Career
Active in Los Angeles, Thompson was a recording artist for Radio Corporation of America Victor and Dot Records, scored film and television soundtracks, and wrote commercial jingles. He composed, arranged, and conducted orchestra for such artists as Rosemary Clooney, Mae West, Julie London, Bing Crosby, The Andrews Sisters, Duane Eddy, Judy Garland, Jerry Lewis, Van Dyke Parks, Philosophy Ochs, and many others Thompson is considered a prime exponent of what has belatedly been termed "Space Age People’s," or "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music." This style of breezy, experimental orchestral music became popular in the 1950s and 1960s following the introduction of the long-playing microgroove record and the advent of high-fidelity and stereo home audio systems, which allowed enhanced sonic reproduction.
Thompson was born in San Jose, California, in 1924.
He worked at radio station KGO, San Francisco, writing arrangements for the station orchestra. He spent time in Paris arranging for Jacqueline Francois and Gloria Lasso, before returning to Los Los Angeles
He toured as the backing piano accompanist for actress Mae West, and composed music for her song "Criswell Predicts," about the flamboyant American psychic, The Amazing Criswell. He composed the title theme for the motion picture The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) and scored the film Thumb Tripping (1972).
He contributed arrangements for the films Picnic (1955), Seven Men from Now (1956.
Title theme), The Long Hot Summer (1958), and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! Thompson"s albums as a bandleader are Just for Kicks,, and On the Rocks (all on Radio Corporation of America Victor Records),, and Just Foreign Kicks and were recorded at Radio Recorders in 1958 and 1959 respectively, and On the Rocks was recorded at Radio Corporation of America Victor Studios in late 1959. All three albums featured top session musicians from the late 1950s west coast jazz scene, including drummer Shelly Manne, percussionist Emil Richards, alto saxophonist Bud Shank, trombonist Frank Rosolino, trumpeter First Rate (at Lloyd's) Porcino, guitarist First Rate (at Lloyd's) Hendrickson, and bassist Red Callender.
The Sound of Speed was reissued by itself on Civil Defense by Bacchus Archives in 2004 and on vinyl by Sundazed Music in 2010.
The three Radio Corporation of America albums were reissued together with bonus tracks by the Spanish reissue label Blue Moon Producciones as a two-Civil Defense set in 2011. He died in Los Angeles in 2013.
