Louis Levy (20 November 1894 – 18 August 1957) was an English film music director and conductor who worked in particular on Alfred Hitchcock and Will Hay films.
He started his career in 1910 arranging and performing music for silent films. In 1916, he became musical director for the New Gallery Cinema in London. In 1921, he became Music Chief at the Shepherd’s Bush Pavilion and is credited with being the first to develop the theme song in movies, and one of the first musicians to tackle difficulties that were holding back the progress of sound recording in films.
At the beginning of talkies, he joined the Gaumont British studios at Shepherd’s Bush, where he was musical director for Gaumont's earliest sound picture, High Treason (1929). He became the head of the music department for all Gainsborough Pictures productions from 1933 onwards. The rich sounds emanating from his large orchestra are all the more impressive when one realises that electrical sound industry was barely ten years old. He worked in particular on Alfred Hitchcock and Will Hay films, directing the music for The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes.
Through the sheer necessity of having to produce so much music he established his own studios (The Levy Sound Studios at 73 New Bond Street) in the 1930s. He later had a long running BBC radio series Music From the Movies, which started in 1936 and lasted until the 1950s, and also toured the provincial theatres with his orchestra. The Music From the Movies March, reputedly composed by Levy, was the theme tune for the radio show, and opened all of the Gaumont newsreels of the time. He is also said to have composed the orchestral piece Maltese Entr’Acte.
Tracklist:
1 Strike Up The Band
It's Love Again
2 It's Love Again/Tony's In Town
3 Got To Dance My Way To Heaven/Nearly Let Love Go Slipping Through My Gingers
Swing Time
4 The Waltz In Spring Time/A Fine Romance
5 Never Gonna Dance/The Way You Look Tonight
Broadway Melody Of 1938
6 Your Broadway And My Broadway/I'm Feeling Like A Million
7 Everybody Sing/Yours And Mine
Gangway
8 Gangway/Lord And Lady Whoozls
9 When You Gotta Sing/Moon Or No Moon
Pennies From Heaven
10 So Do I/One, Two, Button Your Shoe
11 Pennies From Heaven/Let's Call A Heart A Heart
Gone With The Wind
12 Battle Hymn Of The Republic/My Old Kentucky Home/Marching Through Georgia/Massa's In The Cold Cold Ground
13 Camptown Races/Old Folks At Home/When Johnny Comes Marching Home/Dixie
Pinocchio
14 Give A Little Whistle/Turn On The Old Music Box
15 Little Wooden Head/When You Wish Upon A Star
Alexander's Ragtime Band
16 Alexander's Ragtime Band/When The Midnight Choo Choo Leaves For Alabama/Blue Skies/Everybody's Doing It
17 Easter Parade/Now It Can Be Told/Alexander's Ragtime Band
Limelight
18 Farewell Sweet Senorita/Whistling Waltz
19 Stay A While/Celebratin'
Shall We Dance
20 Shall We Dance/Let's Call The Whole Thing Off/They All Laughed
21 They Can't Take That Away From Me
22 Joy Of Living (What's Good About Goodnight/You Couldn't Be Cuter)
23 Music From The Movies March
