Les Baxter

Born in the tiny town of Mexia, Texas back in 1922, this guy was basically glued to a piano by the age of five. Not kidding, the kid was a prodigy—ended up studying at the Detroit Conservatory and then Pepperdine out in LA (little family brag: his uncle was the college’s first president). He started off as a concert pianist, you know, the real highbrow stuff, but then he jumps into Mel Tormé’s “Meltones” in ‘45. That’s a wild shift, right? He was everywhere—conducting radio shows like “The Bob Hope Show,” just casually leading the band on national broadcasts. But the real kicker? In March ‘56, he records “The Poor People of Paris.” It blows up. I mean, this thing didn’t just hit #1, it was the best-selling single of the whole decade. Funny twist, though: the song got its title by complete accident. It used to be “The Ballad of Poor John” over in France, but someone at Capitol Records botched the translation—used “gens” instead of “jean”—and suddenly it’s about the people of Paris instead of some guy named John. Classic. Another big one for him was “April in Portugal.” That started as “Coimbra,” named after a city in Portugal, but once it landed in the States, Jimmy Kennedy slapped on new lyrics in ‘52, and boom, it’s a hit. The guy didn’t just dabble in singles, either—he wrote scores for over 120 movies. A real workhorse. Sadly, heart and kidney problems got him in ‘96. Still, what a wild, genre-hopping ride.