Angelo Badalamenti

I'll update with more sources and eulogies as they come in.

Angelo's nephew has confirmed:

My great uncle Angelo Badalamenti has crossed the barrier onto another plane of existence. Between his work on Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Cabin Fever, Nightmare On Elm Street 3 and a plethora of others, plus his relationships & collaborations with David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Nina Simone, Julee Cruise, Isabella Rosselini, Dolores O'Riordan, Anthrax, Dokken, Eli Roth and especially David Lynch, he has always been the most interesting man in the world to me. A true musical and artistic inspiration for me and countless others. Stayed true to his roots and family, never leaving North Jersey for LA. Not to mention the casual but mind blowing stories he never ran out of. He will truly be missed by many.

“Chi ha vissuto una buona vita ha una buona morte.” (Who has lived a good life has a good death.)

Angelo's nephew has confirmed:

My great uncle Angelo Badalamenti has crossed the barrier onto another plane of existence. Between his work on Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Cabin Fever, Nightmare On Elm Street 3 and a plethora of others, plus his relationships & collaborations with David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Nina Simone, Julee Cruise, Isabella Rosselini, Dolores O'Riordan, Anthrax, Dokken, Eli Roth and especially David Lynch, he has always been the most interesting man in the world to me. A true musical and artistic inspiration for me and countless others. Stayed true to his roots and family, never leaving North Jersey for LA. Not to mention the casual but mind blowing stories he never ran out of. He will truly be missed by many.

“Chi ha vissuto una buona vita ha una buona morte.” (Who has lived a good life has a good death.)

Angelo Badalamenti passed away this week at the age of 85. He is most known for his work with David Lynch, writing music for some of the filmmaker’s most memorable projects including Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive. Badalamenti also scored other many movies and television shows and, over the last 24 hours, I was surprised to read about some of his other collaborations: he co-wrote music for the kitsch electronic act Perrey & Kingsley, landed a song he co-wrote on Nina Simone’s album High Priestess Of Soul, and wrote the song “Hot Wheels” for the forgotten 1973 movie Gordon’s War that would become a popular breakdancing anthem among b-boys by the late 70s, all before working with Lynch.

Badalamenti first worked with Lynch of 1984’s Blue Velvet. Badalamenti was 49 years old at the time and had come on board to the movie initially as a vocal coach but ended up writing the music for the movie and collaborating with Julee Cruise on “Mysteries Of Love”. It feels impossible to imagine the world of Twin Peaks without Badalamenti’s music: strangely out-of-time, jazzy, sinister, and mournful all at once. I would argue that Badalamenti’s long career leading up to scoring Twin Peaks made him uniquely suited to write music that felt both retro and contemporary. Badalamenti also notably wrote the music for Julee Cruise’s breakout album Floating Into The Night.

So, let’s discuss the work of Angelo Badalamenti, may he rest in power.

I just got done re-watching Seinfeld Season 7 Episode 20 (The Bottle Deposit). At around 33:20 Newman gets kicked out of the van by Kramer and hikes briefly through the woods, and the music sounds so similar to Angelo's work in Twin Peaks. A google search revealed nothing and IMDB doesn't either. I'm curious if anyone has seen this portion of the episode and hears the similarity.

Angelo's nephew has confirmed:

My great uncle Angelo Badalamenti has crossed the barrier onto another plane of existence. Between his work on Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Cabin Fever, Nightmare On Elm Street 3 and a plethora of others, plus his relationships & collaborations with David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Nina Simone, Julee Cruise, Isabella Rosselini, Dolores O'Riordan, Anthrax, Dokken, Eli Roth and especially David Lynch, he has always been the most interesting man in the world to me. A true musical and artistic inspiration for me and countless others. Stayed true to his roots and family, never leaving North Jersey for LA. Not to mention the casual but mind blowing stories he never ran out of. He will truly be missed by many.

“Chi ha vissuto una buona vita ha una buona morte.” (Who has lived a good life has a good death.)