Angelo Badalamenti, composer of ‘Twin Peaks’ or ‘Blue Velvet’, dies at 85

The musician and film composer Angelo Badalamenti died this Sunday 11 December at the age of 85 of natural causes. Of Italian origin, but born in New York in 1937, Badalamenti was a regular collaborator of David Lynch and is responsible for the soundtracks of ‘Twin Peaks’, ‘Blue Velvet’ or ‘Mulholland Drive’. The nephew announced his death on Instagram with a beautiful message. Lynch, who reports the weather daily on his YouTube channel, said in Monday’s video: “There’s no music today.”

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“My great-uncle Angelo Badalamenti crossed the barrier into another existence. Between his work on ‘Blue Velvet’, ‘Twin Peaks’, ‘Cabin Fever’, ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street 3’ and many others, as well as the his relationships and 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’s always been the most interesting man in the world to me. A true musical and artistic inspiration for me and for many others. He stayed true to his roots and family, never trading North Jersey for Los Angeles. Not to mention the random but mind-blowing true stories from his life that he never ran out of. A lot of people will really miss him. “He who has lived a good life has a good death.”

Although he had already worked on a couple of films, success came when Lynch approached him to help Isabella Rossellini as a vocal coach and Badalamenti was already known for his collaborations with singers. Later, the director commissioned a song from him and finally he was hired to make the soundtrack of “Terciopelo Azul”. This collaboration would continue on ‘Wild Heart’, ‘Twin Peaks’ and ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’, ‘Lost Highway’, ‘A True Story’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’.

Together, Lynch and Badalamenti co-wrote songs on Julee Cruise’s “Floating Into the Night” and “The Voice of Love” albums.

But there is much more

Outside of the Lynch universe, Badalamenti’s curriculum includes titles such as ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘Profiler’, ‘Arlington Road: You will fear your neighbor’, ‘Forever Mine’, ‘Secretary’, ‘Cabin Fever ‘, ‘Largo Engagement Sunday’, ‘The Exorcist: The Beginning’, ‘Wicker Man’ or ‘The Beach’. And outside of cinema, he composed the soundtrack for the video game “Fahrenheit”.

In addition to composing film scores, Badalamenti has also collaborated with an eclectic mix of singers from virtually every musical genre during his long career, including Simone, Nancy Wilson, Shirley Bassey, Patti Austin, Bowie, McCartney, Marianne Faithfull, Liza Minnelli or the Pet Shop Guys. During the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, his “Torch Theme” accompanied the lighting of the torch during the opening ceremony. During his career he has been nominated twice for the Golden Globe, three times for the Emmy and once for the BAFTA and received the honorary World Soundtrack Awards.