The New Big Band
The New Big Band - Today - In The Old Fashioned Way (PFS 4417)
This record features a band of individuals such as Kenny Baker and Don Lusher, from various other big bands, brought together on the whim of Head of BBC's Radio 2, Mark White, who had the idea to have a big band play fairly recent pop hits but not in the usual way with the band making their own arrangements of those slightly unusual (to them) tunes. Oh no, that has been done to death. No. What these guys were asked to do was imagine how the songs would have been interpreted by other band leaders Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Billy May, Les Brown and Bob Crosby.
Now, of course I have given this record a listening to but am familiar only with the sounds of Goodman and Miller, really , and whilst I can hear phrasing and the overall sound that resemble these two influences, mainly, it is the sense of fun that our musicians must have had whilst producing these tunes that set this LP's main value. I wonder who's idea it was to amend the title of the opening tune to 'I Want to Teach the World to S(w)ing' ...
Chris Waxman
Just the record to get your Hammond Organ party underway - never thought of a Hammond party? You have now!
Chris Waxman – Organized (PFS 4172)
The music just keeps coming but don’t worry – after the first couple of tunes (‘Mas Que Nada’ and ‘Matchmaker Matchmaker’) things get a little quieter … a little slower for the rest of Side A except for the closing track (What the World Needs Now is Love) and this is only a shoulder jigger.
Side B begins with a cheerful ‘Up Up and Away’ then slows down a little before one last jitterbug to ‘Highway Speed’ prior to the party wind down with ‘Strangers in the Night’, Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You’ and finally ‘Born Free’.
Moments of the LP are a little naff but I’m a confirmed Hammond fan so I would never knock anything here.
Claude Denjean
Frenchman Claude Denjean was playing the violin at age five and was with Concerts Lamoureux and the Opéra Comique at 16 having begun studies in classical music harmony, counterpoint and conducting. At age 19 approximately, after the Second World War, he moved away from classical to popular music becoming the orchestra leader to Charles Aznavour, arranging many of the pop star's hits. In 1972, aged 56, he made a move to the US and discovered the Moog Synthesizer and a new career was born.
Check the Klaus Wunderlich bit in the TWO blog Post 12 for a bit more information on the Moog.
Sounds Galactic
This record: Sounds Galactic – An Astromusical Odyssey (PFS 4208) is another under the Johnny Keating banner. There a few 'Astro' sound effects between tracks but the
music itself is regular Keating fare. there are a handful of concessions towards the spacey connotations of the LP title and cover with such as Richard Strauss' 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' (here called 'Theme from 2001'), 'Aquarius' and, if you insist, The Beatles' 'Across the Universe'. I think, however, that I would have felt a little cheated if I purchased this back in 1971 thinking I was getting the modern sounds but instead, discovering that my old Mum and Dad were enjoying it more than me! Mind you, being now in my old Dad years, I can confess to thoroughly enjoying it, myself, at this time.
Rudolf Firkušný
Rudolf Firkušný was a Moravian pianist. His Phase 4 contribution is:
Uri Segal Conducting - Rudolf Firkusny Pianist - Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 5 E Flat Maj. Opus 73 - Emperor (PFS 4291)
If the father of the piano is its inventor, Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori, its mother was the harpsichord for this was Italian, Bartolomeo’s main business. No harpsichord, no piano!
The first piano was born in 1709 as a gravicèmbalo col piano e forte which, in Italian, means harpsichord with soft and loud. The name was soon shortened to piano.
Pianos typically have at least 220 strings, each holding something like 17lbs tension so multiply that by 220 and you’ll realise just how much of a coiled spring a piano is. Think of the pressures on the inner structure of this versatile instrument …
Now, here’s thing – the grand piano can be played faster than the upright! Who would have guessed? It’s all down to the repetition lever. This device enables a played note to be repeated before the return of the hammer mechanism to its original position. How does it do this? Well, this could get a bit complicated … let’s see how we go.
So, when you press down on one end of a key of a grand piano, the other end goes up bringing the head of the Capstan Screw up against the Wippen Heel. The Wippen has two horizontal arms and the one pointing towards the piano player is attached to the Jack, a short, roughly upright rod, the other end of which slots into the underside of one end of the Repetition Lever which is a rod about twice as long as the Jack that lies above and roughly perpendicular to it. The end of the Jack is pushed through the Repetition Lever up against a Knuckle, a small rotating cylinder which lifts the hammer up to the Strings when raised by the Jack but allows the Jack to slide off it again when the key is fully pressed. The Jack is now fully raised, lying next to the Knuckle, releasing the Hammer from the Strings almost immediately. Now, if you release the Key fully, the Jack would return to resting and the Hammer would drop back to its resting position well away from the strings but, if you keep tapping the Key as if to repeat the note rapidly, the Jack only falls beneath the Knuckle again so that it is ready to repeat the action very soon after the last one.
The above is clearly an abbreviated diagram concentrating on the nuts and bolts under discussion
So, why can’t you simply put a repetitive lever in an upright piano? Well, it’s to do with the relative centres of gravity. A grand, being horizontal, the hammers strike upwards and so, as well as the rebound force as they recoil from the strings, there is also simple gravity pulling the Hammer back to Earth. In the upright, the strings are vertical meaning that recoil is less and with no help from gravitational pull, in fact, they have hammer return springs to get them away from the strings. These springs would work in direct opposition to a repetitive lever.
And why tell you all this? Well, the alternative was to tell about how Rudolf Firkušný started learning the violin at age five then began learning piano when he was blah de blah blah … I mean, Heck! He only has one LP in the whole record collection! And he's in the wrong Post - he should have been here earlier when we were doing classical stuff!
Louis Daniel Armstrong
Another character who has just one LP in our collection is Louis Armstrong, or at least, his music is celebrated on just one but everyone likes Satchmo, don’t they? So I had to have a few words on him … and anyway, we’ve already done trumpets!
The record is: London Festival Band – A Tribute To Satchmo (PFS 4231)
So, why ‘Satchmo? Well, it seems that this is short for Satchel Mouth and stems from his habit of taking pennies, earned from dancing in the street, and placing them in his mouth for safekeeping much as you would use a satchel for.
Later, he was known as Pops because he himself used to call people Pops when he could not remember their names.
Though all of his 19 US Billboard top ten hit tunes, as well as all tracks on his Phase 4 record, have been written by others, he did chip in with more than fifty songs of his own including ‘Gully Low Blues’, ‘Potato Head Blues’ and ‘Swing That Music’. The abovementioned hits include ‘What a Wonderful World’, ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’, ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘We Have All the Time in the World’.
There now follow the artists that I just cannot find any information on. All I can do is update the Post as soon as I find something .. or receive something from a kind reader ....
Children of France
La Chorale Des Enfants De L'Opera De Paris – Children Of France
Label: Decca – PFS 4216
The Children Of France* – Christmas With The Children Of France
Label: Decca – PFS 4256
Olive Branch
The Olive Branch – Winds Of Change
Label: Decca – PFS 4223
Mario Castro-Neves
Neves' contribution to the Phase 4s is Brazilian Mood (PFS 4294)
Bob Leaper
Bob Leaper ‎– Big Band Beatle Songs (PFS 4057)
Paul Livert
Country Style - Paul Livert's Orchestra with the Saturday Night Singers PFS 4164
Botticelli
Botticelli And His Orchestra – Presenting (PFS.4281)
Botticelli And His Orchestra – Botticelli Unlimited (PFS 4312)
Botticelli – Classics In Latin (PFS 4427)
The Botticelli Orchestra – ......The Sound Of Today (PFS 4385)
Reg Guest
Reg Guest With The Keating Sound – The Exciting Piano Of Reg Guest (PFS 4067)
The following are all involved with the
Victory in Review record (PFS 4024)
As Eric Rogers tells us in he notes on the back cover of PFS 4024, that this LP records the war-time victories from that of the Egyptians over the Ethiopian Empire in the year 2500 B.C. all the way to the Allies' victory in the Second World War in 1945. The record starts off in the hands of Verdi and Respighi and Tchaikovsky nudges in on Side B- we know all about them from the TWO blog but what of the others?
Richard Hayman
American Richard Hayman was head music arranger with the Boston Pops Orchestra for more than 30 years – recommended, in the first instance, by Arthur Fiedler when he was double-booked – and worked with such as Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli and Olivia Newton-John. He himself played harmonica and can be heard on his 1953 hit ‘Ruby’ from the 1952 film Ruby Gentry, b/w ‘Dansero’. Both tunes becoming international hits, though not in the UK, apparently.
Playing harmonica was settled early on in his life – as a teenager, he played for, and arranged the music of the Borra Minnevitch Harmonica Rascals. In his twenties he arranged music for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studios on, for example, Girl Crazy and Meet Me in St. Louis.
He became popular with pop-type orchestras due to his corny jokes and sequined jackets, oh, and his harmonica playing.
Richard Hayman is credited as conductor on something like 50 records including film soundtracks Star Trek: A Journey Through The Galaxies and Star Wars (The Music Of John Williams And Other Composers) both from 1989 as well as being the music arranger on 44 for artists such as Sarah Vaughan, Chet Atkins, Duke Ellington and loads with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. Hayman died at age 93. To PFS 4024, he contributes ‘Prelude’ from Captain from Castile written by Alfred Newman.
Alexander Alexandrov
Alexander Alexandrov composed the original ‘Russian Anthem’, which is the seventh tune on Side A, for the Russia of Josef Stalin but the lyrics get changed to take into account the current leader’s politics etc. Different tunes have been used in the past and this one has come and gone over the years but is the chosen tune in current use (2022). ‘Russian Anthem’ was selected back in 2000 using a new lyric by Sergey Mikhalkov. Prior to this, no lyrics were used for ‘Patrioticheskaya Pesnya’ by Mikhail Glinka which was the National anthem since 1990.
Leroy Anderson
American composer Leroy Anderson began piano lessons with his mother ‘as soon as his feet could reach the pedals’ when he was five years of age. At age 11 it was considered time to hand over to professional tutors. Little Leroy was offered a scholarship to study harmony for a year on the strength of a minuet for string quartet which he composed when 12.
Anderson was also involved with the Boston Pops, arranging music for Arthur Fiedler, who also performed Leroy Anderson’s first composition, ‘Jazz Pizzicato’. This became a hit and encouraged Fiedler to play more of Anderson’s tunes. The Boston Pops Orchestra was the first to record his tunes, too.
Whilst we have Leroy’s 'The Girl I Left Behind Me' here, you may be more familiar with ‘The Typewriter’, ‘Blue Tango’, ‘Forgotten Dreams’ and, of course, ‘Sleigh Ride’.
Percy Montrose or Barker Bradford
The writing of ‘Clementine’ is credited to Percy Montrose or Barker Bradford, either of whom wrote it in 1884. ‘Oh My Darling Clementine’ is No. 38 in the The Top 100 Western Songs as voted for by the Western Writers of America which exists to promote the writings of the American West.
Clementine, who we know is ‘lost and gone forever’ from the start of the song, was loved by the singer but was lost to him when she fell into the ‘foaming brine’ and the singer, being ‘no swimmer’ couldn’t rescue her.
The song is credited in 84 TV and film events, cropping up in an episode of MASH, Columbo, The Rockford Files and Here’s Lucy on the telly and in various movies from the 30s to the modern day. It even appears on the soundtrack for 2017 video game, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2!
Incidentally, the song at No.1 of the The Top 100 Western Songs is ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’.
Daniel Decatur Emmett
Daniel Decatur Emmett wrote the song ‘Dixie’ and was amongst the originators of the Minstrel ‘black face’ shows. He was 28 years of age when he and three others founded the Virginia Minstrels. Being at the forefront of this new form of musical entertainment, Emmett would have played a large part in the establishment of the costume associated with it; blue, swallow-tail coat, striped shirt and white troos. The success of Dan Emmett’s troupe triggered a raft of such groups.
The Virginia Minstrels tried their new show in England a couple of years after forming but there was very little interest. This trip appears to have brought about the demise of the troupe, at which time, Emmett joined the Dan Bryant Minstrels.
Daniel Decatur Emmett was playing the violin as a youngster and at 15 found himself performing his own tune ‘Old Dan Tucker’ at a July 4th celebration. Another of his well-known songs is 'The Blue Tail Fly', AKA, ‘Jimmie Crack Corn’.
Stephen Collins Foster
Stephen Collins Foster it was who wrote the Doo Dah song. You know – the one that goes:
The Camptown ladies sing this song, Doo-da, Doo-da The Camptown racetrack's five miles long Oh, Doo-da Doo-da day
Camptown is in Pennsylvania close to where Foster lived so it would seem obvious that the song, Camptown Races, would be about the racetrack there. Except that no-one seems to be able to ascertain whether there was a track there at the time of writing prior to 1864. If there wasn’t, the reference to 5 miles may be to the races that did used to happen between Camptown and Wyalusing, a town 5 miles away. And if that is wrong, some wonder if it refers to railway workers or workers that hopped from train to train on the way to their places of work, that used to set up camp towns alongside the track.
The song goes on to tell us about a bunch of travellers who settle transiently in camp towns and bet on the horses.
Stephen Foster wrote the music and lyrics to about 200 songs including ‘Oh Susanna’ and ‘My Old Kentucky Home’ which is sung before the Kentucky Derby every year.
Julia Ward Howe
Ms Howe was less than five feet tall but more than a music composer - she also co-founded the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). This was the result of a split amongst the existing National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) after disagreement over the 15th amendment that promoted votes for black men but not all women. Curiously, the AWSA supported this amendment initially but, after a good few years, they got together with the NWSA once more to form The National American Woman Suffrage Association which now had the one major aim of securing voting rights for women. Sadly for Julia, the amendment, when finally passed, came too late.
Julia Ward Howe was 43 when, as a regular writer of poetry, which she had published in literary magazines, she came up with one that she sent to The Atlantic Monthly in 1862 called 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' during the US Civil War. This earned her five dollars and apparently came about as a suggestion by a friend to come up with new verses for the song 'John Brown's Body', the tune of which was written by William Steffe in 1856. There are several versions of the lyric to this song but one of the earlier ones goes something like:
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, But his soul goes marching on. CHORUS: Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, Glory, glory, hallelujah, His soul goes marching on.
He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord, He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord, He's gone to be a soldier in the Army of the Lord, His soul goes marching on.
CHORUS John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, His soul goes marching on.
CHORUS John Brown died that the slaves might be free, John Brown died that the slaves might be free, John Brown died that the slaves might be free, His soul goes marching on.
CHORUS The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down, The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down, The stars above in Heaven now are looking kindly down, His soul goes marching on.
CHORUS
John Brown's Body (poem) - Wikipedia
Whilst, a little more sophisticatedly, Julia Ward Howe's went:
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
His day is marching on.
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His day is marching on
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal"
Since God is marching on
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since God is marching on
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free
While God is marching on
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on
Julia Ward Howe - Battle Hymn Of The Republic Lyrics | Lyrics.com
Her biography, written and prepared by daughters, Laura E Richards, Maud Howe Elliott and Florence Howe Hall, won the first ever Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1917.
André Joubert du Collet
André Joubert du Collet was a lieutenant of the Royal Navy under Louis XIV. It is thought that he would have written 'Auprès de ma Blonde' following a spell as prisoner of the Dutch, around 1704. The title means 'With my Girlfriend' or something like that but it was originally called 'Prisoner of Holland'. It seems as though Andre and other prisoners of war were released by the Dutch on receipt of payment of a ransom by King Louis and as a thankyou, our man dedicated the song to the King with the new title in memory of his own wife.
There have been several versions of the tune, one of which crops up in the operetta, Les Saltimbanques by Louis Ganne.
Louis Ganne
Louis Ganne was a composer of operas, operettas, ballets, and marches the latter for which he is best known. His contribution here comprises 'Marche Lorraine, a nice, punchy piece.
E. A. Mario
Giovanni Ermete Gaeta, for it is he, chose his nom de plume as a tribute to the newspaper for which he wrote. He penned words for Il Ventesimo (The Twentieth) as Mario Clarvy and then, Ermes (from his middle name) and from which the ‘E’ comes. The ‘A’ comes from the name of his chief editor, Alessandro, and Mario was the name of the newspaper’s director.
Mario knocked up 2000 or so musical pieces including ‘La Leggenda del Piave’ the Piave being the river that hosted a fine end-of-war Italian victory which, at the time of composition (1918 – the end of the First World War) was on the short list for the national anthem of Italy’s new Republic.
Patrick Gilmore
Irishman Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (and, when he felt like it, Louis Lambert) left home for Boston in the US aged 18, having developed a fascination for music. After playing in local bands, including the Salem Brigade Band, he founded Patrick Gilmore’s Band which comprised two woodwind instruments per brass instrument and this became the blueprint for the popular concert band.
Our record (Victory in Review PFS 4024, remember) features Gilmore’s most famous tune, ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’.
In 1861, at the start of the American Civil War, when Patrick Gilmore was about 30, he enlisted the band in the Union Army and a couple of years later, became the trainer of bands in Massachusetts, unleashing 20 bands, fully trained and equipped, in the next four or so years.
The traditional gathering in Times Square on New Year’s Eve is largely down to Gilmore after he took New York’s 22nd Regiment band there in 1888 to serenade the New Year in. It has been the site of New York's annual shindig ever since.
Jack Judge
It was a long way to Connemara some time before most of us had even heard of Tipperary but when Anglo Irish Jack Judge was challenged to come up with a song overnight, he decided to re-do 'It's a Long Way to Connemara', a song written by Judge and Harry Williams.
The song recounts the homesickness of soldiers away from home and their loved ones though, originally, the Connemara version was about the Irish folk who travelled to England in search of work during the Victorian era and were missing the Emerald Isle. The lyrics also warn that if they don't get home soon the love of their life will go off with someone else!
Whilst it was Jack Judge who sang the original in 1912, it was well-known Irish opera tenor John McCormack who popularised the Tipperary version two years later,
Geoffrey O'Hara
Another American song associated with the First World War is ‘K-K-K-Katy’. Never heard of it? Well, how about its composer, Geoffrey O’Hara? No, me neither. But he was known to the US President of the time, Woodrow Wilson, who asked him to come up with a new version of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’. Well, I do wonder what Woodrow thought of the result. It has a kind of clip clopping going in the background and sounds like it would amuse children rather soldiers going to fight.
The song is another one sung by a homesick soldier who pines for his girl, Katy … only this soldier has a stammer, indeed, it was promoted as ‘The sensational new stammering song’. All very funny unless you suffer from this condition … hey! but that’s for another time.
The song proved to be a hit reaching No. 1 in the US charts and staying there for more than two months. It was recorded most successfully by Billy Murray but others that had a go at it were Eugene Buckley, Bing Crosby and Porky Pig … that is, Mel Blanc in non-human guise, and it become popular once again at the time of World War II. Bing Crosby sang K-K-K-Katy as the lead song of a three-song medley on one of his 1959 records and Porky Pig recorded his version in 1949 but was even added to a Mel Blanc compilation as late as 2007!
Kenneth Alford
Kenneth Alford was the pseudonym of British composer and band leader, Frederick J Ricketts. The use of a nom de plume may be explained by the fact that he was writing at the same time as serving as band master in the British Army and director of music of the Royal Marines and the British Military frowned upon their men pursuing other occupations whilst serving.
Amongst many other tunes, mainly march music, he wrote ‘Colonel Bogey’ which is where Alford fits in to our story. Colonel bogey is likely to be a golfing character rather than a military one as it is suggested that Ken was at a golf course local to his battalion and may have overheard a reference to said colonel, a bogey being a one over par which for golfers is a less than perfect score.
Private Willie Lee Duckworth Sr
‘Sound Off’, previously known as ‘The Duckworth Chant’ was invented by Private Willie Lee when he was commanded to drill a little more discipline and vigour into his fellow soldiers. In order to help them become more involved with the army life, Duckworth came up with this chant, the like of which will be familiar to war film buffs.
Upon his burial monument are some of the words to ‘Sound Off’:
Ain't no use in goin' home
Jody's got your gal and gone
Ain't no use in feelin' blue
Jody's got your sister too
Sound off
One-two
Sound off
Three-four
Other lyrics are gently derogatory to their superintendents, too, so making the chant even more fun to sing.
Sammy Kaye
Swing and sway with Sammy Kaye! Now, there’s a tag-line – taken from the title of his band’s first big hit, ‘Swing and Sway’. Kaye was well-known for his ‘So you want to lead a band?’ section in his concerts. Members of the audience would be invited onto the stage and given a conductor’s baton which, if considered successful, would be the prize to take home.
Sammy’s contribution here is ‘Remember Pearl Harbour’, a song written with Don Reid in direct and immediate response to the Japanese attack in 1941. Another marching tune; rather upbeat so I wouldn’t want to be marching to it.
Jimmy McHugh
Jimmy McHugh wrote the music for ‘Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer’ whilst Harold Adamson did the words. The story here is of a returning team of bombers but there is one crew missing … radio contact is finally made and the pilot tells them that all is well but the plane took a bit of a bashing – they were coming home ‘on a wing and a prayer’.
JPS
John Philip Sousa gives us his ‘Semper Fidelis’ march but Sousa has had his time on the sun in PFS Post 6.
‘The Campbells are Coming’
the lyrics of this popular bagpipe tune refer to the Great Argyle who ‘maks his cannons and guns to roar’ and, of course, the Campbells who ‘are a’ in arms’ and ‘are comin’ Ho ro, Ho ro’. So, who should be afraid?
Well, there are two main theories on the matter. One says that it would appear to be Sir Robert Douglas and the catholic nobles who took exception to Mary, Queen of Scots’ third husband, protestant Lord Bothwell in 1567. Even though Queen Mary was catholic, it was a catholic gathering that mobilised against her and imprisoned her in the castle on Loch Leven, which is mentioned in the chorus. A further clue is 'the Great Argyle', who is also mentioned, who would be the 5th Earl of Argyle, Archibald Campbell, who attempted to rescue her.
Chorus:
The Campbells are coming Ho-Ro, Ho-Ro!
The Campbells are coming Ho-Ro, Ho-Ro!
The Campbells are coming to bonnie Lochleven
The Campbells are coming Ho-Ro, Ho-Ro!
Verses:
Upon the Lomonds I lay, I lay,
Upon the Lomonds I lay, I lay,
I lookit down to bonnie Lochleven
And saw three perches play-hay-hay!
The Great Argyll he goes before,
He makes the cannons and guns to roar,
With sound o'trumpet, pipe and drum,
The Campbells are coming, Ho-Ro, Ho-Ro!
The Campbells they are a' in arms,
Their loyal faith and truth to show,
With banners rattling in the wind,
The Campbells are coming Ho-Ro, Ho-Ro!
Robert Burns is credited with writing the lyrics of the above discussed song in 1790 but it may originate from 1715 and be about the Jacobite rebellion, in which case, any reference to Argyle would be to the 2nd Duke, John Campbell, who fought against the Jacobites on behalf of the incumbent government. So, even 230 years, at least, after the song's birth, the jury still seems to be out. Still, don't lose sleep over it is my advice.
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin, originally Israel Beilin, published the first song of more than a thousand when he was around 19 and four years later, in 1911, he had his first big hit with ‘Alexander’s Ragtime Band’. He followed this, over the next 50 years or so, with such as ‘White Christmas’, ‘Anything You Can Do’, ‘There's No Business like Show Business’, ‘Puttin' on the Ritz’, ‘Let's Face the Music and Dance’ and the song on PFS 4024, ‘Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning’. Berlin's music is also celebrated by Frank Chacksfield on '... plays Irving Berlin' (PFS 4366).
Berlin wrote 17 Broadway musical scores including Annie Get Your Gun, 19 film scores, for example, White Christmas and There’s No Business like Show Business plus all of those songs, some of which have ben used in other films such as Home Alone, Titanic and Spider Man 3. No wonder it took him five decades!
So, in conclusion ...
All in all, a rather uncomfortable record to listen to as, in an effort to squeeze as many tunes in as possible, none of them are long enough to enjoy and the fade-outs are unkind and simply herald the next tune or, even more painful to the ears, a sound effect of whizzing rockets or rattatats! So, researching the songs and composers on this LP has been more fun than listening to the record, for me. Happily, that has been a rare occurrence. And the exercise did throw up one or two interesting bits of information.
Notable Personages already Discussed in TWO Blog
Ted Heath
Ted Heath has 22 LPs in the Phase 4s plus two which are shared with Edmundo Ros and he is on a couple of various artist records.
Ronnie Aldrich
Ronnie Aldrich has 31 LPs in the Phase 4s plus three various artist records.
Frank Chacksfield
Frank Chacksfield has 20 LPs in the Phase 4s plus he is on two various artist records.
Roland Shaw
Roland Shaw has 6 LPs in the Phase 4s plus two various artist records.
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann has 14 LPs in the Phase 4s.
Eric Rogers
Eric Rogers has 11 LPs in he Phase 4s plus 4 various artist records.
Stanley Black
Stanley Black has 32 LPs in the Phase 4s plus seven various artist records. He also has a three LP box set entitled Festival of Great Film Music.
Photographs of LP covers will be added as soon as I have them in the collection.
References available on request
Regarding the LP cover images, they are photographs of the records in my own collection and are taken by my own hand (which explains the slight wonkiness of some of them). All images should, however, be considered the property of Decca.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of any image in any form is prohibited.
Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of the text in any form is prohibited,
restricted by permission of the author.