Brian Fahey

Brian Michael Fahey (25 April 1919 – 4 April 2007) was a British musical director, composer and arranger, best known for composing "At the Sign of the Swingin' Cymbal", the signature tune to BBC Radio's long running programme Pick of the Pops. From 1972 he was principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra, until it was disbanded in 1981.

Biography Fahey was born in Margate, Kent, England, and educated at Colfe's Grammar School. He learned piano and cello from his father, After that he played in various bands, but his passion was for arranging. Between 1949 and 1959, he worked for the music publishers Chappells and Cinephonic Music, specialising in arrangements for singers, bands and orchestras, mainly for radio broadcasts. "Fanfare Boogie" (1955, written with Max Kaye for the Eric Winstone Band), which won an Ivor Novello Award,

Fahey freelanced after 1959, working with recording companies, the BBC and in the theatre. His most famous piece, "At the Sign of the Swingin' Cymbal", It was used as the theme tune for Pick of the Pops from 1961 to 1966, and again from 1970 until the present day.

He provided scores for films such as The Break (1963), Curse of Simba (1965), The Plank (1967) and Rhubarb (1969), and the theme to Pete Murray's popular BBC Radio 2 show Open House. Between 1967 and 1972, he was Shirley Bassey's musical director.

Personal life and death Fahey was a close friend of Ella Fitzgerald (with whom he shared the same birthday) and of the American arrangers Billy May and Nelson Riddle, who both attempted to persuade him to emigrate to the US, where he was offered several lucrative contracts. But he preferred not to disrupt his family life and so instead lived for many years in Purley, Surrey. In 1972, he moved to the Ayrshire village of Skelmorlie on the west coast of Scotland, where he and his wife Audrey remained until her death in November 2006. He was an avid cricket and football fan and supported Arsenal. He died on 4 April 2007 at Worthing Hospital, aged 87, and was survived by his six children, 13 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.