He celebrates his 70th birthday today. In his 50-year career he's worked with just about anyone who is anybody in the music business. As a teenager he played backup for Billie Holiday, along with his 16-year-old friend, Ray Charles. At 18 he began playing the trumpet in Lionel Hampton's band beside Clifford Brown. He went on to work with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Lesley Gore and many others. He wrote the theme songs for the TV shows Sanford & Son and Ironside, and music for the films In Cold Blood, For the Love of Ivy and The Pawnbroker. His biggest commercial success was producing and arranging Michael Jackson's 1982 hit album Thriller. This interview first aired November 5, 2001.