Perry Botkin Jr.


Perry Botkin Jr. was an American composer, producer, arranger, and musician.

Life and career

He was born in 1933 in New York City, the son of Perry Botkin Sr., who also was a successful musician and composer.
Botkin had a successful career in music for more than forty years. As an arranger, he worked with Bobby Darin, Harry Nilsson, Gary Crosby, The Lettermen, Ed Ames, Shelby Flint and Harpers Bizarre, among others. The film scores that he composed are similar to the music of his partner and counterpart, Barry De Vorzon.
The tune "Nadia's Theme", composed by Botkin and Barry De Vorzon, peaked at No. 6 in Canada and No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976 and became the theme song for the long-running television soap opera The Young and the Restless. He was also a major contributor to Incredible Bongo Band, one of the most influential groups of all-time for its Bongo Rock album which is one of the most sampled from records, making it a major influence in the origins of Hip hop.
In 1990, Botkin retired from the commercial music industry, and began self-producing CDs of electronic music. James Harbert, in the liner notes for the first of these recordings, says, "With these new musical works, Perry Botkin has achieved his musical goal. He has succeeded in being himself."

Death

Botkin died on January 18, 2021, at age 87, at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California.

Awards

Recordings