditions for the fan.

Works for ABC and other US Networks

He continued composing music for the American Broadcasting Company during the early and mid-1980s, and created such campaigns as "We're With You on ABC", "Now is the Time, ABC is the Place", and "Come On Along with ABC" with Artie Schroeck, as well as "That Special Feeling on ABC", and "You'll Love it on ABC".[7] He also composed music for Eyewitness News on ABC such as WABC-TV, ABC's Good Morning America (in 1989), CBS This Morning, The Phil Donahue Show, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Works for International Networks

Gari also had international clientele; in 1993, he composed the "Sky Symphony" theme for BSkyB in Europe, and the 1995 "It's On Sky" (also known as "No Turning Back") image piece. The Sky signature from the 1990s was spread to all the Sky channels, including Sky One, Sky Movies, and the defunct Sky Soap and Sky Movies Gold. Sky News used "The Great News Package" as their main theme from 1989 (when they launched their four-channel Astra lineup) until September 1993, and continued to use it (for main news bulletins on Sky News only) alongside the 'Sky Symphony' until 1995. He also composed the early 1990s theme for RTL in Germany called "News Line", which was later adopted by Maryland Public Television in the US, and in the Philippines it was adapted for the primetime newscast TV Patrol on ABS-CBN.

On January 12, 2015, Warner Music Group's Warner/Chappell Production Music unit acquired Gari Communications.[8].[9]

References

  1. ↑ Elizabeth Curtis. "Frank Gari". TeenageHeaven.org. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
  2. ↑ Greg Adams. "Music Weird interviews Frank Gari, teen idol and TV theme composer". Retrieved 2014-03-01.
  3. ↑ "Frank Gari - Chart History". Billboard.com. Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  4. ↑ Byrnes, Mark. "That Adorable Local Ad That Defined Your Childhood Ran in 100 Markets". CityLab. Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  5. ↑ Hill, Michael P. "12 stations that used Frank Gari's 'Hello' image campaign". Newscast Studio. HD Media Ventures LLC. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  6. ↑ https://www.thisamericanlife.org/520/no-place-like-home
  7. ↑ "Jingle Sheet Music Folio Books". 1983. Retrieved June 18, 2011.
  8. ↑ Frazer, Bryant. "Warner/Chappell Production Buys Frank Gari's Music Assets". StudioDaily.com. Access Intelligence, LLC. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  9. ↑ Production Music acquires music assets of Franck Gari Productions and Gari Communications "Warner/Chappell Production Music acquires music assets of Franck Gari Productions and Gari Communications (press release)" Check |url= value (help). Warner/Chappell Production Music. Warner Music Group. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
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