Angelo Badalamenti Vinyl Records
Best-known for his hauntingly atmospheric work with filmmaker David Lynch, composer Angelo Badalamenti was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1938; a classically trained performer, he spent the early years of his career playing the Catskills resort area, later writing and arranging for singers including Shirley Bassey and country star Mel Tillis. Under the name Andy Badale, he entered the film industry in 1973, debuting with the score to the action film Gordon's War. Despite subsequent work on such features as 1974's Law and Disorder and 1976's Across the Great Divide, Badalamenti remained largely unknown before hooking up with Lynch on the soundtrack of the director's 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet; they subsequently worked together on the features Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, and The Straight Story. Perhaps the most famous fruit of their collaboration was the cult hit television series Twin Peaks, for which Badalamenti created one of the most distinctive and evocative theme songs in TV history.