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« on: January 10, 2004, 10:29:52 PM »
Here's the NY Times article--
METROPOLITAN DESK | December 25, 2003, Thursday
Charles Grean, 90, Composer, Arranger And Music Executive
By LILY KOPPEL (NYT)
Charles R. Grean, a pop composer, arranger and music industry
executive for more than 60 years, died on Saturday at New York
University Medical Center in Manhattan. He was 90 and lived in Weston,
Conn.
Mr. Grean was a copyist for the orchestras of Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw
and Charlie Spivak. He arranged the string accompaniment for Nat King
Cole's "The Christmas Song" and composed the novelty hit "The Thing,"
which told the story of a man who finds a unnamed object in a box on
the beach. Performed by Phil Harris in 1950, it went to No. 1 on the
Billboard pop chart.
Charles Randolph Grean was born Oct. 1, 1913, in New York and grew up
in Mount Vernon, N.Y. He began his career playing string bass in dance
bands on cruise ships and in Catskill Mountain resorts in the 1930's.
Mr. Grean became the head of pop artists and repertoire at RCA Victor
in 1950. In 1952 he became a partner with Joe Csida, a former
Billboard editor and RCA Victor executive, in Csida-Grean Associates,
representing Bobby Darin, the radio personality Jim Lowe and the
singer Betty Johnson.
In 1969 he made his first recording with the Charles Randolph Grean
Sounde, a musical ensemble, of "Quentin's Theme," featuring music from
the TV series "Dark Shadows."
Mr. Grean was married four times. His marriages to Ms. Johnson, Betty
Wilmington and Virginia Cronk ended in divorce. He is survived by his
wife and their son, Aaron Alexander Grean, of Weston. He is also
survived by two daughters from the marriage to Ms. Cronk, Robin Grean,
of Stinson Beach, Calif., and Lorin Grean of Santa Barbara, Calif.
Correction: December 27, 2003, Saturday:
Because of an editing error, an obituary on Thursday about Charles R. Grean, a pop composer and arranger, omitted the name of his wife, who survives him. She is Sherrell Hoffman Grean.[/size]