Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
All Music Guide:
Holiday chorale conductor and arranger Harry Simeone was responsible for popularizing the yuletide perennial "The Little Drummer Boy." Born in Newark, NJ, on May 9, 1911, Simeone had a childhood affection for the Metropolitan Opera, which inspired him to pursue a career as a concert pianist. After graduating from the Juilliard School of Music, he went to work at CBS Radio as an arranger for popular bandleader Fred Waring, even marrying one of Waring's vocalists, Margaret McCravy. In 1939 Simeone relocated to Hollywood to work as an arranger at Paramount Pictures, collaborating with composer Victor Young on a series of films, including 1944's Bing Crosby vehicle Here Come the Waves as well as several of Crosby's "Road" movies with Bob Hope. Simeone rejoined Waring in 1945, then in 1952 signed on as the conductor and choral arranger for television's The Firestone Hour.
In 1958 Simeone contracted with the 20th Century Fox label to record a Christmas LP. In the midst of assembling the 25-member Harry Simeone Chorale, he also began seeking material to record, discovering "The Little Drummer Boy" via friend Henry Onorati. The song, of unknown origin but presumably based on melodies of both Czech and Spanish descent, was given English-language lyrics by Katherine Davis in 1941 but not recorded until 1957, when it appeared on the Jack Halloran Singers' Onorati-arranged Christmas Is A-Comin'. Simeone loved the song, and made it the first single from his 1958 LP, Sing We Now of Christmas. "The Little Drummer Boy" was immediately hailed as a modern classic, generating some 150 cover versions and global sales topping 25 million. In 1960 Simeone returned to the charts with "Onward Christian Soldiers," and in 1962 returned to Bethlehem with a second enduring seasonal favorite, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" He died in New York City on February 22, 2005.
Wikipedia:
Harry Moses Simeone (May 9, 1911, Newark, New Jersey - February 22, 2005, New York City, United States) was a distinguished music arranger, conductor and composer, best known for arranging the famous Christmas song "The Little Drummer Boy", for which he received co-writing credit.
Early years
Harry grew up listening to stars performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, not far from his native Newark, New Jersey. Initiated and inspired by this childhood passion, he sought a career as a concert pianist. To this end, he enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music, which he attended for three years. But when he was offered work at CBS as an arranger for bandleader Fred Waring, he dropped out of Juilliard to accept it.
Initial prominence
After garnering vocal and music arrangement credits for the 1938 RKO motion picture Radio City Revels, Simeone relocated to Hollywood with his wife Margaret McCravy, who briefly sang with Benny Goodman's orchestra, using the stage name Margaret McCrae, and later with Fred Waring. Once there, he had various music production jobs for several Paramount films between 1939 and 1946, including some that starred Bing Crosby. Sometime in 1948, Simeone joined NBC's The Swift Show as the program's orchestra leader, and during 1952, he joined NBC's The Firestone Hour as conductor and choral arranger.
"The Little Drummer Boy"
When the Twentieth-Century Fox Records label contracted Simeone to make a Christmas album in 1958, he assembled a group he called "The Harry Simeone Chorale" and searched for recording material. After being introduced to an obscure song by friend and credited song co-author Henry Onorati titled "Carol of the Drum," Simeone changed the title to "The Little Drummer Boy" and recorded it under that title for his album Sing We Now of Christmas. He received joint authorship-and-composition credit for the album, although he did not actually write or compose the song. The single "The Little Drummer Boy" quickly became extremely popular and scored on the U.S. music charts from 1958 to 1962. The Simeone Chorale had another Christmas success during 1962, with their rendition of the then-new song "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
In 1960, Simeone joined a revived half-hour version of The Kate Smith Show on CBS television, produced by Smith's long-time manager, Ted Collins. Though the program had good reviews, audience levels lagged at an early evening time, and the show was cancelled after some six months on the air.
In the same year, 1960, Simeone organized another group which he called "The Harry Simeone Songsters," whose style he made similar to that of the Ray Conniff Singers. That year, under his direction, the Songsters produced a baseball-oriented song in 1960 called "It's a Beautiful Day for a Ballgame." The song is on one of the Baseball's Greatest Hits CDs and is still played at major league baseball parks.
In 1964, Simeone signed with Kapp Records. In the next year, 1965, he recorded a new version of "The Little Drummer Boy" for his album O' Bambino - The Little Drummer Boy.
His last years
On May 22, 2000, Simeone and his wife, by then living on the Upper East Side of New York City, officially established the Harry and Margaret Simeone Music Scholarship at Yale University by bestowing a gift of US$1 million. Margaret died the following year, after which Harry's health declined. On Tuesday, February 22, 2005, Harry died at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan, almost three months before he would have reached the age of 94.
