Henry Mancini 30 films over 35 years. Along with Alex North, Elmer Bernstein, Leith Stevens and Johnny Mandel, Henry Mancini was a pioneer of the inclusion of jazz elements in the late romantic orchestral film and TV scoring prevalent at the time. Mancini's scores for Blake Edwards included "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (with the standard "Moon River") and "Days of Wine and Roses" (with the title song, "Days of Wine and Roses"), as well as "Experiment in Terror", "The Pink Panther" (and all of its sequels), "The Great Race", "The Party", "10" (including "It's Easy to Say") and "Victor Victoria". Another director with
Henry Mancini Came from Outer Space", "Tarantula", "This Island Earth", "The Glenn Miller Story" (for which he received his first Academy Award nomination), "The Benny Goodman Story" and Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil". During this time, he also wrote some popular songs. His first hit was a single by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians titled "I Won't Let You Out of My Heart". Mancini left Universal-International to work as an independent composer/arranger in 1958. Soon afterward, he scored the television series "Peter Gunn" for writer/producer Blake Edwards. This was the genesis of a relationship in which Edwards and Mancini collaborated on