Earle Hagen

American composer and songwriter. Born on July 9, 1919 in Chicago, Illinois. Died on May 26, 2008 (age of 88) in Rancho Mirage, California. Hagen teamed up with fellow 20th Century Fox orchestrator Herbert W. Spencer in 1953 to create the Spencer-Hagen Orchestra. Spencer and Earle scored many early sitcoms and other television shows. He is the whistler heard in the theme music on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). He composed music for more than 3,000 TV-show episodes and TV movies. He played with top bands of the swing era, and wrote one of the first textbooks on composing for movies. Hagen charted four times in the U.S. as a songwriter between 1959-1985. His song "Harlem Nocturne" charted three of those times, twice by The Viscounts (#17 R&B, #52 overall, 1959 and (#39, 1965) (co-written by Dick Rogers). In 1985, "The Andy Griffith Theme" was adapted into "Gordy's Groove (Mayberry Mix)" by Choice M.C.'s, hitting #20 on the R&B chart (co-written by Fresh Gordon (as Gordon Pickett) & Herbert W. Spencer). Hagen was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2011.