Richard Eldridge Maltby Sr. (June 26, 1914 – August 19, 1991) was an American musician, conductor, arranger and bandleader, most notable for his 1956 recording "(Themes from) The Man with the Golden Arm". He was also the father of the Broadway lyricist and director Richard Maltby Jr.
Born in Chicago, he studied music from a young age and wrote his first arrangement when he was around 13. By his late teens he was playing and arranging for jazz and dance bands. He briefly studied music at Northwestern University before leaving to play music full-time. During the late-1930s Maltby performed with and arranged for Little Jack Little, Roger Pryor, Bob Strong, and Henry Busse. In 1940 he was hired as a staff composer-arranger by radio station WBBM, CBS, in Chicago.
He moved to New York City in 1945 to become an arranger-conductor on network radio, where he worked with Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, and the Radio City Music Hall band. Goodman recorded Maltby's Six Flats Unfurnished IN 1942, which became a hit.
Maltby recorded many albums and singles in the 1950s and 1960s for Camden, Columbia, RCA (Vik, and X labels), Ranwood, and Roulette, and he began leading his own band as trumpet soloist. He had two hit singles: St. Louis Blues Mambo was in the top 40 in 1954, and (Theme from) The Man with the Golden Arm made the top 20 in 1956. "The St. Louis Blues Mambo," infuriated Perez Prado by scoring higher on the Billboard Hot 100 chart than any of Prado's own mambo tunes.
Maltby was the musical director for the SESAC Radio Transcription Service from 1950 to 1965, and recorded hundreds of songs for Muzak. He found the experience rewarding. "They were willing to experiment and let me use any kind of instrumental combination and pattern," he later told Down Beat magazine.As a conductor, he worked with Peggy Lee, Sarah Vaughn, Johnny Ray, Vic Damone, and Ethel Merman.
In the 1960s, Maltby arranged and conducted for Lawrence Welk's television show and recordings. He wrote commercial jingles and published music for grade school and high school concert and stage bands; composed pieces for orchestra and choir; and was the featured guest conductor with the United States Marine, Navy, and West Point Bands, and the Symphony of the Air. He wrote a serious piece, "Threnody: Requiem for John F. Kennedy" after the President's assassination.
A heart condition in his later years forced him into retirement, and he underwent several operations prior to his death. He died August 19, 1991 in Santa Monica, California, aged 77.
(Edited from The New York Public Library archives)