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Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series.<\/em><\/p>\n Composer and arranger Boris \u201cLalo\u201d Schifrin died in June at the age of 93, leaving behind a remarkable body of work. Schifrin was born in Argentina, studied music at a conservatory in Paris, and began working with American jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie in the 1950s. In 1963, he signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer and began composing and arranging dozens of film scores, from Bullitt<\/em> and Dirty Harry<\/em> to Enter the Dragon<\/em> and the Rush Hour <\/em>series. But Schifrin is best known for his theme music for \u201cMission: Impossible,\u201d which continued to appear in the many blockbuster films based on the TV series.<\/p>\n More from Spin:<\/p>\n The concept of \u201cspy music\u201d in popular culture is primarily based on the moody sounds of Schifrin\u2019s \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d scores and Monty Norman\u2019s theme music for the James Bond films. Schifrin followed up his 1967 Music from Mission: Impossible <\/em>album with a sequel, 1969\u2019s More Mission: Impossible<\/em>. And the foreboding noir of the latter LP\u2019s \u201cDanube Incident\u201d was sampled for one of the definitive songs of the trip hop genre, \u201cSour Times\u201d from Portishead\u2019s 1994 debut. SPIN<\/em><\/a> ranked \u201cSour Times\u201d as the second best single of 1995 behind Moby\u2019s \u201cFeeling So Real.\u201d<\/p>\n The haunting cascade of notes at the center of both \u201cDanube Incident\u201d and \u201cSour Times\u201d was played on a Hungarian dulcimer, known as a cimbalom, a classic example of the kind of unique instrumentation Schifrin often incorporated into his scores. And just as Portishead and other British trip hop groups were influenced by the sonic innovations of hip-hop, American rap producers in turn took inspiration from trip hop. In the wake of \u201cSour Times,\u201d \u201cDanube Incident\u201d has been sampled on over a dozen hip-hop tracks, including \u201cProwl\u201d from the Brooklyn duo Heltah Skeltah\u2019s classic 1996 album Nocturnal<\/em>.<\/p>\n Schifrin\u2019s 1966 release for the British label Decca had the memorably lengthy title The Dissection and Reconstruction of Music From the Past as Performed By the Inmates of Lalo Schifrin\u2019s Demented Ensemble as a Tribute to the Memory of the Marquis De Sade<\/em>. Schifrin\u2019s keyboard playing wasn\u2019t always prominently featured in his orchestral ensembles, but his harpsichord takes center stage on \u201cVersailles Promenade.\u201d<\/p>\n For Cool Hand Luke<\/em>, a 1967 prison drama set in Florida, Schifrin added fiddles, banjos, and tack piano to his arsenal of instruments for some rustic southern flavor. The Cool Hand Luke<\/em> score earned Schifrin the first of his six Academy Award nominations, but he never won a competitive Oscar, receiving an Academy Honorary Award in recognition of his entire career in 2018.<\/p>\n The \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d theme is rivaled by the Dave Brubeck Quartet\u2019s \u201cTake Five\u201d as perhaps the most famous piece of popular music in the tricky 5\/4 signature. Schifrin continued to experiment with unusual meters in his scores, including this jaunty track in 5\/4 from the CBS detective series \u201cMannix.\u201d<\/p>\nThree more essential Lalo Schifrin deep album cuts:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u201cVersailles Promenade\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u201cEgg Eating Contest\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u201cThe Girl Who Came in With the Tide\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n