[1] Marinelli has also recorded with Lionel Richie, Kenny Loggins, Herb Alpert, Supertramp, The Crystal Method, Billy Childs and James Brown.

Marinelli was a contributor in the production of Quincy Jones' soundtrack for Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple (1985)[2] and composed for Young Guns (1988),[3] Graveyard Shift (1990), Leaving Las Vegas (1996), and Internal Affairs (1990).

[9] In musical theatre, Marinelli completed BollyDoll, a Bollywood genre extravaganza with visual artist and vocalist, Amrita Sen, directed by Shekhar Kapur in 2013.

He studied synthesizer under Clark Spangler (1975–80), and continued piano under Terry Trotter (1976–80), Spud Murphy (music composition from 1978–85) and Hans Beer (conducting from 1993–99).

[7] Marinelli and Banks then teamed with Emmy Award-winning composer Arthur B. Rubinstein, creating one of the first known digitally synthesized musical scores, Blue Thunder, released in 1983.

[21] The trio joined with Cynthia Morrow as The Beepers, and their songs, "Video Fever" and "Long Line Leading To Men", made the soundtrack for the 1983 film, WarGames.

[24] Banks and Marinelli made a "polaroid" of the Quincy Jones soundtrack for The Color Purple (1985) available to director Steven Spielberg during filming and editing.

Jones hired Marinelli and business partner, Brian Banks, as session musicians at Westlake Studios in West Hollywood for the creation of Thriller.

In addition to bringing in three truckloads of synthesizer gear, preliminary duties consisted of briefing Michael Jackson on the capabilities of the emerging technologies, sound creation and programming.

[39][40] Additional noteworthy topics include jams with Doctor Mix,[41] and a discussion of Giorgio Moroder's work process with engineer Ross Hogarth,[42] Marinelli appears in the film Thriller 40 (2023) (Showtime - Paramount+) from his studios.

[43][44] From 1977 to 1983, Marinelli's Synner Productions worked from a converted pool-house at his parents' home, eventually equipped with a New England Digital Synclavier II, 24 track analog tape and mixer, and Dolby Spectral Recording with noise reduction for film projects.

[45] The team worked individually and together during this time period; notable credits include: WarGames (1984), Starman (1984), The Color Purple (1985), Stand by Me (1985), Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987), Young Guns (1988) and Internal Affairs (1990).

In addition to episodic television and documentaries, Marinelli's feature film credits for this period include the critically acclaimed, Leaving Las Vegas (1996), Timecode (2000)[48] and The Man from Elysian Fields (2001).

Additionally, musician time can be reduced by having the arrangements realized with synthesizers to match the edited film before performing the score with a live orchestra.[21](pp.

For Quincy Jones, Marinelli and former partner Brian Banks are credited with performance and synthesizer programming on Michael Jackson's Thriller album including the title track.

The final score for the film was orchestrated rather than synthesized with some exceptions; for instance, the sound of a leaky roof landing in tin-cans in Cilie's living room segues into a musical piece played on an African kalimba.

[2] Additional titles where Marinelli has worked on Quincy Jones' productions include: The Slugger's Wife (1985), Tango & Cash (1989) and Cadillac Man (1990).

[47] Accustomed to working with classically trained musicians, Rubinstein joined in a musical group with Marinelli, Banks and vocalist Cynthia Morrow called The Beepers.

[47] Oscar-winning composer Jack Nitzsche brought Marinelli and Banks industry credit with Streets of Gold (1986) the Oscar nominated films, Starman (1984) and Stand By Me (1986).

[47] A significant milestone for Marinelli and Banks was composing the original score to the #1 box-office hit, Young Guns (1988),[3][55] prior to their ending their partnership in 1993.

The film is a montage of musicians such as (David Bowie, Cher, Blondie); a cast of Rodney Bingenheimer's "A-list" friends, "God heads" as he calls them.

[58] A sampling of Marinelli's solitary composing credits for feature film include: The Man from Elysian Fields (2001), starring Andy Garcia and Mick Jagger,[49] the critically acclaimed independent film, Self Medicated (2005), Jarrett Schaefer's controversial, Chapter 27 (2007), a biography of John Lennon's assassination,[47] My Sexiest Year (2007) which gave Marinelli the opportunity to perform and write songs with Dr John,[9] and Jada Pinkett Smith's, The Human Contract (2008).

Marinelli has worked with recording artists James Brown, Herb Alpert, The Crystal Method, Billy Childs and Quincy Jones.

Marinelli arranges and performs classical ballads and boleros with Cindy Gomez and Asdru Sierra (Ozomatli) in a multilingual group they call Trio Retro.