| Biography | Philip Green (1911 - 1982, Dublin, Ireland), started to learn the piano at the age of seven. He won a scholarship to London's Trinity College of Music when aged only thirteen, where he studied many areas of music including theory, harmony, orchestration and composition. He completed his studies by the age of eighteen, and began his professional career playing in various orchestras. Within a year he became London's youngest West End conductor at the Prince of Wales Theatre.
His long recording career began with EMI in 1933, and during the following years he directed and played piano and harpsichord on 78s with many leading bands. For several years he was a 'house arranger/conductor' at Decca, accompanying many of their star vocalists such as Gracie Fields, Denny Dennis, Donald Peers and Anne Shelton. From the mid-1940s onwards he was responsible for more than 150 film scores.
His radio and television credits were numerous: the BBC's early TV feature 'Picture Page' used his 'Shopping Centre' (resulting in a commercial recording by Charles Williams), and one of the Light Programme's most popular comedies 'Meet the Huggetts' featured 'Horse Feathers' as its signature tune - both these numbers originated from the Chappell Recorded Music Library. Two ITV shows 'Ghost Squad' and 'The Golden Shot' had Philip Green themes. |