He is a singer, pianist, composer, actor and humanitarian born Joseph Harry Fowler Connick in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father was a former district attorney of New Orleans from 1977-2003 and his mother is a former Louisiana Supreme Court Justice and together they also owned a record store.
He started to play the keyboard from age three and performed in public by the time he was six. He recorded with a local jazz band when he was ten and continued to study music at the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts. He studied further at the Manhattan School of Music and Hunter College in New York where he was spotted by an executive from Columbia Records and signed up to the label.
He has since released many successful albums including the Grammy Award winning We Are In Love and Songs I Heard, and also receiving a further five Grammy Award nominations with other albums. He has often been requested to provide the soundtracks for film and he won a further Grammy Award for When Harry Met Sally and an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for his contribution to the Godfather III. His most successful single to date is “(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name” which was sung for the film The Mask.
As an actor he made his screen debut in 1990 in the film Memphis Belle and has gone on to star in many others including Copycat, Excess Baggage, Little Man Tate, Hope Floats and Mickey. His voice was also used as a character in the movie The Iron Giant and he narrated My Dog Skip. His TV appearances include several episodes of the series Will & Grace.
As a composer he wrote the score for the Broadway musical Thou Shalt Not for which he received a Tony Award nomination for music and lyrics, and the animated special The Happy Elf for which he was also a narrator and executive producer. The cartoon Freakazoid has the characters attending the Harry Connick Jr. High School.
After Hurricane Katrina he toured New Orleans to attempt to bring the plight of the citizens that were stranded to public attention. He also co-organised a live telethon concert called A Concert for Hurricane Relief. In 2005 he was made honorary chair of Habitat for Humanity’s “Operation Home Delivery” which is a long-term rebuilding plan for victims of the Hurricane.
He is also a Longines Ambassador of Elegance and a founder of the Krewe of Orpheus, along with his father and Sonny Borey, which is a New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe that puts on one of the largest parades in the carnival.
Harry Connick Jr recordings
(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name (Harry Connick Jr./Ramsey McLean)
Columbia CSK 6267 (US single)
O Holy Night (Adolphe Charles Adam )
Harry Connick Jr. and his Orchestra
Columbia 57550 (CD – When My Heart Find Christmas)
Here he is with “(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name”…
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