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Dick Hyman

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Musician

The Resume

    (March 8, 1927- )
    Born in New York City, New York
    Jazz pianist and composer
    Played with the bands of Lester Young, Benny Goodman, and Percy Faith
    Regular on Mitch Miller’s ‘Sing Along With Mitch’ TV program
    Albums include ‘September Song: Dick Hyman Plays the Music of Kurt Weill,’ ‘Hi-Fi Suite’ (1957), ‘Dick Hyman & Harpsichord in Hi-Fi’ (1957), ‘Provocative Piano’ (1960), ‘Keyboard Kaleidoscope’ (1964), ‘Happening!’ (1966), ‘Moog: The Electric Eclectics’ (1969), ‘Scott Joplin: The Complete Works for Piano’ (1975), ‘Say It With Music’ (1980), ‘Face the Music: A Century of Irving Berlin (1989), ‘Elegies, Mostly’ (1995), and ‘House of Pianos’ (2014)
    Scored the films ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’ (1985) and ‘Moonstruck’ (1987)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was one letter away from having a name that doubled as a penile and a vaginal reference.
    He recorded honky-tonk piano albums using pseudonyms like Knuckles O’Toole, Willie ‘the Rock’ Knox, and Slugger Ryan.
    Some of his 1960s and 70s attempts at coming up with ‘hip’ album titles – ‘The Man from O.R.G.A.N.’ (1965), ‘The Age of Electronicus’ (1969), ‘The Sensuous Piano of Mr. D’ (1971) – now seem embarrassingly dated.

Why he might not be annoying:

    As a college student, he won a piano competition, earning twelve free lessons with Benny Goodman’s pianist, Teddy Wilson.
    His song ‘The Minotaur’ was the first Top 40 single performed entirely on a Moog synthesizer (1968).
    He won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction for the Kennedy Center special ‘Eubie Blake: A Century of Music’ (1983)
    The Beastie Boys namechecked him on ‘Root Down’ (‘I’m electric like Dick Hyman’) and sampled his song ‘Give It Up or Turn It Loose’ on ‘So What’cha Want.’
    He was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts (2017).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 8 Votes: 50.0% Annoying