Ferrante & Teicher were a duo of American pianists known for their clever arrangements of familiar classical pieces, movie soundtracks, and show tunes, as well as their signature style of florid, intricate, and fast-paced piano playing performances.
Career Arthur Ferrante (September 7, 1921, New York City – September 19, 2009, Longboat Key, Florida), and Louis Teicher (August 24, 1924, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania – August 3, 2008, Highlands, North Carolina) met while studying at the Juilliard School of Music in New York in 1930. Musical prodigies, they began performing as a piano duo while still in school. After graduating, they joined the Juilliard faculty.
In 1947, they launched a full-time concert career, at first playing nightclubs, then quickly moving up to playing classical music with orchestral backing. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith relates the story that in the 1950s the two students practiced in the home of his grandmother Constance Neidhart Tallarico. Between 1950 and 1980, they were a major American "easy listening" act and scored four big U.S. hits: "Theme from The Apartment" (Pop #10), "Theme from Exodus" (Pop #2), "Tonight" (Pop #8), and "Midnight Cowboy" (Pop #10). They performed and recorded regularly with pops orchestras popular standards by George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, the Sherman Brothers and others. In 1973, they did the Hollywood Radio Theater theme for the Rod Serling radio drama series, The Zero Hour.
The duo also experimented with prepared pianos, adding paper, sticks, rubber, wood blocks, metal bars, chains, glass, mallets, and other found objects to piano string beds. In this way they were able to produce a variety of bizarre sounds that sometimes resembled percussion instruments and at other times resulted in special effects that sounded as if they were electronically synthesized.
Both men were initiated as honorary members of Tau Kappa Epsilon at Central State University (now University of Central Oklahoma) while on tour.
Ferrante and Teicher ceased performing in 1989 and retired to Longboat Key and Siesta Key, respectively, close to each other on the west coast of Florida. They continued to play together occasionally at a local piano store.
CDs of their music, some of it not previously released, have continued to appear.
Louis Teicher died of a heart attack in August 2008, at age 83. Arthur Ferrante died of natural causes on September 19, 2009, twelve days after his 88th birthday; he had once said he wanted to live one year for each piano key. Arthur was survived by his wife, Jena; his daughter, Brenda Eberhardt; and two granddaughters.
Cultural influence The album cover of Pavement's debut Slanted and Enchanted is an altered version of Ferrante & Teicher's album Keyboard Kapers (a reissue of Dynamic Twin Pianos).
Discography Albums 1950s
Mississippi Boogie/African Echoes (1952) Joe Davis Records Piano Playhouse (1952) MGM E209 Hi-Fireworks (1953) Columbia CL-573 Can-Can & Me & Juliet (1954) Columbia CL-6264 Continental Holiday (1954) Columbia CL-6291 Xmas Hi-Fivories (1954) Westminster WL-3044 Rhapsody (1955) Urania URA-78011 Rachmaninoff Two-Piano Suites (1955) Westminster XWN-18059 Original Variations for Two Pianos (1955) Westminster XWN-18169 Ravel/Debussy (1955) Westminster XWN-18219 Encores! (1955) Westminster XWN-18786 Postcards from Paris (1955) Westminster WP-6001 Adventure in Carols (1955) Westminster WP-6021 Soundblast (1956) Westminster WP-6041 (Re-released as Soundproof WPS-107 using the 1958 Soundproof cover) Heavenly Sounds in Hi-Fi (1957) ABC ABCS-221 (Re-released in 1966 under the title Heavenly Sounds of Ferrante & Teicher, ABCS-555) Soundproof (1958) Westminster WP-6014 Ferrante & Teicher with Percussion (1958) ABCS-248 (Re-released in 1966 under the title Temptation, ABCS-561) Blast Off (1959) ABCS-285 (Overdubbed with strings and re-released in 1966 under the title We've Got Rhythm, ABCS-556) Play Light Classics (1959) ABCS-313 Themes from Broadway Shows (1959) ABCS-336
1960s
Dream Concerto (1960) UAS-6103 Dynamic Twin Pianos (1960) WWS-8504 The World's Greatest Themes (1960) UAS-6121 Latin Pianos (1960) UAS-6135 Golden Piano Hits (1961) WWS-8505 Broadway to Hollywood (1961) Columbia CS 8407 Goodbye Again OST (1961) UAS-5091 Love Themes (1961) WWS-8514 West Side Story (1961) UAS-6166 Tonight! (1961) UAS-6171 Golden Themes from Motion Pictures (1962) UAS-6210 Pianos in Paradise (1962) UAS-6230 Snowbound (1962) UAS-6233 The Keys to Her Apartment (1962) UAS-6247 Keyboard Kapers (1963) UAS–6284 (reissue of Dynamic Twin Pianos) Love Themes from Cleopatra (1963) UAS-6290 Holiday for Pianos (1963) UAS-6298 Concert for Lovers (1963) UAS-6315 Exotic Love Themes (1963) UAS-6340 Fifty Fabulous Favorites (1964) UAS-6343 My Fair Lady (1964) UAS-6361 The Enchanted World of Ferrante & Teicher (1964) UAS-6375 The People's Choice (1964) UAS-6385 Springtime (1964) UAS-6406 By Popular Demand (1965) UAS-6416 Only the Best (1965) UAS-6434 A Rage to Live OST (1965) UAS-5130 The Ferrante & Teicher Concert—Part 1 (1965) UAS-6444 The Ferrante & Teicher Concert—Part 2 (1965) UAS-6475 For Lovers of All Ages (1966) UAS-6483 You Asked for It!(1966) UAS-6526 We Wish You a Merry Christmas (1966) UAS-6536 The Twin Piano Magic Volume 2 (1966) ABC-Paramount 559 The Piano Artistry (1967) S 21004 - Unart (Canada) Our Golden Favorites (1967) UAS-6556 A Man & a Woman (1967) UAS-6572 In the Heat of the Night (1967) UAS-6624 Live for Life (1967) UAS-6632 The Painted Desert (1968) UAS-6636 A Bouquet of Hits (1968) UAS-6659 Love in the Generation Gap (1968) UAS-6671 Listen to the Movies with Ferrante & Teicher (1969) UAS-6701 Midnight Cowboy (1969) UAS-6725 (#49CAN)
1970s
Getting Together (1970) UAS-5501 (#75CAN) Love Is a Soft Touch (1970) UAS-6771 The Best of Ferrante & Teicher (1970) UAS-73 The Music Lovers (1971) UAS-6792 It's Too Late (1971) UAS-5531 Fiddler on the Roof (1972) UAS-5552 Play the Hit Themes (1972) UAS-5588 Salute Nashville (1972) UAS-5645 Hear and Now (1973) UA-LA018F The Roaring Twenties (1973) UA-LA072F Killing Me Softly (1974) UA-LA118F Dial "M" for Music (1974) UA-LA195F The Very Best of Ferrante & Teicher (1974) UA-LA379E Greatest Love Themes of the 20th Century (1975) UA-LA101-G2 In a Soulful Mood (1975) UA-LA227G Beautiful, Beautiful (1975) UA-LA316G Body & Soul (1975) UA-LA360G The Carpenters Songbook (1976) UA-LA490G Fill the World with Love (1976) UA-LA547G Spirit of 76" (1976) UA-LA573G Piano Portraits (1977) UA-LA585G Feelings (1977) UA-LA662G Rocky & Other Knockouts (1977) UA-LA782G Star Wars (1978) UA-LA855G You Light Up My Life (1978) UA-LA908G Supermen (1979) UA-LA941G Classical Disco (1979) UA-LA980G
1980s
30th Anniversary—On Stage (1984) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1001 A Few of Our Favorites—On Stage (1985) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1002 American Fantasy—On Stage (1986) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1003 Dos Amigos (1988) Avant-Garde (Bainbridge) AVG-1004
1990s
40th Anniversary—On Stage (1992) Avant-Garde (Intersound) AVG-1005 All-Time Great Motion Picture Themes (1993) 0777-7-98823-2 The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection (1997) Varèse Sarabande – VSD-5789 The Ferrante & Teicher Collection (1998) Avant-Garde (Varèse Sarabande Vintage) AVG-1006
2000s
The Sound of Music (2000) Avant-Garde/Varèse Sarabande Records AVG-1007 Denizens of the Deep (2001) Avant-Garde /Varèse Sarabande Records 302 066 261 2 Can-Can and Me & Juliet/Continental Holiday (2001) Sony/Collectables Records CDL-CD-6692 Christmas Is So Special (2000) 724352905720 Great 1970's Motion Picture Themes (2001) 72435-30518-2 America Forever (2002) Avant-Garde/Varèse Sarabande Records 302 066 312 2
Singles Year Titles (A-side, B-side)Both sides from same album except where indicatedChart positions Album US US – AC CB CANCHUM/RPM1951 "Susannah's Last Stand"b/w "Caravan" - - - -Hi-Fireworks1952 "Tabu"b/w "Semper Fidelis" - - - -1958 "Che Si Dice (Keh See Deechay; That Is Said)"b/w "How High the Moon" - - - -Ferrante and Teicher with Percussion "Aflame"b/w "How High the Moon" - - - -1959 "Side Saddle"b/w "Prairie Blues" - - - -Non-album tracks "Lovers Symphony"b/w "Dream Concerto" - - - -Dream Concerto 1960 "Theme from The Apartment"b/w "Lonely Room" 10 - 9 22The World's Greatest Themes "Exodus"b/w "Twilight" (from Tonight) 2 - 1 3Golden Piano Hits 1961 "Love Theme from One Eyed Jacks" / 37 - 39 40Love Themes "Gone with the Wind" - - 110 - "Goodbye Again"b/w "Possessed" (from The Many Moods of Ferrante & Teicher) 85 - 84 -Non-album track "Tonight"b/w "Dream of Love" (from The Many Moods of Ferrante & Teicher) 8 2 6 14Music from the Motion Picture West Side Story and Other Motion Picture and Broadway Hits 1962 "Smile" / 94 18 93 -Tonight "Street of Palms (Via Margalene)" - - 133 -Non-album tracks "Lisa" / 98 - 81 - "Negligee" - - tag -Pianos in Paradise "Lida Rose"b/w "Take Me Along" - - 144 -Themes from Broadway Shows "Theme from Taras Bulba"b/w "Theme from the Eleventh Hour" (from Concert for Lovers) 116 - 107 -Non-album tracks 1963 "Theme from Lawrence of Arabia"b/w "Paris Joy Ride" (from Holiday for Pianos) 84 - 102 - "Antony and Cleopatra Theme"b/w "Caesar and Cleopatra Theme" 83 - 115 -Love Themes from Cleopatra "Crystal Fingers"b/w "Greensleeves" (from Concert for Lovers) 127 - 132 -Non-album tracks 1964 "It's All Right"b/w "Corn Pone" - - - - "The Seventh Dawn"b/w "You're Too Much" (from The Keys to Her Apartment) 124 - - - 1965 "The Greatest Story Ever Told"b/w "To Spring" (from Springtime) 101 - 143 -By Popular Demand "Country Boy"b/w "The Knack" (From "A Man and a Woman" and OtherMotion Picture Themes) - - - -Only the Best 1966 "Khartoum"b/w "Firebird" - 21 - -You Asked for It! "A Man and a Woman"b/w "Dark Eyes" (from The Piano Artistry of Ferrante & Teicher) - 24 - -"A Man and a Woman" and Other Motion Picture Themes 1967 "Live for Life"b/w "Pavanne" (from In the Heat of the Night) - 27 - -Live for Life1968 "Here Is Where I Belong"b/w "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (from Midnight Cowboy) - - - -Non-album tracks "A Boy and a Girl"b/w "Prelude to Love" (from Love in the Generation Gap) - - - -1969 "Andrea"b/w "Joanna" - - - -Listen to the Movies with Ferrante & Teicher "Midnight Cowboy"b/w "Popi" (original pressings)"Rock-a-Bye-Baby" (later pressings) 10 2 10 11Midnight Cowboy 1970 "Lay Lady Lay"b/w "Theme from 'Z' (To Yelasto Pedi)" 99 16 71 71Getting Together "Pieces of Dreams"b/w "Magical Connection" - 28 - -Love Is a Soft Touch1971 "The Music Lovers"b/w "Love Is Now" - 39 - -The Music Lovers "Diamonds Are Forever"b/w "There's a New Day Coming" - - - -Ferrante & Teicher Play the Hit Themes1972 "Love Theme from the Godfather"b/w "There's a New Day Coming" - 28 110 - "Everything You Always Wanted to KnowAbout Sex but Were Afraid to Ask"b/w "Tranquillo" - - - -Hear and Now1973 "American Pie"b/w "Oh to Be Young Again" - - - - "Last Tango in Paris"b/w "Grass Roots" (from Salute Nashville) - - 115 -Killing Me Softly1976 "Theme from Breakheart Pass"b/w "Theme from Mahogany" (from Piano Portraits) - - - -Non-album track "Gonna Fly Now (Theme from 'Rocky')"b/w "You Take My Heart Away" (Non-album track) - - - -Rocky and Other Knockouts 1977 "Theme from 'New York, New York'"b/w "A Bridge Too Far (Main Theme)" - - - - 1978 "Theme from Star Trek"b/w "Swinging on a Star" - - - -Star Wars
Track appearances
Filme, Die Man Nicht Vergisst, United Artists Records Great Motion Picture Themes, United Artists Records, 1960 Music to Read James Bond By, United Artists Records, 1965 Music to Read James Bond By Vol. 2, United Artists Records, 1965 Dusty Fingers Volume One, "Lady Love", Strictly Breaks Records, 1997 Ultra-Lounge—Christmas Cocktails Part Two, Capitol Records, 1997 Ultra-Lounge Vol. 16—Mondo Hollywood, Capitol Records, 1997 The Best of Blue Juice, Blue Note, 2001