Although Riddle would write various arrangements for Sinatra until the late 1970s, Strangers In The Night, released in 1966, was the last full album project the pair completed together. Though he had helped Nat achieve his biggest hit, “Mona Lisa”, Sinatra was still reluctant. There was a great mutual respect between them.
The couple had six children. After his graduation from Rumson High School, Riddle spent his late teens and early 20s playing trombone in and occasionally arranging for various local dance bands, culminating in his association with the Charlie Spivak Orchestra.1982 saw Riddle work for the last time with Ella Fitzgerald, on her last orchestral Pablo album, The Best Is Yet to Come.In 1963, Riddle joined Sinatra's newly-established label Reprise Records, under the musical direction of Morris Stoloff.
NELSON RIDDLE was one of the greatest arrangers in the history of American popular music. Had seven children with wife Doreen: Nelson III (born 1947), Rosemary (born 1948), Christopher Riddle (born 1950), Bettina (born 1954), Leonora Celeste (born 1957, died age six months), Cecily Jean (born 1962), Maureen Alicia (born 1962). He found commercial and critical success again in the 1980s with a trio of albums with vocalist Linda Ronstadt.Connect your Spotify account to your Last.fm account and scrobble everything you listen to, from any Spotify app on any device or platform.In 1982, Riddle was approached by Linda Ronstadt to write arrangements for an album of pop standards Ronstadt had been contemplating since her stint in Pirates of Penzance.
During this time he continued working for the Charlie Spivak Orchestra and he studied orchestration under his fellow merchant marine, composer Alan Shulman.
In 1962, Riddle orchestrated two albums for Ella Fitzgerald, Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson, and Ella Swings Gently with Nelson, their first work together since 1959's Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook. After his enlistment term ended, Riddle travelled to Chicago to join the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1944; he remained the orchestra's third trombone for eleven months until drafted by the United States Army in April, 1945.While in the Army, Riddle married his first wife Doreen Moran in 1945. The first product of the Riddle-Sinatra partnership, "I've Got The World On A String," became a runaway hit and is often credited with relaunching the singer's slumping career. Riddle and his family had a summer house in Rumson, New Jersey.
These first two albums were such a boost for Dad. Riddle had an extra-marital affair with singer Rosemary Clooney in the 1960s, which contributed to the breakup of their respective marriages. Her checks won't bounce."Riddle was to stay at Capitol for another decade, during which time he continued to arrange for Sinatra and Cole, in addition to such Capitol artists as Kate Smith, Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Keely Smith, Sue Raney, and Ed Townsend. His father was an amateur musician who performed in a local band, and Riddle learned classical piano as a child, later switching to trombone at age 14.
(A textbook on arranging by Riddle. His first noted Arranged by Nelson Riddle 1985, Warner Bros. Publications. He also found time to release his own instrumental albums on the label, most notably Hey…Let Yourself Go (1957) and C'mon…Get Happy (1958), both of which peaked at a respectable number twenty on the Billboard charts.In the latter half of the 1960s, the partnership between Riddle and Frank Sinatra grew more distant as Sinatra began increasingly to turn to Don Costa, Billy May and an assortment of other arrangers for his album projects. He would tell us just how amazing it felt to be “back on the charts” again. He then became a staff arranger at NBC Radio in 1947, and continued to study arranging and conducting with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Victor Young.His motion picture and television credits include “The Young at Heart”, “High Society”, “Pal Joey”, “Paint Your Wagon”, “The Tender Trap”, “Can-Can”, “Li’l Abner”, “”A Hole in the Head”, “The Great Gatsby” (for which he received an Academy Award for musical adaptation), “The Untouchables”, “Naked City” and “Route 66”, the first TV theme to become a chart-topper.
The collection of Riddle-arranged songs was intended to expand on the success of the title track, which had been a number one hit single for Sinatra arranged by Ernie Freeman.In 1952, Capitol Records executives viewed the up-and-coming Riddle as a prime choice to arrange for the newly-arrived Frank Sinatra.
A few months later he married Naomi Tenenholtz, then his secretary, with whom he would remain for the rest of his life. Riddle moved shortly thereafter to Hollywood to pursue his career as an arranger and spent the next several years writing arrangements for multiple radio and record projects.Riddle was born in Oradell, New Jersey, the only child of Marie Albertine Riddle and Nelson Smock Riddle, Sr., and later moved to nearby Ridgewood. Nelson Riddle is a American Arranger, Composer, Bandleader, Orchestrator, who was born on 1 June, 1921 in Oradell, NJ. Age 64 years (age at death) old.