Mike Post

Mike Post (born Leland Michael Postil; September 29, 1944) is an American composer. He is best known for his television theme music for various shows, including Law & Order and its spin-offs Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent, The White Shadow, The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Hill Street Blues, Magnum, P.I., NYPD Blue, Quantum Leap, L.A. Law and Mammoth. He is a Primetime Emmy Award and a five-time Grammy Award winner.

Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Post's first credited work in music was cutting demos using two singing sisters, Terry and Carol Fischer. With Sally Gordon, they went on to become The Murmaids. Their first single, "Popsicles and Icicles" (written by David Gates), was a number 3 hit song in January 1964.

Post also provided early guidance for the garage rock band The Outcasts while in recruit training in San Antonio, Texas. He was the songwriter and producer for both songs on the band's first single, released in 1965, and also arranged a local concert where they served as the back-up band.

He won his first of five Grammy Awards at age 23 for Best Instrumental Arrangement on Mason Williams' "Classical Gas", a number 2 hit song in 1968. He is also credited as the record producer for Williams' LP that included that song, The Mason Williams Phonograph Record.

Billed as the Mike Post Coalition, their track "Afternoon of the Rhino" became a sought-after Northern soul track. The single peaked at number 47 in the UK Singles Chart in August 1975.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.