Henry Mancini - The Days Of Wine And Roses - Vol.2

1. Theme From "Hatari!" (1961)
2. Baby Elephant Walk (1961)
3. Just For Tonight (Vocal) (1961)
4. Days Of Wine And Roses (1962)
5. Too Little Time (1962)
6. Bachelor In Paradise (1961)
7. Charade (Vocal) (1963)
8. Latin Snowfall (1963)
9. The Pink Panther Theme (1963)
10. Royal Blue (1963)
11. It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Shamora) (Vocal) (1963)
12. Piano And Strings (1963)
13. Dear Heart (Vocal) (1964)
14. Soldier In The Rain (1964)
15. How Soon (Vocal) (1964)
16. A Shot In The Dark (1964)
17. Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (1965)
18. Come To The Mardi Gras (Nao Tenho Lagrimas) (1965)
19. The Sweetheart Tree (Vocal) (1965)
20. The Great Race March (A Patriotic Medley) (1965)
21. Moment To Moment (1965)
22. Something For Sophia (1966)
23. We've Loved Before (Yasmin's Theme) (Vocal) (1966)
24. The Swing March (1966)
25. In The Arms Of Love (Vocal) (1966)
26. Cherokee (Indian Love Song) (1966)
27. Autumn Nocturne (1966)

Days Of Wine And Roses 2

Percy Faith and His Orchestra - Do I Hear A Waltz?

1. Do I Hear A Waltz?
2. Here We Are Again
3. Moon In My Window
4. This Week Americans
5. Someone Like You
6. We're Gonna Be All Right
7. No Understand
8. Take The Moment
9. Thinking
10. A Perfectly Lovely Couple
11. Stay
12. Thank You So Much

Do I Hear A Waltz

It was mid-January, but it was warm and sunny in Los Angeles the morning I boarded the plane bound for New York City and a meeting with Richard Rogers. The weather would be cold there, but the mission would be a warm and thrilling experience for me. I was to hear the music for "Do I Hear A Waltz", a new Broadway show being prepared by Rodgers and his gifted lyricist, Stephen Sondheim.

The purpose of this early hearing? I was to record an instrumental version of songs from the up-coming musical, and the familiar pattern that would precede this special kind of recording was beginning to unfold.

First, there was the urgency. The show would soon be leaving New York for pre-Broadway out-of-town performances. Second, hearing the Rodgers-Sondheim score in this early stage would provide a chance to experience the songs in their purest form, with voice and piano accompaniment. Watching the action on stage in rehearsal, even without sets and costumes, would be helpful, of course; and it was a chance to hear and see all this at the show's inception, before the score would be eagerly seized by dozens of recording vocalists and orchestras. In this way I would be able to capture the spirit of the songs and transfer it to the "voice" of the orchestra. This had been the method for my instrumental versions of "The Sound Of Music", "My Fair Lady", "South Pacific", "Kismet", and many other orchestral albums.

And the music? I could scarcely wait to get back home and begin preparing these arrangements of Richard Rodgers' great music for "Do I Hear A Waltz".

(Percy Faith, from the original liner notes)

Henry Mancini - The Days Of Wine And Roses - Vol.1

1. Peter Gunn (1958)
2. Dreamsville (1958)
3. Slow And Easy (1958)
4. A Profound Gass (1958)
5. Walkin' Bass (1959)
6. My Manne Shelly (1959)
7. Blues For Mother's (1959)
8. Snowfall (1959)
9. Big Noise From Winnetka (1960)
10. Sing, Sing, Sing (1960)
11. Mr. Lucky (1959)
12. One Eyed Cat (1959)
13. Blue Satin (1959)
14. A Powdered Wig (1960)
15. High Time (1960)
16. The Second Time Around (1960)
17. Theme From "The Great Imposter" (1960)
18. Rain Drops In Rio (1961)
19. Blue Mantilla (1961)
20. Moon River (1960)
21. Breakfast At Tiffany's (1961)
22. Holly (1961)
23. Experiment In Terror (1962)
24. Fluter's Ball (1962)
25. White On White (1962)

Days Of Wine And Roses - Vol.1

Days of Wine and Roses is a comprehensive three-disc box set featuring all of Henry Mancini's most popular and best-known works in their original versions. For some, the sheer extensiveness of the set may be a bit intimidating -- after all, three discs is a lot for casual fans -- but for serious fans of the composer, it's an essential purchase. 

(by Stephen Thomas Erlewine from allmusic.com)

101 Strings Orchestra - The Songs Of France

1. I Love Paris
2. The Poor People Of Paris
3. Under Paris Skies
4. Le Soir, La Siene
5. Mademoiselle De Paris
6. Fifi
7. Montmartre
8. A Day With Frère Jacques
9. Gay Boulevardier
10. La Belle Parisienne
11. Can Can

The Songs Of France

The London Starlight Orchestra - Golden Piano Melodies - with Philippe L'Auran at the piano

1. Memory
2. People
3. Ballade Pour Adeline
4. All At Once
5. Bilitis
6. Old And Wise
7. She's Leaving Home
8. St. Elmo's Fire
9. Sleepy Shores
10. Send In The Clowns
11. Chariots Of Fire
12. Maria
13. Only Love
14. Who Can I Turn To
15. Theme From "The Carsons"
16. Don't Cry For Me Argentina
17. We Have All The Time In The World
18. I Know Him So Well

Golden Piano Melodies

So many words have been written about the talented Philippe L'Auran that to repeat them all would be redundant. On this record Philippe L'Auran plays 18 Golden Piano Melodies. Many are wellknown favorites, like "People" (from the musical "Funny Girl"), "Send In The Clowns" (from the musical "A Little Night Music"), "Maria" (from the musical "West Side Story"), and "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" (from the musical "Evita"). Others are winning new melodies, like "Ballade Pour Adeline", "Sleepy Shores", and "Only Love". Each tune enjoys the benediction of a colorful arrangement interpreted by Philippe L'Auran and the incomparable London Starlight Orchestra.

L'Auran is a pianist of exquisite taste and tender moods. His instrumental technique is brilliant, his style intimate and his understanding interpretations make listening a new and colorful experience. In this program Philippe L'Auran is at his sophisticated best in sparkling keyboard interpretations of romantic favorites and melodies from musicals.

If a musical can be said to have a purpose, then it is simply to entertain - with fantasy and romance as its natural directions. Whatever the type of musical, entertainment will always be more important than any possible message. There is a certain magic about the musical - a certain thrill and excitement that conjures up the memorable evergreen songs, the stars, the spectacular production. That magic is now recreated in a great number of Golden Piano Melodies, played on this selection. Not only in the melodies from musicals, but also in the remaining part of the repertory L'Auran exposes his feeling for melody, together with his smoothness of style. Take for instance "She's Leaving Home", one of the highlights from The Beatles' Songbook. Take the wonderful Johnny Pearson compositions "Sleepy Shores" and "Theme From 'The Carsons'". Or listen to "Bilitis", a masterpiece of one of the greatest film composers ever, Francis Lai.

Having The London Starlight Orchestra behind him, Philippe L'Auran is free to concentrate on creating a polished and expressive solo line. The result is piano music shorn of frills or any striving for effect, music that is the best possible definition of 'tasty'. All in all, Philippe L'Auran produces some of the freshest, fleetest keyboard music on this selection. It's a delightful experience and one to repeat often - listening to his interpretations of 18 Golden Piano Melodies.

(From the original liner notes)

Nelson Riddle - The Joy Of Living

1. Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries
2. You Made Me Feel So Young
3. Makin' Whoopee!
4. Bye Bye Blues
5. It's So Peacul In The Country
6. The Joy Of Living
7. It's A Big Wide Wonderful World
8. June In January
9. Isn't This A Lovely Day
10. Indian Summer
11. It's A Grand Night For Singing
12. I Got The Sun In The Morning

The Joy Of Living

Nelson Riddle presents twelve danceable, gently swinging reasons why it's great to be alive!

Life can be especially grand when good music is a part of it. Be it humming, whistling, or the sound of a lively orchestra, music adds a special spark of joy of living.

Here, arranger-conductor Nelson Riddle displays his matchless flair for dressing familiar tunes in a restful yet zestful style, rich with that spark! Twelve melodies, alread bright with exuberance, glow anew as he takes them soaring on a carefree ride. A light, muted trumpet propels them along at times; rich strings sail them forward at others, sometimes taking the lead, sometimes singing in the background.

It all happens with gentle lift and an easy bounce-brass or strings transporting most of the melody, met now and then by a way-faring flute, a guitar, or a happy trombone that barrels along-way bellow-adding humorous bass notes.

The whole joyous trip is filled with rare imagination, an all-fun mood, and the freshest kind of Riddle ideas-all combining to make The Joy Of Living a joy to hear!

(From the original liner notes)

Ray Conniff & Billy Butterfield - Just Kiddin' Around

1. Alexander's Ragtime Band
2. Louise
3. Heartaches
4. This Love Of Mine
5. When I Grow Too Old To Dream
6. You'll Never Know
7. Just Kiddin' Around
8. You Oughta Be In Pictures
9. Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey
10. Peg O' My Heart
11. But Not For Me
12. I See Your Face Before Me

Just Kiddin' Around

Ray Conniff - Conniff Meets Butterfield

1. Beyond The Blue Horizon
2. You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby
3. All The Things You Are
4. Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'
5. Time On My Hands
6. Something To Remember You By
7. What A Diff'rence A Day Made
8. South Of The Border
9. Can't We Be Friends
10. Rosalie
11. A Love Is Born
12. I Found A Million Dollar Baby (In A Five And Ten Cent Store)

Conniff Meets Butterfield

Le Grand Orchestre de Paul Mauriat - L'été Indien - Vol. 21

1. Brasilia Carnaval
2. L'été Indien (Africa)
3. Mélisa
4. Du Film "Le Parrain 2e Partie": C'est Mieux Comme Ça
5. Minuetto
6. Amore Grande Amore Libero
7. Love Will Keep Us Together
8. J'ai Encore Revé D'elle
9. Dansez Maintenant (Moonlight Serenade)
10. Du Film "Histoire D'O": Je Ne Suis Que De L'Amour
11. I'm Not In Love
12. Dis-Lui (Feelings)

L'été Indien

Norrie Paramor's Orchestra - Amor, Amor!

1. Come Closer To Me
2. Amor Amor
3. Para-Cha-Cha
4. Baia
5. Green Eyes
6. Luna Rossa (Blushing Moon)
7. Amapola
8. Always In My Heart
9. The Breeze And I
10. Cavaquinho (Little Guitar)
11. Sweet And Gentle
12. You Belong To My Heart

Amor, Amor!

THE LUSH MELODIES in Amor, Amor! are favorites of the international set, arranged by Norrie Paramor so as to capture the moods of gentle romance, carefree travel, and exciting tropical holidays.

The songs move in perfect, exhilarating tempos for dancing the beguine, merengue, or cha-cha. Yet each casts a spell of dreamlike romance under a tropical night sky.

The unique Norrie Paramor sound is here - a large, supple string section, with the haunting soprano voice of Patricia Clark interweaving in a velvet texture of melody. To this Amor, Amor! adds a few other instruments for subtle color: a quiet but driving Latin rhythm section sets each tempo and carries the orchestra smoothly forward. A solitary French horn sounds poignant counter-melodies, and bright but unobtrusive piano and celeste lend occasional sparkle.

With his special British touch, Norrie Paramor lends these songs new charm. They create a mood quite definitely Para Amor - for love.

(From the original liner notes)

Ray Conniff, His Singers and Orchestra - Happiness Is

1. Happiness Is
2. Midnight Lace (Part 1)
3. Miss You
4. Popsy
5. Melodie D'Amour
6. You Stepped Out Of A Dream
7. Jamaica Farewell
8. Blue Moon
9. If I Knew Then
10. The Sheik Of Araby
11. All By Myself
12. Sweet Sue, Just You

Happiness Is

Trumpet solo - Billy Butterfield
Trombone and whistle solos - Ray Conniff
Cover Photo - Columbia Records Photo Studio - Sandy Speiser

To Ray Conniff, HAPPINESS obviously IS... recording albums that bring you HAPPY music for HAPPY listening and dancing...

And to millions of fans - youngsters, oldsters, the wed and the unwed, at home and abroad - HAPPINESS IS an album in which the HAPPY sound, the HAPPY feeling mean Ray Conniff, His Singers, His Orchestra.

(From the original liner notes)

An aggressively "happy" album by Ray Conniff and his singers, Happiness Is combines exuberant singalongs, wordless vocals, and instrumentals in a grab-bag album that covers many -- if not most -- of Conniff's bases. A couple of mellow moments don't detract from the overarching sunniness of the album, which lapses into delicious self-parody with "Popsy" and the hilarious title track (co-written by former teen idol Paul Evans). "The Sheik of Araby" is whistled to a shuffling soft-shoe rhythm, and the joyous ba-ba's totally eclipse the inherent loneliness of "Blue Moon." Happiness Is is a fun and very funny album that once again shows Conniff's self-effacing sense of humor. 

(by Greg Adams from allmusic.com)

Percy Faith and His Orchestra - Subways Are For Sleeping

1. Ride Through The Night
2. I'm Just Taking My Time
3. When You Help A Friend Out
4. Who Knows What Might Have Been?
5. I Just Can't Wait
6. Getting Married
7. Be A Santa
8. How Can You Describe A Face?
9. Comes Once In A Lifetime
10. Now I Have Someone
11. I Said It And I'm Glad
12. What Is This Feeling In The Air?

Subways Are For Sleeping

Ever feel that the daily grind of making a living was interfering with living itself? Tired of big business deals, mass culture, bomb shelters? Then come for an exciting subway ride with composer Jule Styne and arranger-conductor Percy Faith. Percy is an expert guide through Jule Styne's irresistible score for the new Broadway musical hit, "Subways Are For Sleeping", all about Manhattan's zany "undergroud" population. Book and lyrics are by the famed team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

Percy Faith's arrangement of the opening number begins, appropriately, with drums representing the distant rumble of a subway train, then swells to a roaring orchestral crescendo as we Ride Through The Night to meet some of New York's most relaxed and picturesque odd-balls. The easy-going strains of I'm Just Taking My Time puts us in a receptive mood to meet these carefree denizens of subways, Grand Central Station benches and even deserted galleries in the hallowed Metropolitan Museum Of Art! We discover with them how amicable the world really can be as we listen to the cheerful, lilting When You Help A Friend Out.

Who Knows What Might Have Been? introduces us to the show's hero Tom Bailey, ex-business tycoon turned odd-jobber (walking people's dogs is a specialty). A chance encounter in the subway introduces him to a runaway bride, Angie McKay. The driving tempo of Getting Married reflects Angie's impetuous decision to escape matrimony with her boss for whom she represents a combination tax deduction and social hostess.

Percy Faith emphasizes restless, insistent percussion and wistful strings in his arrangement of I Just Can't Wait. (Charlie Smith, professional meal moocher, can't wait for the treat of seeing his girl friend fully dressed-her "system" is to wear a wrap-around bath towel in her hotel room and thus for long, rent-overdue periods stave off forcible eviction!)

Tom avoids the Christmas gift rush by standing still-as a street corner Santa Claus, collecting money for the Community Center. Percy Faith lends the spirited, joyous Be A Santa, a rousing orchestral treatment. Sleigh bells jingle gaily, church bells ring out merrily and piccolos tweet brightly in this captivating salude to the Yuletide.

Percy's famous trademark, silken strings, are used appropriately for How Can You Describe A Face?, Tom's eloquent attempt to describe Angie's beauty. Now I Have Someone is equally persuasive.

Comes Once In A Lifetime is a characteristically buoyant Jule Styne showstopper. Conductor Faith captures brilliantly its infectious exuberance. Wind instruments followed by rhapsodic strings translate into purely orchestral terms Angie's declaration of love, I Said It And I'm Glad.

Percy Faith concludes his musical tour of the Subways system by answering the happy question, What Is This Feeling In The Air? with a hint of wedding bells.

(Curtis F. Brown, from the original liner notes)

The Broadway Stage Orchestra - Love Is Music

1. Love Is Music
2. Sleepy Shores
3. Midnight Blue
4. A Man And A Woman
5. Annie's Song
6. Michelle
7. Feelings
8. Endless Love
9. September Morn'
10. My Way
11. Let It Be
12. Speak Softly Love
13. Ballade Pour Adeline
14. Douce Melodie
15. Misty
16. Love Story
17. Yesterday
18. Blue Eyes
19. Perhaps Love
20. Ebb Tide

Love Is Music

'Love Is Music' - and so it is! The two are inextricably entwined... can't do without each other. Well nigh all songs on the lighter side of the musical spectrum revolve around the subject of love. Which is not at all surprising really considering that love is the very fountain of life. Anyone who has delved into the history of the lovesong will know that, until well into the 'Fifties, it dealt with love in a distinctly platonic context. And that accounts for the fact that, in the English-language repertoire, such a word as 'moon' was invariably rhymed with 'June' or 'soon'; while, in the French chanson, 'L'Amour' was never very far removed from 'toujours'. Indeed, generally speaking it can be said that the romantic song was primarily made up of musical notes expressed in melodious idiom and addressed to such traditional themes as love gained, love lost and (temporary) loneliness. For decor there was usually the gleaming sun, the pouring rain or the gentle moonlight. Then, shortly after the arrival of rock 'n' roll in the 'Fifties, both performers and a younger generation of composers and lyricists began to give love an increasingly erotic interpretation. the age of 'Moonlight & Roses', it seemed, had come to an end.

Since then, however, time has taught us that the purely romantic ballad did not sink into oblivion. Even representatives of the pop-music fraternity were not averse to composing tuneful love-songs, some of which have already joined the select club of 'evergreens'. Take, for instance, 'Yesterday' and 'Michelle' by John Lennon and Paul McCartney; and 'Annie's Song' by John Denver. On this selection these three numbers are to be found in the good company of 17 other love-songs, all of them performed by The Broadway Stage Orchestra under their conductor Mark Robberts.

'Love Is Music' - and whoever listens to the treasure-chest of songs presented here would not argue with that. Melodies from the 'Fifties rub shoulders with romantic numbers written a decade or so later, so that the whole collection is a store of riches varying from jazz-pianist Errol Garner's 'Misty' to slows positively seeped in atmosphere such as Morris Albert's 'Feelings', Francis Lai's 'A Man And A Woman' and 'Love Story', and Johnny Pearson's 'Sleepy Shores'.

The numbers by these composers, who largely became known through their wealth of background and film-music, are found here alongside love-songs with which great stars from the top-world made such an impact. We've already mentioned John Lennon, Paul McCartney and John Denver. But here you'll also find Lionel Richie ('Endless Love'), Neil Diamond ('September Morn') and Elton John ('Blue Eyes'). And not to forget... one very, very special song: 'My Way'. Although French by origin, it was to conquer the world, thanks to Frank Sinatra in whose repertoire it has now remained for more than twenty years.

(From the original liner notes)

101 Strings Orchestra - The Soul Of Scotland

1. Sky Boat Song
2. Will Ye No Come Home Again
3. The Kell Row
4. Bonny Mary Of Argyle
5. The Dashing Withe Sergeant
6. My Home
7. Annie Laurie
8. De'il Among The Tailors
9. Ye Banks And Braes O'Bonny Doon
10. Medley: Speed The Plough / Mrs. McLeod / Fairy Dance
11. The Flowers Of Edinburgh
12. Scotland The Brave

The Soul Of Scotland