Frank Denny De Vol (September 20, 1911 – October 27, 1999) was an American bandleader, arranger, composer and actor. As a composer, he was nominated for four Academy Awards.
De Vol began composing music when he was 12.[1] When he was 14, he became a member of the Musicians' Union. After playing violin in his father's orchestra and appearances in a Chinese restaurant, he joined the Horace Heidt Orchestra in the 1930s, being responsible for the arrangements. Later, he toured with the Alvino Rey Orchestra, before embarking on his recording career.
Career
Arrangements
By the time De Vol was 16, "he was doing arrangements with professional skill."[1] From the 1940s, De Vol wrote arrangements for the studio recordings of many top singers, including Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett, Dinah Shore, Doris Day, Vic Damone and Jaye P. Morgan. His single most famous arrangement is probably the haunting string and piano accompaniment to Cole's "Nature Boy", which was a United States Number One in 1948. That same year, he released a version of "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" (Capitol Records 15420), that he arranged and sang lead vocals on.
The success of "Nature Boy", recorded for Capitol Records, led to an executive position for De Vol at the rival Columbia Records. There, he recorded a series of orchestral mood music albums under the studio name "Music by De Vol" (which he also used for some of his film and TV work). The 1959 album Bacchanal! (The Passions and Pageantry of Gods and Goddesses of Mythology) is an acclaimed example of De Vol's mood music; each track is by English composer Albert Harris and is named after a god or goddess of Greek mythology.
Concert appearances
In the 1950s, De Vol's orchestra played frequently at the Hollywood Palladium under the concert name "Music of the Century".
Radio
De Vol's orchestra and arrangements were available to radio stations via electrical transcriptions. His work was syndicated by Capitol Transcriptions,[2] for which he also was musical director.[3]
De Vol also composed the jingle for the Screen Gems' "Dancing Sticks" logo (1963–1965), which appeared on all television series produced by the television division of Columbia Pictures.
De Vol is best recognized for his television theme tunes, like Family Affair, The Brady Bunch and My Three Sons.[4] The My Three Sons theme was musically complex, with a marimba playing a triplet obligato (the famous tune "Chopsticks") over the melody in 4 4 time, and was a hit single in 1961. He composed scores for episodes of McCloud and The Love Boat, amongst other work for television.
Beginning in 1969, "The Fuzz" became the theme song of Brazilian television newscast Jornal Nacional.
De Vol appeared as a bandleader in the last season of My Three Sons, in addition to writing the theme music and serving as in-house composer for most of the show's twelve seasons. He also scored most episodes of Family Affair, including many of the same incidental music cues as My Three Sons.
In 1980, he appeared in the second season of Diff'rent Strokes, in episode 22, "The Slumber Party".
De Vol preferred to be credited as "Frank De Vol" for his acting appearances, and as "De Vol" for his musical work.[5]
Personal life and death
De Vol was initiated as an honorary member of the Gamma Omega chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, in 1962.
In the mid-1990s, well into his eighties, De Vol was active in the Big Band Academy of America.
He was married twice, first to Grayce Agnes McGinty in 1935. The 54-year marriage produced two daughters, Linda Morehouse and Donna Copeland, and ended with Grayce's death in 1989. His second marriage was to television actress and big band singer Helen O'Connell from 1991 until her death in 1993.
