The saxophonist who gave the voice to the pink panther has died

Few may recognize Johnson’s name, but his playing has been heard by millions: the American studio musician’s iconic tenor sax solo The pink panther in the theme music is one of the most recognizable tunes in film history.

Johnson’s performance embodies the composition’s playful mystery and graceful pacing. The theme music was composed in 1963 by an American film composer Henry Mancini.

The logo belongs to the movie The pink pantherfor which Mancini also composed the music. It’s about by Blake Edwards a slapstick-style detective comedy directed by Peter Sellers played bumbling French police inspector Jacques Clouseau.

Mancini wrote The pink panther -the theme song for the film specifically with Johnson in mind.

“I almost always choose the players in advance and write the music for them and according to their style. Plas had exactly the sound and style I was looking for,” Mancini recalled in his 1989 book, kertoo The New York Times.

The world-famous solo is heard during the animated opening credits, as the smoking, monocle-wearing, mysterious, graceful, and at the same time humorous pink panther bustles about in the foreground. Johnson first plays a soft and playful theme, then starts to improvise a solo and returns to the theme at the end.

While composing theme Mancini did not know about the existence of the animated panther, as the initial texts were created only later. Mancini composed the theme for the film in style a jewel thief in mind.

“He was smooth and sophisticated. The character reminded me of the song titled Jimmy Valentine. There were several scenes in the film where David [näyttelijä David Niven] crept around on tiptoes. I started composing a theme for him. It was one of the few times I composed the theme before I had seen the film itself,” Mancini said in his 1989 biography.

Cold the song, recorded on a winter morning, was completed in just two takes.

“When we finished, everyone was clapping – even the string players. And that’s saying a lot. They don’t usually clap for anything,” saxophonist Plas Johnson later recalled.

Released as a single The Pink Panther Theme won three Grammy Awards.

The pink panther music belongs to the Grammy Hall of Fame. The American Film Institute ranked the film’s music number 20 when it listed the 100 greatest film scores of all time.

The pink panther the music was also nominated for an Oscar, but lost Maija Poppanen to the music.

The pink one the panther in addition, Johnson’s resume includes several 1950s rock ‘n’ roll hits, television series theme songs, and recordings with superstars.

The saxophonist worked, among other things Frank Sinatran, Ella Fitzgeraldin, Marvin Gayen and Nat King Colen, B. B. Kingin, by Joni Mitchell and with The Beach Boys, kertoo The Rolling Stone.