Mancini appeared to have an intuitive sense of the record business, exemplified in part by his choice to avoid the typical soundtrack album format of the 1950s, that is, to string together 30 to 45 minutes of dramatic cues directly from the film. It was his notion that the albums would be more interesting to the casual listener if he fleshed out the cues into completed songs and re-recorded them in the studio, where he could take advantage of the latest stereo recording technology. Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Pink Panther were perfect examples, and so was The Music from Peter Gunn.

So what makes this album such an enduring winner? After many hundreds of listens over the years, I've tried to step back a bit and figure out what catches my ear.

Obviously, the theme is a high point. With this and several other big band tracks, Mancini augmented the band with three more trumpets, Candoli being the only one on the small group sessions and the TV cues. Most sources indicate that the other three were Gozzo, Frank Beach and Uan Rasey. There were also four French horns: Vince DeRosa (the lead), Richard Perissi, John Cave and John Graas. They perform the famous "scoop," where they provide counterpoint by repeatedly sliding up an octave.

Although the forceful, sinister-sounding tune hangs on one chord, it impresses me as one of the most powerful big-band recordings I've ever heard. Still, Ginny Mancini told me that her husband could never understand why it remained so popular, often commenting to her that, "So much has been made of so little."

Now in his eighties, DeRosa had a long and fruitful career playing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Nelson Riddle and Gordon Jenkins on the Sinatra albums, and with Alfred Newman at 20^th Century Fox for 20 years. He's the one playing Mancini's mournful theme on the soundtrack at the end of Days of Wine and Roses. He remembered the Peter Gunn sessions and recalled:

"I did many albums with Hank. He was unique. He’s probably one of the biggest talents that ever hit Hollywood. He could write a good melody. Any session with a man of Mancini’s stature was a good session."

Rasey, who's the man on the trumpet in Goldsmith's haunting theme to Chinatown, had already worked with Mancini on several pictures at Universal. Also in his eighties, he pointed out: "Hank was an original. I remember that he liked to use bass flutes and alto flutes, and he used a lot of flatted fifths."

The next track, "Sorta Blue," is a catchy minor-key blues with a bridge that's sort of a throwaway, an often-used device in Mancini's bag of tricks. He introduces one of his signature styles here, having the vibes play the melody in unison with a horn. There's some nice solo work by Lang (baritone) and the Nash brothers. But it's Candoli's showy upper-range solo that puts the tune in high gear.

Ultimately, it's Candoli's slightly loose-cannon work that colors the album and supplies its overall mood, especially on the high-energy numbers. As Cipriano said, "Hank had to calm down Pete a few times." Candoli himself told me, "Hank gave me quite a bit of liberty. He just told me to stay in the middle register, then play the high notes in the climax." Known for his expressive style, Candoli goes back the Dorsey days, and was one of the stars of the Woody Herman band in the forties. He backed Sinatra on the Billy May and Riddle sessions, and was featured on Bernstein's jazz score for Man with the Golden Arm.

Following "Sorta Blue" is one of Mancini's most appealing mid-tempo tunes, "The Brothers Go To Mother's," which appropriately has brothers Dick and Ted playing the melody in unison, and then trading solos.

Things slow down with "Dreamsville," clearly a landmark effort by the composer and perhaps his finest moment. There's some gorgeous, moody ensemble brass work, the signature piano intro, a lovely solo by Ted Nash, and Bain's famous "gliss" in the bridge. It's the only tune I didn't hear in the shows, so it was probably written especially for the album.

"Session at Pete's Pad" picks up the pace. It has a great vibe solo by Bunker, and some wild blowing by Candoli. "Soft Sounds," which is often heard during Pete and Edie's romantic conversations, is sort of a lounge tune reminiscent of the George Shearing Quintet, with a Shearing-like solo by Williams.

Next is "Fallout," which led off Side B on the LP with a bang. It's a stunning arrangement based on the familiar walking bass opening on the show that signals that a crime is about to take place. In a series of half steps, it builds frantically to a crescendo, with Candoli's piercing horn leading the way. In my interview with Pete, he expressed his enthusiasm for this piece, singing it as he described it in detail.

The unusual melody for "The Floater" has an almost two-octave range, bounces along to finger snaps, and sports a cool Charlie Christian-like solo from Bain. The lazy swing of "Slow and Easy" reminds me of Basie during his Neal Hefti days. I like the moaning bass trombone solo (is that Milt Bernhart?).

The final three numbers, "A Profound Gass," "Brief and Breezy" and "Not From Dixie," are slight of melody and feel like an extended jam session. They were probably written as source music for Mother's. But it's a nice, relaxing way to finish off the album.

Despite the record's popularity and the strong reputations of the musicians in the band, there were some barbs thrown at it by jazz critics who sneered at the so-called easy-listening approach and Mancini's questionable jazz credentials. Ginny comments: "He never considered himself a jazz artist to begin with. He was well rounded, and incorporated the jazz feel whenever it was appropriate." Ironically, Mancini was to receive another Grammy in 1960 (he was awarded 20 altogether) for Best Jazz Performance for "The Blues and the Beat," which he arranged and which included virtually the same players.

Comparing the album to the music on the show, I feel let down that there aren't any recordings directly from the soundtrack. Though most of the cues are very short and are often repeated with only the slightest of variations, listening to them offers a chance to hear some of Mancini's most interesting work. Even the abbreviated songs by Albright with the combo are appealing, and are much more genuine and effective than Dreamsville (out-of-print), the album she did with Mancini in 1960. Is there some producer out there who would like to issue a remastered box set of cues and songs from the show?

The Music from Peter Gunn topped the charts for quite while, being one of the hottest albums of 1958 and 1959. Ginny Mancini said it literally turned their lives around.

"The album had been made and the show had gone on the air. The whole music department had been let go at Universal. Hank and I had promised each other that we would take our first trip to Europe, and that we would go for six weeks first class. We had no guarantee that we would have more than ten cents in the bank when we got back. The whole thing with Peter Gunn happened while we were gone, and when we came back, we found out that we didn’t have to worry about the ten cents in the bank."

Soon after, it won the first Grammy for Album of the Year. Like others I interviewed, Ginny said it created tremendous opportunities for jazz and popular music composers who wanted to work in films.

"It opened doors for guys like Michel Legrand, Quincy Jones, Nelson Riddle and John Williams. And his music had an influence on them. I know that John was influenced, because when he scored Catch Me If You Can, he said, 'When I looked at this picture, I said to myself: 'What would Mancini do?' "

A version of this article appeared in the June and July 2007 editions of Film Score Monthly.