More Strings In Stereo
GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD5159
More Strings In Stereo
1 Cross Country Tour (Anthony Tamburello, arr, Bruce Campbell)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA (LP label credits ‘Everest Concert Orchestra Conducted by Derek Boulton’)
Everest SDBR 1018 1958
2 Chansonette (William Hill-Bowen)
THE MELACHRINO STRINGS Conducted by GEORGE MELACHRINO
RCA Camden CAS 10173 1958
3 Polka Dots And Moonbeams (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen, arr. Nelson Riddle)
NELSON RIDDLE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Capitol ST 915 1958
4 Rotten Row (Angela Morley)
ANGELA MORLEY AND HER ORCHESTRA (as ‘WALLY STOTT’ on LP label)
Philips SBBL 501 1958
5 Stay With The Happy People; Violins From Nowhere (Bob Hilliard, Jule Styne, Sammy Fain, Herbert Magidson – arr. Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA (LP label credits ‘Jack Saunders Orchestra’)
Everest SDBR 1011 1958
6 Estrellita (Manuel M. Ponce, arr. Ralph Sterling)
PIERRE CHALLET AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Mercury SR 60066 1958
7 March Of The Toys (from "Babes In Toyland") (Victor Herbert, arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Columbia C2S 801 1958
8 By The Sleepy Lagoon (Eric Coates)
LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by Sir CHARLES MACKERRAS
Columbia BTD 705 1956
9 Moonlight In Vermont (Karl Suessdorf, John Blackburn)
HAL MOONEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Mercury SR 60073 1958
10 High Noon (Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington)
BILLY VAUGHN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Dot DLP 25119 1958
Music from the film "Windjammer" (Morton Gould)
11 Windjammer Theme
12 Night Watch
MORTON GOULD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
RCA LSC 2232 1958
13 India Countryside (from "Around The World In Eighty Days") (Victor Young)
THE CINEMA SOUND STAGE ORCHESTRA
Stereo Fidelity SF-2800 1958
14 Allez-Vous-En (from "Can-Can") (Cole Porter)
WARREN BARKER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Warner Bros. WB 1218 1958
15 Beachcomber (Joseph F. Kuhn)
THE RIO CARNIVAL ORCHESTRA
Stereo Fidelity SF-5900 1958
16 I Cover The Waterfront (Edward Heyman, Johnny W. Green, arr. Conrad Salinger)
THE CONRAD SALINGER ORCHESTRA Conducted by BUDDY BREGMAN
Verve MG VS-6012 1958
17 Let’s Face The Music And Dance; Say It Isn’t So (Irving Berlin)
FRANK DE VOL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
CBS ASF 1009 1958
18 Harem Silks From Bombay (Les Baxter)
LES BAXTER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Capitol ST 868 1958
19 Wonderful One (Paul Whiteman, Ferde Grofé)
CLEBANOFF STRINGS
Mercury SR 60005 1958
20 Moon Over Montevideo (Roy J. Straigis)
THE RIO CARNIVAL ORCHESTRA
Stereo Fidelity SF-1900 1958
21 A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square (Eric Maschwitz, Manning Sherwin, arr. Angela Morley)
ANGELA MORLEY AND HER ORCHESTRA [as ‘WALLY STOTT’ on LP label] Philips SBBL 501 1958
22 Happy Talk (from "South Pacific") (Richard Rodgers, arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Columbia CS 8005 1958
23 Let’s Fall In Love (Harold Arlen, Ted Kochler, arr. Conrad Salinger)
THE CONRAD SALINGER ORCHESTRA Conducted by BUDDY BREGMAN
Verve MG VS-6012 1958
24 The Ski Song – Slalom (Leon Pober)
DAVID CARROLL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Mercury MVS2-19 (Stereo Tape) 1958
25 After The Ball (Charles Kassel Harris)
THE GASLIGHT ORCHESTRA
Somerset SF 3400 1958
All tracks Stereo
As demonstrated in Guild Music’s earlier collection "Strings And Things Go Stereo!" (GLCD 5153), the arrival of stereo on the music scene was of particular benefit to orchestral recordings. Some delicate passages by quieter instruments, previously often ‘lost’ in the general mêlée of mono sound, suddenly became audible, and music lovers discovered that some of their favourite works acquired interesting new features when re-recorded in stereo.
Our opening track demonstrates how many different talents are often combined to create enjoyable music – in this case composer, arranger and conductor. The first two are ‘backroom boys’, little known outside the music business, whereas the conductor Robert Farnon (1917-2005) gained an international reputation through his own melodic compositions and his association with leading international stars such as Tony Bennett, Lena Horne and George Shearing.
When Tony Tamburello died in September 1992 at the age of 72 a short report on his passing in the New York Times described him as a pianist and vocal coach. But he also loved to compose, although he lacked the expertise to arrange for a full orchestra. An ideal choice for this work was Bruce Campbell, one of several writers who owed much to his association with Robert Farnon. He was a fellow Canadian, who came to Britain some years before Farnon, and played trombone with various British bands during the 1930s. Towards the end of the 1940s Campbell realised that he possessed some skills as a composer, and Farnon encouraged him and provided some valuable guidance. The fruits of this meeting of talents have already been experienced on Guild CDs in titles such as Cloudland (GLCD5145), Windy Corner (GLCD5150) and Skippy (GLCD5125).
William Hill-Bowen (1918-1964) was George Melachrino’s right-hand man in the years immediately following World War 2, often appearing on piano but, perhaps, more importantly as a brilliant arranger who managed to recreate his master’s famous style to perfection. He was also a talented composer, and occasionally had the opportunity to showcase his own creations, such as Chansonette.
Nelson Riddle (1921-1985) was a trombonist who turned to arranging and conducting – with spectacular results. His work with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Dean Martin, Judy Garland and Peggy Lee possibly prevented him from fully realising what could have been a highly successful career making instrumental albums on his own. His arrangement of Polka Dots And Moonbeams comes from his first stereo album for Capitol.
Angela Morley (1924-2009) was regarded as one of the finest arrangers and film composers in recent years. In her later career she worked on several big budget movies - one example is the "Star Wars" series assisting John Williams, and it has been said that the final nine minutes of music in the film "ET" was entirely her brilliant orchestration. She also contributed scores to prestigious TV shows such as "Dallas" and "Dynasty". In the 1950s she made numerous recordings under her former name, Wally Stott, also providing the priceless musical backings for BBC Radio’s "The Goon Show". Her composition Rotten Row first saw light of day as one of a series of "Zoo Cues" for her publisher Chappell & Co purely for background use. When she recorded the "London" album for Philips she expanded it into a full-length work, and it has eventually become one of her most requested works. Later in this collection A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square is a superb example of Angela Morley’s genius as an arranger of popular songs.
Stay With The Happy People and Violins From Nowhere is another track taken from the recording sessions at Walthamstow Town Hall in London, first featured in Guild’s "Strings And Things Go Stereo" collection (GLCD 5153). At the behest of Elizabeth Taylor, this involved an album of melodies associated with shows and films produced by her late husband, Mike Todd. Robert Farnon (1917-2005) was engaged to arrange and conduct his orchestra, although his name could not appear on the album for contractual reasons. Farnon’s colleague from wartime days in the Canadian Band of the AEF, Gary Hughes, assisted with some of the scoring.
Percy Faith (1908-1976) was born in Toronto, Canada, and originally he expected that his musical career would be as a concert pianist. But he injured his hands in a fire, which forced him to turn to composing, arranging and conducting. During the 1930s his programme "Music By Faith" was carried by the Mutual network in the USA, which prompted offers of work south of the border. He eventually succumbed in 1940, leaving Robert Farnon (previously his lead trumpeter) to conduct his Canadian orchestra. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Faith arranged all his own material, and his exciting and vibrant scores made his work stand out among the rest.
Eric Coates (1886-1957) has written so many popular pieces, but one of the best-known has to be By The Sleepy Lagoon, which is still used today as the signature tune for the BBC radio series "Desert Island Discs". It first appeared in stereo in the mid-1950s, in a collection of Coates’ music recorded by Charles (later Sir Charles) Mackerras (b. 1925) with the London Symphony Orchestra.
The film "Windjammer", premiered in 1958, was the story of an actual voyage by the Norwegian sail training ship ‘Christian Radich’. It was the first and only film to be shot in the Cinemiracle process, including a 7-track stereophonic soundtrack which was certainly ahead of its time (two-track stereo LPs only started to appear for domestic use in 1957). Such a prestigious production required a suitably important composer to create the music score. Morton Gould (1913-1996) was an ideal choice: as well as the main theme we hear the atmospheric Night Watch he wrote to accompany scenes during the long lonely hours of darkness.
Warren Barker (1923-2006) had a career firmly rooted in the film, radio and television studios around Hollywood, and in the 1950s he was a musical director at Warner Bros Records. He also worked on many popular TV series such as "Hawaiian Eye", "Bewitched" and "Daktari". Barker has also been associated with the 20th Century Fox, Columbia and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios as composer/conductor for motion pictures and television and in 1969 was on the arranging staff for the Oscar-winning film "Hello Dolly". The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honoured him in 1970 for his original music in the award-winning series "My World And Welcome To It", based on the life of James Thurber.
In Guild’s "Strings And Things Go Stereo" collection we profiled one of Hollywood’s great arrangers, Conrad Salinger (1901-1961). Buddy Bregman (b. 1930) A&R Manager of the fledgling Verve Records label took his orchestra into Studio A at Capitol Records on 20 & 21 March 1957 and conducted an album honouring Salinger. Such was Bregman’s esteem for him that he retitled his orchestra ‘The Conrad Salinger Orchestra Conducted by Buddy Bregman’ for the LP "Conrad Salinger – A Lovely Afternoon". For these sessions Salinger recreated some of his memorable scores first heard in movies, and this time we enjoy again I Cover The Waterfront and Let’s Fall In Love.
In the USA Frank De Vol (1911-1999) is known primarily as the composer for the radio and TV series "The Brady Bunch", but light music fans appreciate that his career has been far more substantial. It was not uncommon to see the credit ‘Music by De Vol’ on many films. Frank also appeared as a character actor in several US television series, such as "I Dream of Jeannie", "Bonanza" and "Petticoat Junction".
Texas born Les Baxter (1922-1996) decided to abandon a career as a concert pianist, and chose to concentrate on popular music. He played the tenor sax and is reported to have been influenced by Coleman Hawkins and the Duke Ellington Band. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé’s Meltones and recorded with Artie Shaw, but his heart was set on arranging. As his career progressed he worked for Capitol and RCA, and two of his early hits were Unchained Melody and Quiet Village, which was a track on his memorable LP "Le Sacre Du Sauvage". Thereafter he tended to be asked to record more pieces with an ‘exotic’ appeal, and stereo certainly allowed him to experiment with different instruments, especially the percussion family. Tahiti – A Summer Night At Sea was featured on Guild GLCD 5153, and from the same 1958 collection comes Harem Silks From Bombay.
Chicago born Herman Clebanoff (1917-2004) joined Mercury Records in the mid-1950s, and went on to conduct around fifteen instrumental albums for the label.
David Carroll(b. 1913) was musical director of Mercury Records from 1951 to the early 1960s, during which time he accompanied many of the label’s contract singers as well as making some instrumental recordings of his own. Several of his LPs had a ‘dance’ theme, often including his own compositions, and he employed the cream of Chicago’s session musicians. Some people regard him as one of the pioneers of exploiting stereo sound to enhance his orchestral scores; you can judge for yourself when listening to The Ski Song.
Though Come Home, Father may have been one of the first of the true American tear jerkers, it was After The Ball and Charles K. Harris that set the stage for the modern era of popular songs about sadness. After the Ball captured the imagination of the American public, and that of the rest of the world too with this sad story of a man who mistakes a brother's kiss on his lover for that of another suitor. He rejects her and never sees her again without the benefit of confronting her about it. The result is a lifetime of lost love only to find on her death that it was her brother. Charles Kassell Harris was born in 1867 in Poughkipsie, New York and died in New York City in 1930. He lived for many years in Milwaukee and published many of his early songs there. After The Ball is generally considered to be the watershed song that started the popular song industry in earnest as a commercial juggernaut. Though Harris wrote many songs over the years, none ever rose to the level of popularity as After The Ball. This version is played by ‘The Gaslight Orchestra’ – an unidentified ensemble which could be conducted by Joseph F. Kuhn, since he was Musical Director of the Somerset label at the time of the recording.
All the composers, arrangers and conductors featured in this collection deserve to have their careers profiled in considerable detail, but sadly lack of space prevents this on every occasion that they appear in this series. Many have already been (or are likely to be in the future) given a fair share of the limelight, and if you have internet access you can read the full booklet notes for all previous releases on the Guild Music website: www.guildmusic.com
David Ades