Neal Paul Hefti was born October 29, 1922, to an impoverished family in Hastings, Nebraska, United States.

[1] Harold Johnson recalled that Hefti's first scores for that band were "Swingin' On Lennox Avenue" and "More Than You Know," as well as a very popular arrangement of "Anchors Aweigh".

[1] Two days before his high school graduation ceremony in 1941, he got an offer to go on tour with the Dick Barry band, so he traveled with them to New Jersey.

Shelly Manne, drummer with Bob Astor at the time, recalled that even then Hefti's writing skills were quite impressive: We roomed together.

[2] Hefti, who was classified 4-F (ineligible for military service) during World War II after being hit by a car in New York and breaking his pelvis,[4] would not focus on arranging seriously for a few more years.

[1] During his time in New York, he hung around the clubs on 52nd Street, listening to bebop trumpet master Dizzy Gillespie and other musicians, and immersing himself in the new music.

After playing with Horace Heidt in Los Angeles for a few months in 1944, Hefti met up with Woody Herman who was out in California making a band picture.

Hefti was instrumental in this development, drawing from his experiences in New York and his respect for Gillespie, who had his own bebop big band.

Chubby Jackson, First Herd's bassist, said Neal started to write some of his ensembles with some of the figures that come from that early bebop thing.

He composed and arranged some of First Herd's most popular recordings, including two of the band's finest instrumentals: "Wild Root" and "The Good Earth".

His first hand experience in New York, hanging around 52nd Street and listening to the great Dizzy Gillespie, became an important resource to the whole band.

His bebop composition work also started to attract outside attention from other composers, including the interest of neo-classicist Igor Stravinsky, who later wrote "Ebony Concerto" for the band.

What first attracted Stravinsky to Herman was the five trumpet unison on "Caldonia," which mirrored the new music of Gillespie... First it had been [Neal Hefti's] solo on Herman's "Woodchopper's Ball", then it became the property of the whole section, and finally, in this set form, it was made part of [Hefti's] arrangement of "Caldonia.

Playing with the band was very enjoyable for Hefti, which made it doubly hard for him to leave when he wanted to pursue arranging and composing full-time.

[2] The Heftis finally left Woody Herman in late 1946, and Neal began freelance arranging.

In the liner notes to the original issue, producer Norman Granz wrote: Parker actually plays on top of the original arrangement: that it gels as well as it does, is a tribute both to the flexible arrangement of Hefti and the inventive genius of Parker to adapt himself to any musical surrounding.

[1] According to Hefti in a Billboard interview, Basie wanted to develop a stage band that could appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

[8] In his autobiography, Count Basie recalls their first meeting and the first compositions that Hefti provided the new band: Neal came by, and we had a talk, and he said he'd just like to put something in the book.

[9] Hefti's compositions and arrangements featured and recorded by the orchestra established the distinctive, tighter, modern sound of the later Basie.

These pieces are evidence of both Hefti's masterful hand[citation needed], and the strong ensemble that Count Basie had put together.

In the liner notes to Atomic Basie, critic Barry Ulanov says: In a presentation of the Count Basie band notable of its justness, for its attention to all the rich instrumental talent and all the high good taste of this band — in this presentation, not the least of the achievements is the evenness of the manuscript.

[5] Much the same way that Duke Ellington matched his scores to the unique abilities of his performers, Hefti was able to take advantage of the same kind of 'fine-tuning' to bring out the best of the talents of the Basie band.

In addition to Ulanov's praise, Hefti won two Grammy awards for his composition work on Atomic Basie including "Li'l Darlin," "Splanky," and "Teddy the Toad."

[9] Again, by matching the individual parts of the arrangements to the unique abilities of Basie's band, Hefti was able to highlight the best of their talents, and make the most of the ensemble.

He had steady work conducting big bands, backing singers in the studio during recording sessions, and appearing on the television shows of Arthur Godfrey, Kate Smith, and others.

He wrote much background and theme music for motion pictures, including the films Sex and the Single Girl, How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Synanon, Boeing Boeing (1965), Lord Love a Duck (1966), Duel at Diablo (1966), Barefoot in the Park (1967), The Odd Couple (1968), and Harlow (1965), for which he received two Grammy nominations for the song "Girl Talk".

While most of his compositions during this period were geared to the demands of the medium and the directors, there were many moments when he was able to infuse his work with echoes of his jazz heritage.

[14] He also wrote background and theme music for television shows, including Batman[1] and The Odd Couple.