1970 Ferrante And Teicher – Midnight Cowboy
Arthur Ferrante and Louis Teicher met in 1930 while studying at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. They began performing as a duo, playing pianos. They became members of the faculty at the school after they graduated.
The pair began playing in clubs and touring in concert in 1947. To prepare for their shows, they practiced at Steven Tyler’s grandmother’s house. They began recording singles in 1950 and albums in 1952. Their major sales came with a series of recordings of movie theme songs beginning with the top ten single Theme from The Apartment in 1960. After two more top ten releases on the Hot 100, they continued selling albums but were unable to have much of an impact on the charts until 1969.
John Barry composed the score for the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. They used his recording of the theme song in the film’s soundtrack and eventually won a Grammy award for the Best Instrumental Theme, but his single release didn’t even reach the Hot 100.
Johnny Mathis released a version of the song in 1969 using lyrics written by Jack Gold, who also produced the recording. His single reached #20 on the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart, also without reaching the Hot 100 chart.
Ferrante & Teicher had the hit version thanks, in part, to the guitar part on their record. The single peaked at #10 on the Hot 100 and reached #2 on the AC chart.
The pair recorded dozens of albums and continued appearing in concert until they retired in 1989.
Louis died after a heart attack in 2008. Arthur often said he intended to live one year for each key on a piano, and he died twelve days after his 88th birthday in 2009.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrante_%26_Teicher
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Cowboy#Theme_song
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