The “A Star Is Born” coordinator was 93 years old
Ian Freebairn-Smith, the Grammy Award-winning composer who arranged the song “Evergreen” from “A Star Is Born,” died Oct. 7 in Folsom, California, at the age of 93.
The composer, singer and arranger is widely known for his works that have shaped many of Hollywood’s most prominent film and television soundtracks.
In the 1970s and 1980s, he composed scores for such television shows as “Airwolf,” “Fame,” “Cagney & Lacey,” “Magnum, P.I.,” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” collaborating with songwriter Jimmy Webb on a theme song for the latter.
The Seattle native moved to Los Angeles in 1934 and began his career as a group singer with The Singers Incorporated, working alongside fellow singers Perry Botkin Jr., Sue Allen, Jimmy Bryant and George Tipton.
In 1977, he won a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompaniment by a Vocalist for the song “Evergreen” performed by Barbra Streisand.
His credits also include music scores for several TV movies such as “The Curious Case Of The Campus Corpse” (1977), “Deadly Lessons” (1983) and “Three on a Match”. Freebairn-Smith’s voice can be heard on numerous film and television soundtracks such as “Batman”, “Flipper” and “Gilligan’s Island” the theme songs for the television series.
He also worked on the bass section on the film scores for “Peter Pan” (2003), “The Matrix Revolutions” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (2008).
The arranger has voiced the theme song to the Robert Altman film “M*A*S*H” with the Ron Hicklin Singers, Johnny Mandel’s “Suicide is Painless”, as well as numerous recordings by the Impulse Records singing group “The California Dreamers”.
He also provided the singing voice for Ray Walston in the Billy Wilder comedy starring Dean Martin, “Kiss Me Stupid.”
Freebairn-Smith also boasted a long radio career, including stints at Los Angeles radio stations KFAC, KKGO, KGIL, and KCSN, where she broadcast mostly classical music. He was KCSN’s midday personality until 2009.
Freebairn-Smith’s work also features collaborations on dozens of commercial jingles for Chevron, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, DuBonnet Wine, Pacific Bell, and others. The “California Sound” was credited with bringing a huge increase in commercial production to Los Angeles.
In addition, the composer’s arranging works have included charts by Andy Williams, Streisand, Stephen Bishop, Jeff Beck, Lou Rawls, Van Dyke Parks, John Clymer, Anthony Newley, Randy Crawford, folk artists Emmett Rhodes and Phil Ochs, rock band The Ventures and Lee Hazlewood.
Freebairn-Smith leaves behind his brother Rod, four daughters, Leslie, Alison, Jennifer and Vanessa, three of whom are musicians, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.