William E. May, better known as Billy May (November 10, 1916 – January 22, … Read Full Bio ↴William E. May, better known as Billy May (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and musician. He died of heart failure at the age of 87 in his home in San Juan Capistrano, California. His major recordings during the Big Band era were "Measure for Measure", "Long Tall Mama", and "Boom Shot", with Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, and "The Wrong Idea", "Lumby", and "Wings Over Manhattan" with Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra.

May was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He played trumpet professionally in big bands such as those of Charlie Barnet starting in 1939, but became best known as a talented arranger. His arrangement of the Ray Noble composition "Cherokee" became a major hit of the swing music era. During the Barnet days, May revealed a significant flair for satire on a composition titled "The Wrong Idea", composed with Charlie Barnet, that ridiculed the bland "Mickey Mouse" style of safe big band music with specific musical mockery of bandleader Sammy Kaye, known for his "swing and sway" trademark. May's caustic lyrics to the song called it "swing and sweat with Charlie Barnet".

May worked as an arranger for the bands of Glenn Miller and Les Brown before being hired as staff arranger first for the NBC radio network, then for Capitol Records.

At Capitol, May wrote arrangements for many top artists. These included Frank Sinatra on the albums Come Fly With Me, Come Dance with Me! and Come Swing With Me; Nat King Cole on the albums Just One Of Those Things and Let's Face the Music!, as well as numerous singles (all his work with Cole being packaged later on the 2CD set The Billy May Sessions); Stan Freberg, with whom he was a longtime collaborator, featuring on many of the artist's comedy recordings; Peggy Lee on the album Pretty Eyes; Sue Raney on her second album Songs for a Raney Day; Vic Damone on the albums The Lively Ones and Strange Enchantment; Jeri Southern on the album Jeri Southern Meets Cole Porter; Keely Smith on the album Politely and on a duet single, "Nothing In Common"/"How Are Ya Fixed For Love?", with Sinatra; Bobby Darin on the album Oh! Look At Me Now; Nancy Wilson on the albums Like In Love, Something Wonderful, Tender Loving Care, Nancy - Naturally! and various tracks from the albums Just For Now and Lush Life; Matt Monro on several tracks from the albums Invitation to the Movies, Invitation to Broadway, and These Years; Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney on the album That Travelin' Two-Beat; and Sir George Shearing on the albums Satin Affair and Burnished Brass, co-arranged with Shearing (May also conducted Shearing's album Concerto For My Love, on which Shearing had sole credit for the arrangements).

Additionally, May's orchestra was featured on many Capitol Records children's projects. He also worked closely with early 1950s satirist Stan Freberg, using his arranging skills to help Freberg create his spoofs of current hits by creating musical backing often stunningly close to the original hit single. On Freberg's Wunnerful! Wunnerful! a lacerating spoof of bandleader Lawrence Welk, May hired some of the best jazz musicians in Hollywood for his recording sessions, and they relished the idea of mocking the musically awful (if financially successful) Welk sound. The result was a note-perfect recreation of Welk's sound as Freberg and a group of vocalists created parodies of Welk's musical family. Freberg has recounted that Welk was less than amused by the results, which he could not have achieved without May.

May also composed and conducted the music for Freberg's short-lived comedy radio series on CBS, which ran for fifteen episodes in 1957.

In 1959, May won the Grammy Award for Best Performance by an Orchestra.