The Chair Company
- Lukas Kendall
- Oct 24
- 1 min read
I watched the first episode of The Chair Company, a weird new HBO show that mixes comedy and thriller—a combo I don’t remember seeing before. I need to watch more to say anything useful.
I was struck by the opening music of the pilot, which they use at least one more time, and I knew it must be a needle-drop. Not because I recognized it—it’s the opening of the classic 1970s instrument “Breezin’” by George Benson—but because the silky orchestration comes from another era entirely.
The arranger/orchestration for this album was by Claus Ogerman. Who is Claus Ogerman? A total genius!
I remember being a kid in the 1970s and hearing sounds like this from movies, TV, radio, record players—just here and there, bits and pieces, with no explanation or context. I had no idea what it was, I just knew I wanted to hear more of it!
I sincerely wonder if anybody knows how to do it today. Is it a lost art? Or just dormant?
Feels quite serendipitous for me. I recently watched that first episode of "The Chair Company," but I had no idea Claus Ogerman arranged that tune used in the pilot. I also recently had the urge to start another deep dive into Ogerman's albums. I'll have to add this one to the list.
He was a musical genius indeed. I was blown away when I first found out that the guy who arranged "It's My Party" (a style which I enjoy, too) had such other diverse arrangements and compositions. I think the Sinatra/Jobim album he arranged was the first time I noted his name and went from there.
That smooth instrumental married to Philly-soul by Ogerman is reminiscent of another even more ubiquitous piece that was heard absolutely everywhere: "Love's Theme" by Barry White and his Love Unlimited Orchestra, which topped the charts in 1973 and was so influential it's commonly considered the first disco hit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLTJ95kj9ng
ABC adopted "Love's Theme" for its PGA Tour professional golf telecasts for over a decade, Cathay Pacific Airlines used it for boarding passengers, and it poured out of department store and grocery store speakers everywhere.
Ogerman, White, and Quincy Jones made a living on that kind of instrumental music that smashed together disparate genre elements and evolved about a half-step from what Henry Mancini and Michel Legrand had made a livin…