Best of the worst musical directors from Warner Bros.

[Toony Loon]

I vote John Seely. His music may be canned, but it does sort of goes with the movement in the cartoon, like Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn's score does.

[The Cartoon]

I vote John Seely. His music may be canned, but it does sort of goes with the movement in the cartoon, like Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn's score does.
Yeah, John Seely

[Eric B]

Lava's early stuff did fit in, and did not stick out nearly as much as Seely. The Jet Cage even switches from Franklyn to Lava in the middle of the film, and if you're not thinking about it, you might not even realize it.

It was later that Lava got more into a formulaic rut.

[Steve Carras]

John Seely and his crew (Harold Bluestone, Emil Cadkin, Jackie Shaindlin, Phil Green, Paul Van Loan (is this the SIXTIES sunshine pop composer Paul "Run Joey Run" Vance using some different name?-he was aroudn far back as 1955!), Dave Kahn, RaoulKraushaar, Roger Roger (that's prounounced--"Row-JAY Row-JAY"-French,y'know), Geo.Hormel,Bill Loose, Spencer Moore,Mahlon LeGrande Merrick,etc.) for my money.

Go http://www.apmmusic.com and go LIBARIES AND COVER ART,then CARLIN then ARCHIES--for "Emil Cadkin and Harry Bluestone" (some of the Augie music,which Philip Green was THE composer for many times,in UK and exported to Seeley at Capital in Hollywood) and then CINEMUSIC (NYC).......most NOTABLY the Cine6 series with Yogi,Jinks,Ruff & Reddy,and Huck music by Jack Shaindlin. David Buttolph and Jack Belasco in Britain's Syncro controbuted cues to Hucklebrry, possibloy the very different Quick Draw ones and some for the OTHER "Capitol" packages,that made up part of Clokey's shows and some of the Warner cartoons in 1958 that didn't seem to appear at Hanna Barbera (to my knowledge..MANY "Light","Dramamatic",etc.LPs were around),

The music (Howard Fein and Rodney D. might particualry find this interesting..Daws Butler Jr.from another forum, please respond..) used in that Rhino CD credited in WB shorts (which did NOT use all of it,btw) was actually by Philip Green (with Ken Thorne and Geoffrey Love,supposedly)..INCLDUING that catchy circus polka "tobioggan tune"(orig.Green title, "Custard Pie Capers", Seely retitle,"5-PG-201 IIRC COmedy Circus"--they had those,er, "Da Vinci" codes for the publishers ..LOL...I downloaded an incomplete Augie, 1959's "Good Mousekeeping' (good mouse TITLING!) with that SAME "Augie track"(cd 1/track 17) opener, "Busy Activity/City suite",then "Bush Baby'(Granny buying Tweety0"Bird in a Bonnett") then "Puppetry Comedy" *the coyote's butt being wacked incessantly by a stick in "Hook, Line & Stinker" --- the one that is famous for "Dennis" music),,all of these by Philip Green and the second two used in the Warner shorts, and credited to John Seely (who DID compose the Huck music usded in Prehysterical Hare with William Loose,his head composer,from soruces I've heard from!).

One tune, a Shaindlin cue that was used incessantly in one of the few Jay Wards (too cheap for music!) to use ANY music.. the "Fractured Fairy Tale' "Ugly Duckling", but NEVER in ANY of the LOONEYS (would be good music for Pepe or a remake of that "Daffy's magic trick in court" toon made in 1941, "Coy Decoy"), a "tearjeker" under the Shelley Berman0Fibber Fox (in some cable show and in Unviersal's "Meet the" you know whats Daws voice of the duckling talking to a "sentient talking pond", (he;s going Hollywood),that "Snlooper/Foghorn" tune is used too ("Cinderella's" another Ward/Fairy Tale to use that music...)

A short history on John Seely:
A fledging transcirption supervisor at Capital/Capitol records since 1949,he was lucky to be at (along with Jack Shaindlin, ALexander Laslo-NOT the chaarcter!Phil Green's british libraries,The Chudnows-a father and two sons--MuTEL (THAT meant MUSIC for TELEViSION!) ) a pioneering radio tv music library, which eventually as a major label asborbed the others (a fact left out of the otherwise excelelnt 1996 book published by Schirmer, best known perhaps as the publisher of George T. Simons's "The Big Bands", titled "TV's Biggest Hits", by Jon Burlingame--there's a even a pic of Bill Loose, looking opretty businesslike and occupied on page 11..some bearded "cool jaz" cat in the background..)

By this time, 1955, Seely hired Spencer Moore, George Hormel,. Harry Bluestone and Emil Cadkin (separate and together), Jack Cookerly, Ed Lund, Clarence Wheeler(!)(yes,the Lantz guy) as well as Bil Loose and himself, and brought in Phil Green's EMI, Chappell, and Francis Day and Hunter (IRRC) and many other LARGELY UK ones..ergo in short, a HUGE library and MANY copies to consider,,,,

As Howard Fein at the old TTTP said, there were several "packages" of this stuff, one for each of the Quick Draw (MUCH of it seemingly,again by Phil Green-his is the ONLY Seely music on the Rhino CD Picanic Basket which we too and I am sure many others ehre own) and another for the other HB series..those were used on "Gumby" and "Davey and Goliath" for Clokey (I know Clokey wasn't to everyone's liking but he was yet another major popularizer of that music and the longest standing at least animation wise!His Davey and Goliath,esp.thru 1970s used it) along with still more (largely from Jack Cookerly who had a huge 101 Strings Disney sized orchestra....like what you would hear at..we..Disney or Universal!) Then in Clokey's brief attempt withn a bear and bird (Henry and Rodgy respectively), a few of these used some cool jazz, from Cpaitol/Seely's "X" series.(Publisher abbreviation was ":GO". The stuff in "Prehysterical Hare" was largely "TC"-Seely-Loose (I have NO clue who did the "GO" publisher code abbreviated-music..( MOST of those Looney Tunes in 1958 used the (ghostwritten as far as credits went but listed on records) "Phil Green" music like Foggy's "toboggan Ride" tune (PG,EM,). That "Gopher Broke" theme is another of Phil's too...listen to "Booboo and the man"(adultswim.com) it plays near the end! (Supposedly the reason maybe for that music, rather than Yogi music,which IIRC wasn't composed by Green, beign there and as Earl Kress noted why it WAS in that Rhino packages was--the rights were at least (different statuses mentioned as to the ownership back then, in 1996, ) in the mprocess of rverting bakc and the Phil Green (London,UK) estate was the ONLY one Rhino was able to snatch a deal with.:)(BTW IIRC "A Wise quack", a Yakky and Pixie and Dixie cartoon,used the "Augie March"(Overture,Green,BMI,GRH Musiic---EMI Photo.Sam Fox Inc.) from that CD and from "Gumby'"S 1956 short "Magic show" therein..Huckleberry's "Astronut Huck" closed with an AUGIE theme.."Harry Bluestone"'s ":Busy Farmyard" )both second seasoners..)

By the 1960s Ole George from Europe had taken over,,in 1995 for wathever reason he clenaed out of this stuff..but such stuff as Shaindlin and Cadkin and Bleustone is stillo avaible,from CINEMUSIC & CARLIN respectively (again.. at http://www.apmmusic.com) and also the second library at http://www.playzpm.com and you can downlaoded though for FULL quality ya gotta be a member,,

(Info sources:Associated Production Music and Play Production websites, Dan Matheson,Jon Burlingame,Dave Mackey,Earl Kress,Steve Worth and Dave Shields).