Angelo Badalamenti (March 22, 1937 - December 11, 2022) was an American com… Read Full Bio ↴Angelo Badalamenti (March 22, 1937 - December 11, 2022) was an American composer for film and television, best known for his hauntingly atmospheric work with filmmaker David Lynch, whose collaborations include Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Soundtrack Awards in 2008.

Angelo Badalamenti was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States to an Italian family. He began taking piano lessons at age eight and spent much of his childhood listening to opera and classical music. He studied at the Eastman School of Music and at Manhattan School of Music where he earned a master's degree in music. A classically trained performer, he spent the early years of his career playing the Catskills resort area, later writing and arranging for singers including Shirley Bassey and country star Mel Tillis. Under the pseudonym Andy Badale, he entered the film industry in 1973, debuting with the score to the action film Gordon's War. Despite subsequent work on such features as Law and Disorder (1974) and Across the Great Divide (1976), Badalamenti remained largely unknown.

In 1986, Badalamenti was hired to compose the score for David Lynch's Blue Velvet; subsequently, they continued their partnership, Badalamenti composing scores for films such as Wild at Heart and The Straight Story. Arguably the most famous collaboration of theirs was the cult hit television series Twin Peaks, for which Badalamenti created one of the most distinctive and evocative theme songs in television history. The duo also wrote and produced a pair of records for ethereal chanteuse Julee Cruise: Floating Into the Night (1989), which contained some songs from Twin Peaks, and The Voice of Love (1993). They also staged an avant-garde musical theater piece titled Industrial Symphony No. 1, which was shown onstage twice in 1989.

In 1996 collaborated with James vocalist Tim Booth, the fruits of their labors being the LP Booth and the Bad Angel. In 2005, Badalamenti composed part of the score for the video game Fahrenheit (known in North America as Indigo Prophecy), bringing his atmospheric ambience to a new medium.

On December 11, 2022, Badalamenti died at his home in Lincoln Park, New Jersey, aged 85.

The Nightingale
Angelo Badalamenti Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

The nightingale
It said to me
There is a love
Meant for me
The nightingale
It flew to me
And told me
That it found my love

He said to me
I'll meet you
Our hearts will fly
With the nightingale

The nightingale
He told me
One day
You will be with me

The nightingale
Said he knew
That your love
Would find my love one day

My heart flies
With the nightingale
All through the night
All across the world

I long to see you
To touch you

To love you
Forever more

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Angelo Badalamenti's song The Nightingale speak of a love that the singer longs for and hopes to find one day. The nightingale is used as a metaphor for love, and is said to have found the singer's true love, promising to unite them both. The song expresses a deep connection between the singer and the nightingale, who brings hopes and dreams of finding true love.

The song builds a fantastical and mystical atmosphere, as the nightingale takes the role of a mediator that connects the singer to their love. The simple lyrics and melody evoke a sense of longing and hope, with the repeated chorus line "Our hearts will fly with the nightingale" implying a romantic and optimistic future. The metaphor of the nightingale as a messenger of love is a common trope in literature, and the song captures this symbolism with dreamy yet simple lyrics that convey the singer's innermost desires.

Line by Line Meaning

The nightingale
The symbolic bird called nightingale

It said to me
The nightingale expressed in a musical manner something important to the singer

There is a love
There is a love in the world

Meant for me
The artist believes that there is a love meant for them

The nightingale
The bird called nightingale

It flew to me
The nightingale flew to the singer

And told me
The bird conveyed a message to the singer

That it found my love
The nightingale believes they found the love the artist is searching for

He said to me
The person speaking now is someone other than the nightingale

I'll meet you
The artist wants to meet the person they are addressing

Our hearts will fly
Their love will soar freely