# Composer/Bandleader Billy May Dead at 87

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composer-bandleader-billy-may-dead-at-87/225943>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 25, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composer-bandleader-billy-may-dead-at-87/225943 "2004-01-25T02:50:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/composer-bandleader-billy-may-dead-at-87/225943/1 "2004-01-25T02:50:22Z")

</div>

[ABC News obit here.](http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Entertainment/ap20040124_1247.html)

Although he worked with such luminaries as Glen Miller, Frank Sinatra and Stan Freberg, most would recognize May as the purveyor of the oft-played “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Mambo” heard frequently throughout malls at Christmastime. Sadly, another of the few links to a gilded age of show-business is gone.