Syd Dale

Syd Dale (May 20, 1924 – August 15, 1994) was born in York, England. He was a self taught composer and arranger of easy listening, funk, jazz and library music. His music played an important role on TV, radio and advertising media of the 1960s and 1970s. It is still extensively used on today's shows. Dale started as an apprentice engineer at Rowntree's chocolate factory at 16. Soon big band music, very popular in the 1940s, became his passion. He spent as much time as possible listening to the Big Bands and studying the arrangements. Three years later, in 1945, he left the factory and joined several local bands as pianist and arranger. His music, which emphasized melody and harmony with intricate arrangements, was composed for many television and radio projects. He was musical director on Oh Boy, Six-Five Special and Braden's Week. He had also co-arranged and co-produced some 007 themes as many other commercial successes. Another of his many production music pieces, the bongo drum and harpsichord-driven "Cuban Presto" (originally released on the 1966 KPM album Accent on Percussion), was used by WPIX (Channel 11) in New York City as the theme for its late-night movie show, The Channel 11 Film Festival, from the late 1960s to the 1980s. In 1971, he founded Amphonic Music record label, with the purpose of recording and producing his compositions and supplying music to the TV, film and radio business. In the mid-1970s, he released a track for the disco/teen market called "The Flasher", creating a dance craze of skipping backwards and forwards on the dance floor widely demonstrated at Spenborough Youth Club, West Yorkshire. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.