In the ever-evolving landscape of television, few figures have made as indelible a mark as Michael A. Levine. A former Emmy Governor and award-winning composer, Levine’s career trajectory defies conventional paths, blending the worlds of music, television, and screenwriting into a rich tapestry of creative achievement. From his beginnings as a songwriter and musician in New York City to scoring some of the most memorable television dramas, Levine’s story is one of innovation, resilience and unwavering commitment to the arts.
In an interview with The NYC Daily Post, I asked him to narrate his early career and elaborate on the key moments that shaped his decision to pursue a career in the television industry.
“Being a film & TV composer is, depending on how you count it, maybe my fifth or sixth career. I started out as a songwriter — I had my first song covered on a record when I was 16 — and did a slew of pay-the-rent gigs in NYC in my 20s including accompanying dance classes, playing in county bands and Irish bands, recording session work as both a keyboard player and violinist, heading my own original rock group in which I played electric violin, and, of course, when none of that was sufficient, playing music on the street with my case open,” Levine stated.
His journey from songwriter, violinist, and studio musician, while navigating the eclectic and often challenging New York City music scene, to being an Emmy-winning composer is rooted in a deep fascination with sound and a knack for being in the right place at the right time. These characteristics opened doors for Levine, leading him to session work with various artists, including the legendary Grandmaster Flash.
“I had always been interested in the manipulation of real-world sounds as part of music and I was fortunate that just as I was able to afford my first sampler (an Emulator II), sampling became in vogue in hip hop. I did session work for many artists — Grandmaster Flash being the most famous — and produced a few dance records. This led me into doing session work for commercials which, in turn, led me to writing jingles, Kit Kat’s “Gimme a Break” being the most famous,” Levine told me.
The accidental masterpiece: ‘Gimme a Break’
The Kit Kat “Gimme a Break” jingle became one of the most memorable in advertising history. The story behind its creation is as serendipitous as it is fascinating. What began as a “throwaway” project turned into a cultural phenomenon.
“The ad agency, DDB Needham, had decided on a different campaign and spent a lot of money recording demos with famous singers and creating mock commercials. But you can’t show your client just one thing, so I got hired to write the music to lyrics by a junior copywriter named Kan Shuldman. The head of music at the agency, Chris McHale, even apologized and promised to get me a “real job” next time. I composed the music in the elevator ride from Chris’ office on the 3rd floor of the DDB building to the ground floor,” Levine recalled.
About the recording and production process, he further told, “Because we had no budget for singers or players (remember it was a throwaway) we did the first demo with Chris, his assistant Joe, and me singing. I played all the parts and recorded it in my loft on 38th St.”
However, when Hershey’s expressed a preference for Levine’s demo — sung by Levine himself and a few colleagues — the jingle took on a life of its own.
“Hershey’s liked it enough that they were willing to pay for a ‘real’ demo, so we hired some great players and session singers and recorded at the Edison studio on 47th St. As the players finished up, the pianist, Gil, ran off to the restroom. Chris suddenly realized that maybe the reason Hershey liked it was that the vocals sounded like ‘everyman’ — not slick and polished like the session singers who were coming in in another 10 minutes. So, he asked the players to spend 30 seconds more and take a pass at singing the jingle. Of course, that is what was used, and it ran for the next two years. Because the Screen Actors Guild contract — which covers singers — is so much better than the Musician’s Union contract, all the players made about 30 times as much being singers as players on the date. All except absent Gil, who said it was the most expensive piss he ever took in his life,” Levine explained.
Levine’s ability to capture the essence of a brand in a simple, catchy tune speaks to his talent for creating music that resonates on a broad scale. The Kit Kat jingle, with its unpretentious vocals and memorable melody, became a staple of American advertising, proving that sometimes the most unexpected projects can have the most significant impact.
However, Levine soon found himself yearning for more than the brief moments offered by 30-second jingles. “At a certain point, I wanted a bigger canvas than 30 seconds, and that’s when I decided to move to L.A. to pursue screen scoring,” he recalls. This pivotal decision marked the beginning of his illustrious career in television and film composition, where he has since left an indelible mark.
Scoring success: Cold Case and Close to Home
According to IMDb, Michael A. Levine was awarded eight ASCAP awards for his work on the Jerry Bruckheimer/CBS dramas Cold Case and Close to Home, a testament to his ability to enhance storytelling through music. The process of the creation and integration of original music into a film or TV show to enhance its emotional and narrative impact is a so-called “scoring process”.
As I was asking him about the unique elements of his Cold Case scoring process, he mentioned, “One of the things about Cold Case (created by Meredith Stiehm) that distinguished it from every other crime procedural I’ve ever seen is that the focus was on the victim, not the perpetrator, and not even the cops, although they provided continuity, especially Kathryn Morris’ Lilly Rush. As a result, every story was unique. Because of that, the music had to be different for each episode as well. Head of Bruckheimer television, Jonathan Littman, described it as writing an opera every week. Cold Case also awakened me to how crucial the role of the music supervisor is. The period songs used in the show were never random and often difficult to license. And if a song couldn’t be cleared, the music supervisor, often Wende Crowley who served the longest, had to find an affordable alternative. Later, when I was a Governor of the Television Academy, I fought to get supervisors admitted to the Academy and to have their own Emmy. Close to Home’s most distinctive aspect was being set in Indiana, the home state of its creator, Jim Leonard. As a Midwesterner (Illinois and Wisconsin), I always tried to honor that.”
On-screen adventures: fiddling in Pirates of the Caribbean
Levine’s talents also extended beyond the recording studio to the silver screen. In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Levine made a memorable on-screen appearance as a fiddle-playing pirate and did additional music for Hans Zimmer who was scoring the film.
“[Hans Zimmer] called me up one day and said <German accent>, ‘Michael…Would you like to be a pirate?’ Levine recalls with a chuckle. He further explains, “There were three of us in the bar band in Tortuga. The film’s director, Gore Verbinski, is an enthusiastic amateur musician which, I suspect, is why our trailer was set up right beside that of Johnny Depps’. Johnny — in those days friendly, kind, and sober — was there with his then-partner, Vanessa, and child, Jack. Jack was about four at the time and adorable. I would play fiddle tunes for him and he would dance with joy.”
Besides Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Levine has worked for Hans Zimmer on several other projects.
“Hans is arguably the best film music producer on the planet. He writes memorable tunes and is brilliant at finding unique sounds that no one has heard before. (Braaam anyone?) But his true genius is story. He often has a better understanding of the character arcs and structure of the films he scores than the directors he works for.”
For Levine, Zimmer’s approach reinforced the idea that “ultimately, the purpose of film music is not to be great sounding (though it can be) but to help tell the story.” Levine elaborates on this, adding, “I hope I have absorbed a small fraction of his wisdom in this regard.”
A global cultural event: ‘Anthem,’ performed by Lang Lang
Levine’s composition “Anthem,” written as a theme for global accounting service KPMG and performed by Lang Lang in Beijing, was a significant cultural event and another highlight of his career. The piece reflects Levine’s deep appreciation for global cultures.
“I was born in Tokyo and traveled around the world several times as a kid. I think it gave me an openness to other cultures and their music that is embedded in my subconscious,” he said. This openness has informed his work, allowing him to contribute to global cultural dialogues through music.
Levine also mentioned one fun-fact regarding his composition for Lang Lang: “Originally composed as an orchestral piece, I did a piano arrangement for Lang Lang’s performance at a KPMG-sponsored event in China. Knowing his prodigious talents, I first wrote a very difficult virtuosic piece. He said it was too hard (!) to prepare before the concert. So, I wrote a simpler arrangement which he praised at the show.”
Advocating for change: Emmy Governor and beyond
Michael A. Levine served as a Governor of the Television Academy (Emmys) Music Peer Group for two consecutive terms from 2013 to 2016. When asking him about some of his most pivotal experiences or challenges that came with his election, he stated:
“I have already mentioned striving to get music supervisors admitted to the Academy and getting an Emmy for them which I consider a major accomplishment. We also produced two concerts, Score! in 2014, which featured orchestral performances of television themes, and Words and Music in 2016, which also included songs. Both were unprecedented at the time. Up until then, major concerts around film music were common but not television. Since then, they have become a great deal more common.”
Levine’s tenure as a Governor of the Television Academy’s Music Peer Group was marked by his advocacy for inclusivity and recognition of often-overlooked roles in the industry.
“There was also one other issue that seems a little ‘well, duh’ now, but wasn’t in 2012 when I was first asked to be on the executive board of the Music Peer Group. I went to my first meeting, looked around, and saw 11 other white guys. I remember asking about it. Everyone was open to having women and people of color, but they hadn’t actually tried to do anything about it. When I was elected Governor, my fellow Governor, music director Ian Fraser, and I went about trying to change that. Ian died the following year. On his deathbed, he specifically asked that his replacement be music director Rickey Minor who, as far as I know, was the first African-American Governor of our Peer group. Rickey and I mounted an aggressive campaign to diversify the committee and our Peer Group in general. One of the people who eventually joined the committee was composer Sherri Chung, who later became the first female Governor of the Music Peer Group,” Levine explained.
Having successfully fought for the inclusion of Music Supervisors in the Television Academy, as well as the creation of the first Emmy for Music Supervision, Levine recalled:
“Many composers were suspicious — even hostile — to the idea of adding music supervisors to our Peer Group because they believed that the supervisor’s job was, in essence, administrative. As one put it, ‘Just what we need — more non-artist businesspeople telling us what to do.’ A lot of this stemmed from a misunderstanding of the role of the contemporary music supervisor in television production. While the administrative-only aspect may have once been true, the job has evolved into an oft-times highly creative role that shapes the storytelling of a show in a similar way that scoring does. Initially, because of this resistance, Guild of Music Supervisors founder, Maureen Crowe, and I explored establishing a separate Music Supervision Peer Group. However, the sheer complexity of creating a new Peer Group sent us back to the idea of having them join the Music Peer Group. Once we got them into our Peer Group, getting them an Emmy was comparatively easy – we only had to convince the other Governors.”
Despite all challenges, Levine’s efforts paid off, and today, music supervisors are recognized for their vital contributions to television storytelling.
Levine also emphasized the importance of seeing and perceiving Emmy members and important television industry people as human beings.
“As for the Emmys, as sophisticated and knowledgeable as the members of the Academy may appear, they are people and can be ignorant, naive, and prejudiced just like any other human. Just like you. Just like me.”
Redefining television in the streaming era
Levine’s insights into the changing landscape of television, particularly with the rise of streaming services, highlight his forward-thinking approach. He recalls how Netflix’s House of Cards transformed perceptions of what constitutes “television.”
“Former Academy Chairman Bruce Rosenblum tells a story of how when House of Cards first streamed, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos said in an interview, that they had “the best show on television not eligible for an Emmy award.” Bruce called Ted and let him know that under rules then-recently passed, he was wrong — it was eligible. It went on to get 56 nominations and win seven Emmys,” Levine said and then further explained:
“The definition of television is constantly changing. Anyone who claims they know what it will be a generation from now is either psychic or deluded.”
*Part one of a two-part series
Edited by: Abbigail Earl & James Sutton
