Radio and Films
On radio, he was the musical director of Harvest of Stars. He was musical director for many of Bing Crosby's recordings for the American branch of Decca Records. For Decca, he also conducted the first album of songs from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, a sort of "pre-soundtrack" cover version rather than a true soundtrack album. The album featured Judy Garland and the Ken Darby Singers singing songs from the film in Young's own arrangements. He also composed the music for several Decca spoken word albums.
He received 22 Academy Award nominations for his work in film, twice being nominated four times in a single year, but he did not win during his lifetime. He received his only Oscar posthumously for his score of Around the World in Eighty Days (1956). His other scores include The Gladiator, Golden Boy (1939), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Love Letters (1945), So Evil My Love (1948), Samson and Delilah (1949), Our Very Own (1950), My Favorite Spy (1951), Payment on Demand (1951), The Quiet Man (1952), Scaramouche (1952), Something to Live For (1952), Shane (1953), A Man Alone (1955), and Written on the Wind (1956).
Young also composed "The Call of the Faraway Hills," used as the theme for the U.S. television series Shane.
As an occasional bit player, Young can be glimpsed briefly in The Country Girl (1954) playing a recording studio leader conducting Crosby while he tapes "You've Got What It Takes". His last film score was for Omar Khayyam, starring Cornel Wilde, filmed in 1956 and released by Paramount in 1957 after Young's death.
Young died in Palm Springs, California after a cerebral hemorrhage at age 56. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, CA. His family donated his artefacts and memorabilia (including his Oscar) to Brandeis University, where they are housed today.
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