Axel Stordahl

Stordahl was born in Staten Island, New York, United States, to Norwegian immigrant parents. He began his career as a trumpeter in jazz bands that played around Long Island and the Catskills during the late 1920s and early 1930s. He also began arranging around this time, and in 1933 he joined Anthony Fanzo's orchestra in both capacities. Over the next couple of years, Stordahl sang on the side in a vocal trio dubbed the Three Esquires.{{Cite web|url=http://www.parabrisas.com/d_stordahla.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101235106/http://www.parabrisas.com/d_stordahla.php|url-status=dead|title=Axel Stordahl, biography (The encyclopedia of big band, lounge, classic jazz and space-age sounds)|archive-date=January 1, 2011}}

In 1936, he joined Tommy Dorsey's new orchestra and soon became the band's main arranger. The same year appeared their first big hit, "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You".{{Cite web|url=https://www.naxos.com/person/Axel_Stordahl/22238.htm#disco/|title=Axel Stordahl- Bio, Albums, Pictures – Naxos Classical Music.|website=Naxos.com}} The tune quickly became Dorsey's theme song. In January 1940, Frank Sinatra joined the group as vocalist, and it became apparent that Stordahl's arrangements were particularly well suited to the singer's voice.{{Cite web |url=http://www.iajrc.org/TommyDorseyEarlyYears19351939.htm |title=Tommy Dorsey And His Orchestra: The Early Years (Michael P. Zirpolo) |access-date=2010-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726164229/http://www.iajrc.org/TommyDorseyEarlyYears19351939.htm |archive-date=2011-07-26 |url-status=dead }}

In January 1942, when Sinatra convinced Dorsey to let him record four songs without Dorsey, Stordahl arranged Sinatra's very first commercial solo recordings for the RCA Victor subsidiary label Bluebird, and when Sinatra left Dorsey later that year to go solo, Stordahl went with him and became his music director. In the subsequent decade, Sinatra cut around three hundred sides for Columbia Records, of which three quarters were arranged by Stordahl. In addition, Stordahl provided the orchestral backings, both as arranger and conductor, for several hundreds of songs in various Sinatra radio programs. He was the credited orchestrator for the 1945 Academy Award-winning picture Anchors Aweigh which starred Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly.{{Cite web|url=http://thepalomar.blogspot.com/2009/08/men-behind-music-axel-stordahl.html|title=The Men Behind the Music – Axel Stordahl (The Palomar)|website=Thepalomar.blogspot.com|access-date=September 28, 2019}} His most successful songs of that time were the likes of "You'll Never Know," "Saturday Night Is the Loneliest Night of the Week," "They Say It's Wonderful," and "Mam'selle." In 1946 they recorded the album The Voice which was the first album with 8 ballads. His other songs as a composer such as "I Should Care" (1945), "Day by Day" (1946), and "Night after Night" (1949) were written with Paul Weston and Sammy Cahn.

Stordahl was admired for his skills in framing Sinatra's voice, creating a soft, opulent sound with swirling strings, understated rhythms and woodwinds. He was one of the first American arrangers to tailor his accompaniments to the vocal qualities of a specific singer. When Sinatra moved to Capitol Records in 1953, Stordahl arranged his first recording session there. Afterwards, however, Sinatra worked extensively with Nelson Riddle, who cultivated his jazz-oriented qualities, as well as Gordon Jenkins, Billy May, Don Costa, Neal Hefti, Quincy Jones, and others.

Stordahl went on to work with other singers such as Bing Crosby, Doris Day, Eddie Fisher, Dinah Shore, Nat 'King' Cole and Dean Martin, among others. Although best known as an arranger, Stordahl also composed a number of songs of which "Day by Day" with music by Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston and lyrics by Sammy Cahn, is the best known.

In 1961, Sinatra returned to collaborate with an ailing Stordahl for his final Capitol concept album, Point of No Return.

Stordahl worked with Eddie Fisher's television program for four years and composed and orchestrated the theme to the popular television comedy series McHale's Navy.{{AllMusic |class=artist |id= p129042|tab= biography|label= Biography of Axel Stordahl|first= Steve |last= Huey|access-date= 2012-04-17}}

In 1953, Fisher was signed to do a twice-weekly 15-minute program on NBC television with Coca-Cola as sponsor. Audio of the program was recorded and broadcast on a delayed basis on NBC's radio network.{{cite news|title=Stordahl AM-TV Seg for Coca-Cola|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MAsEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Axel+Stordahl%22+radio&pg=PA9|access-date=July 17, 2015|agency=Billboard|date=April 4, 1953|page=3}}

In addition to his work as conductor on Sinatra's radio program,{{cite news|last1=Hilton|first1=Chuck|title=On The Beam|newspaper=Globe-Gazette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2824514/the_mason_city_globegazette/|agency=The Mason City Globe-Gazette|date=October 18, 1944|page=2|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = July 16, 2015}} {{Open access}} Stordahl conducted the orchestra on Eddie Fisher's Coke Time show{{cite news|title=Senator Anderson Interview Guest|newspaper=Brownwood Bulletin |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2824633/brownwood_bulletin/|agency=Brownwood Bulletin|date=June 29, 1953|page=1|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = July 16, 2015}} {{Open access}} and worked on the radio version of Your Hit Parade.{{cite news|title=Axel Stordahl, Composer, Dies|newspaper=Traverse City Record-Eagle |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2824403/traverse_city_recordeagle/|agency=Traverse City Record-Eagle|date=August 31, 1963|page=3|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = July 16, 2015}} {{Open access}}

In addition to providing orchestral accompaniment for recordings of well-known vocalists, Stordahl also conducted orchestras for instrumental-music albums, such as "Dreamtime: The Strings of Stordahl" (1953), "Jasmine & Jade" (1960), and "The Magic Islands Revisited" (1961).

Stordahl married singer June Hutton (of the Pied Pipers) in 1951. They made some joint recordings for Capitol records.

In 1967, the Los Angeles chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences established a scholarship in Stordahl's memory at the University of California, Los Angeles. Only graduate students were eligible for the $300 scholarship through the music department.{{cite news|title=Stordahl Grant Is Set Up by NARAS|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ycEAAAAMBAJ&q=Axel+Stordahl+Scholarship&pg=PA6|access-date=July 17, 2015|agency=Billboard|date=June 24, 1967|page=6}}

Stordahl died August 30, 1963, at the age of 50 of cancer in Encino, California.{{cite news|title=Axel Stordahl Dies In California|newspaper=The Times Record |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2824334/the_times_record/|agency=The Times Record|date=August 31, 1963|page=19|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = July 16, 2015}} {{Open access}} He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

• "I Should Care" (1945)
• "Day by Day" (1946)
• "Ain'tcha Ever Comin' Back" (1947)
• "Night After Night" (1949)
• "Meet Me at the Copa" (1950)
• Gillespie, Dizzy: Dizzy Atmosphere (1946–1952)
• MONK, Thelonious: Monk's Moods (1944–1948)

"McHale's Navy Theme"

• Dreamtime: The String of Stordahl (1953)
• Christmas in Scandinavia (1959)
• The Lure of the Blue Mediterranean (1959)
• Jasmine & Jade (1960)
• The Magic Islands Revisited (1961)
• Guitars Around the World! (1962)

{{Reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0832428}}
• [https://www.imdb.com/media/rm206477312/nm0832428 Photograph of Axel Stordahl]
• {{AllMusic |class= artist|id=q90762 |label= "Classical Music" entry for Axel Stordahl|access-date= 2012-04-17}}

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Category:1913 births

Category:1963 deaths

Category:American male composers

Category:American music arrangers

Category:Musicians from Staten Island

Category:Musicians from Greater Los Angeles

Category:Deaths from cancer in California

Category:American people of Norwegian descent

Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

Category:20th-century American composers

Category:20th-century American male musicians