Riddle, Nelson (1921-1987)

US musician. After playing with a US Army band during World War II, he joined Bob Crosby and went with him to Los Angeles, where he became a staff arranger for the National Broadcasting Company in 1948. Between 1950 and his death, he worked as a freelance arranger and conductor on hundreds of popular recordings, including classics by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald.

He was born in Oradell, New Jersey. He studied piano and trombone, but from the outset of his career he worked primarily as an arranger, beginning in the late 1930s with Jerry Wald, Tommy Dorsey, and Alvino Rey.