Song:Finale
Album;West Side Story: Original Soundtrack
Johnny Green is best known for writing the standard Body and Soul. That was enough to get him in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. But he was very versatile. In this case, he conducted Leonard Bernstein's score for the 1961 film West Side Story. He was born Oct. 10, 1908 in New York City. While attending Harvard, Green wrote and arranged the 1928 song Coquette with Gus Kahn for Guy Lombardo. Then he wrote Body and Soul with Yip Harburg for Gertrude Lawrence. Green was her accompanist. Of course this song is now a standard. Among Green's other songs were I Wanna Be Loved and I Cover The Waterfront. He also worked for Paramount Pictures in New York. After leading his own orchestra in the 30s and working as a musical director in radio, Green moved to Hollywood to work for MGM. He was musical director from 1949-59 so he was a big part of most of the MGM musicals of that era. After that he toured as a guest conductor of orchestras. And he still worked in film and TV. He won one of his four Oscars for conducting West Side Story. His other Oscars were for Easter Parade, An American in Paris and Oliver!. It looks like he retired after working on the film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. He died on May 15, 1989 at age 80. Here's the Finale of the 1961 film West Side Story with music conducted by Johnny Green.
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