Angelo Badalamenti, a composer best known for creating the music for David Lynch’s classic TV shows Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet has passed away.
The Grammy Award-winning musician with classical training passed away at his New Jersey home. He was 85.
For many of Lynch’s movies, including Wild at Heart, Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive, Badalamenti composed renowned haunting and ethereal music. In Mulholland Drive, he also played the coffee-loving gangster Luigi Castigliane, and in Blue Velvet, he played piano alongside Isabella Rossellini.
The composer, a devoted husband, father, and grandpa, died peacefully on December 11 from natural causes while surrounded by his family, according to a statement from his family. When Badalamenti was hired to help Rossellini with the song Blue Velvet in the 1986 film of the same name, it was Badalamenti’s big break.
After composing the music for a number of commercial motion pictures, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Badalamenti teamed up with Lynch once more on the cult television program Twin Peaks. It quickly became the song for which he was most recognized and one that summed up the look and feel of the production.
He worked with a diverse range of singers in almost every genre over the course of his lengthy career, including David Bowie, Nina Simone, Dame Shirley Bassey, Patti Austin, Sir Paul McCartney, Liza Minnelli, Roberta Flack, the Pet Shop Boys, and LL Cool J.
The Two Peaks theme by New York-born Badalamenti received a Grammy in 1990 for outstanding mainstream instrumental performance. He was given a lifetime achievement award at the 2008 World Soundtrack Awards, and Lynch awarded him with the coveted Henry Mancini award in 2011.
