“That Mission: Impossible played for so many years. “The French-horn players were real bummed at me - their lips were tired,” Richards told NPR in 2011. While recording the percolating Mission: Impossible theme in 1966 for composer Lalo Schifrin, Richards realized he had made a mistake and insisted the musicians do it all over again. Richards made his Hollywood debut when he was hired by Alfred Newman for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), and he would team up with many members of the composer’s esteemed family, all the way from Lionel Newman to David Newman, Thomas Newman and Randy Newman. The innovative sonic expressionist did the finger-snapping on Vic Mizzy’s theme song for The Addams Family (“Yes, that was me - the clicks and the whole bit,” he admitted) and did the xylophone parts on The Simpsons‘ opening tune for Danny Elfman, who once called Richards “an irreplaceable original.” By hard I mean difficult, because it’s a challenge. “I like to go home exhausted from playing good, hard music. “My ideal situation for a session would be playing the hardest mallet parts conceivable,” he once said. He worked with the likes of Shorty Rogers, Judy Garland, Charles Mingus, Elvis Presley, Peggy Lee, Nat King Cole, Stan Kenton, Julie London, Ella Fitzgerald, Dick Dale, Sam Cooke, The Carpenters, Marvin Gaye, Dave Mason, The Monkees, Harry Nilsson, Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt, Burt Bacharach, Michael Jackson, The Beach Boys, Glen Campbell and Luciano Pavarotti. Richards, who considered Lionel Hampton to be a major influence on his career, was a session musician for the fabled Wrecking Crew in Los Angeles and played on thousands of recordings during his career.