[3] He was taught in the classical tradition, influenced especially by Ravel, but he also discovered American popular song, analysing the compositions and arrangements of George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter and Irving Berlin.
[3] Film credits include Fou d'amour (1943), Le camion blanc (1943), L'ange de la nuit (1944) and L'atomique Monsieur Placido (1950).
[3] In France he composed for famous artists such as Édith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, Jean Sablon and Charles Trenet and was a frequent broadcaster on Radio Luxembourg.
[4] In the mid-1960s he also began regularly broadcasting in the UK on BBC Radio's Light Programme, where he was often paired with fellow bandleader Frank Chacksfield.
[11][12] Pieces such as Asia Minor, Greenland Sleigh Dogs (aka Alaska) and Long Hot Summer became familiar as staples of the BBC test card music soundtracks during the 1960s and 1970s.
Although clearly influenced by the exotica arrangements of Les Baxter, Martin Denny, Frank Hunter and Dick Hyman, it went beyond the simple themes used by those composers to employ "a series of motifs, leitmotifs, and modes that were out of the musical sphere at the time: they took rock and classical and bossa and jazz and easy listening, wove them together with polyrhythmic invention and a boatload of sound effects".
Although never chosen by Terry, Roger's piece was indelibly imprinted on a whole generation of children as the signature tune for these strange, eerie, frantic cartoons.
[20][21] An example of the continuing relevance of his library music for film (though often used to evoke nostalgia) is the placing of his piece Scenic Railway in The Stepford Wives (2004).
[7][22] Other larger compositions include the Jazz Concerto for harp and orchestra (written for Freddy Alberti)[23] and the symphonic suite Personnages et figurines (1980).
Includes Clowneries, Contorsions (The Grip of Fear), Danse Lunaire, Djanina, Eccentric Walk, Fête Foraine, La Foret Enchantée, Grands Travaux, Machinisme, Le Moustique, Nounous et Pioupious, Paris Pullman, Polka Mauve, Profondeurs (Lunar Landscape), Scenic Railway, Tele-Ski, Traffic Boom[25] Trésors symphoniques de Roger Roger, (Orphée 58).