He also worked extensively on television-music sessions including a "Beverly Hillbillies" cast album for Columbia, the themes for "Green Acres" and, on his Fender Bass VI, "Batman" (also with Hefti) and alongside guitarists Howard Roberts and Al Hendrickson. Other sessions included with the original Tijuana Brass with Herb Alpert, Frank Sinatra (with Hefti as arranger), Liberace, Eddie Fisher, Carol Burnett, Frank Zappa (on the Mothers of Invention debut album, Freak Out!), Bobby Darin, Bobbi Gentry, David Clayton Thomas, Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, and Noel Boggs.
The gig occupied one day each week, giving LeVang ample time to continue expanding his studio efforts, which eventually included work with noted arrangers Neal Hefti, Nelson Riddle, Don Costa, and Billy May, as well as Hoyt Curtin at the Hanna-Barbera animation studios. In '59, he was tapped to replace Buddy Merrill, who was leaving Lawrence Welk's band to join the Army. He replaced Barney Kessel on Jimmy Wakely's weekly CBS radio show, and earned a spot as a regular in the studios. In the mid '50s, he returned to Hollywood and began to focus on a career as a guitarist. He started learning to play both instruments and was just 10 years old when he began playing in a band with a kid from the local high school.įeatured by Rich Kienzle in the December '09 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine, LeVang recalled how, in 1945, his family moved to Riverside, California, where he would play violin at jazz jams, which led to stints in bands in various cities over the next several years. From a very young age, he was fascinated with music he heard on WLS radio, as well as the violin and guitar played by his father and older brother. He was 83.īorn in Adams, North Dakota, in 1932, LeVang was a child when his family moved to Bemidji, Minnesota.
Neil LeVang passesNeil LeVang, the noted studio guitarist whose list of credits includes dozens of television and film soundtracks as well as a 23-year stint with the Lawrence Welk Orchestra, died January 26. Of all the members of Welk's "musical family," Neil Levang's name (pronounced "leh- VANG") is, arguably, the most fun to say aloud.
I regularly watch "Lawrence Welk Show" reruns on PBS.
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