American organist and composer.
Born October 10, 1925, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Died December 26, 2004, Forest Hills, New York, USA.
After the Second World War he wrote music for television soap operas and recorded 27 albums of organ music. He also played the organ at old Yankee Stadium for nearly 40 years, earning him membership in the New York Sports Hall of Fame. He was the only organist to play for 3 New York sports teams: the New York Yankees (baseball, Yankee Stadium), the New York Knicks (basketball, Madison Square Garden) and the New York Rangers (ice hockey, Madison Square Garden).
Because he was under contract with Mercury, Layton used the pseudonymn Ashley Tappen for some recordings, pretending to be a British organist who recorded at the Piccadilly Gardens in London, a place that didn't exist. Reverberation was added to the recordings to simulate a large hall.