Piero Umiliani

Piero Umiliani (17 July 1926 – 14 February 2001) was an Italian composer of film scores, and is most famous for his song "Mah Nà Mah Nà" and orchestra score "Arrivano I Marines".

Biography

Umiliani was born in Florence, Tuscany. Like many of his Italian colleagues at that time, he composed the scores for many exploitation films in the 1960s and 1970s, covering genres such as spaghetti western, Eurospy, Giallo, and soft sex films.

Although not as widely regarded as, for example, Ennio Morricone or Riz Ortolani, he helped form the style of the typical European 1960s and 1970s jazz influenced film soundtrack, that later experienced a revival in films such as Kill Bill ^{[citation needed]}, and "Crepuscolo Sul Mare" in Ocean's Twelve.

"Mah Nà Mah Nà" (1968) was originally used in Sweden: Heaven and Hell, a 1968 Mondo documentary about Sweden, but was popularized by The Muppets, who covered the song several times; starting on episode 0014 of Sesame Street on November 27, 1969, then The Ed Sullivan Show three days later, and again on the syndicated series The Muppet Show in 1977. The track was also a hit in the UK, reaching number 8 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1977.^[1]

Umiliani's other scores included Son of Django, Orgasmo, Death Knocks Twice, Five Dolls for an August Moon , Baba Yaga, The Slave and Sex Pot. His orchestra score "Arrivano I Marines" for War Italian Style, a 1966 comedy about two USMC soldiers in Italy, is used in the Armored Trooper Votoms series as "March of the Red Shoulders".