Paul Mauriat et Son Grand Orchestre - Volume 9

1. Aquarius
2. Un Jour Un Enfant
3. Goodbye
4. Windmills of Your Mind
5. L'orage (La Pioggia)
6. Sayonara
7. O Sonho
8. Get Back
9. Oh Happy Day
10. Le Meteque
11. Isadora
12. Vole Vole Farandole (Hello Love)

Paul Mauriat Nº 9

Jack Lemmon - A Twist of Lemmon - Music arranged and conducted by Marion Evans

1. The Kiss That Rocked the World
2. What Is There to Say
3. With All My Love
4. Bidin' My Time
5. On the Sunny Side of the Street
6. I Wished on the Moon
7. You'd Be So Nice to Come Home to
8. Imagination
9. There's No Such Thing (As the Next Best Thing to Love)
10. Lemmon Flavored Blues
11. Fine and Dandy
12. Let's Fall in Love

A Twist of Lemmon

Lemmon developed a love for music around the same time he began acting, but his success in the latter forced the future Oscar winner to abandon his career as a professional musician. In the 1950s, after a string of Broadway musical hits, Jack Lemmon was invited to record a full-length album. The resulting Twist of Lemmon was initially going to be an album of piano songs, but as production began, Lemmon and producer Jack Sherman decided to record six instrumentals and six vocal tracks. Jack Lemmon chose songs for the record while on the set of It Should Happen to You with Judy Holiday. Eventually the actor ended up choosing only four instrumentals to go with eight vocal songs. The resulting LP is a much more commercial product than was first imagined. Though Lemmon's voice is solid, his piano playing was his strength. The 12 standards on Twist of Lemmon include Yip Harburg's "What Is There to Say," the Gershwins' "Bidin' My Time," Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," and Harold Arlen's "Let's Fall in Love." Of note are "With All My Lov," which is a Jack Lemmon original, and "Lemmon Flavored Blues," written by arranger Marlon Evans. Twist of Lemmon is a serious album that is musically solid but of more interest as a window into the creativity of one of Hollywood's greats. ~ JT Griffith, All Music Guide

Best-known as an Academy Award-winning actor, Jack Lemmon also issued several recordings over the years. Born John Uhler Lemmon III on February 8, 1925, in Newton, MA, it wasn't until he attended Harvard University that Lemmon began taking acting seriously and joined the school's drama club. After serving in the Navy, Lemmon worked in a beer hall playing piano before eventually landing spots on Broadway, radio, TV, and by the mid-'50s, movies (alternating between comedies and dramas). It didn't take long for the public to recognize Lemmon's acting talents; he won an Academy Award in 1955 for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the movie Mister Roberts and earned further nominations as Best Leading Actor in the late '50s/early '60s (1959's Some Like It Hot, 1960's The Apartment, 1962's Days of Wine and Roses). It was also around this time that Lemmon began issuing albums, including such titles as Twist of Lemmon and Sings and Plays Music From Some Like It Hot in the late '50s, as well as Piano Selections From Irma La Douce and E.B. White's Here Is New York in the early '60s.

In 1968, Lemmon gave perhaps his best-known performance in a movie as the neurotic neatnic Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, while further Academy Award nominations came in (1979's The China Syndrome, 1980's Tribute, and 1982's Missing), in addition to winning a Best Leading Actor Academy Award for 1972's Save the Tiger and a pair of Best Leading Actor Cannes Film Festival Awards for The China Syndrome and Missing. The early '90s saw Lemmon issue his first musical albums in nearly two decades, with 1990's Piano & Vocals and 1991's Peter and the Wolf (the latter of which had Lemmon team up with the Prague Festival Orchestra). Lemmon continued to act regularly until the late '90s when he was diagnosed with cancer; he eventually succumbed to the illness on June 27, 2001, in Los Angeles, CA, at the age of 76. A 2-in-1 CD that included both Twist of Lemmon and Sings and Plays Music From Some Like It Hot was issued a week after his passing. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide

Percy Faith and His Orchestra - Joy

1. Joy
2. Brian's Song
3. Love Theme from "Mary, Queen of Scots" (This Way Home)
4. Theme from "Shaft"
5. Without You
6. An Old Fashioned Love Song
7. Diamonds Are Forever
8. Theme from "The Summer of '42" (The Summer Knows)
9. Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves
10. Sunrise, Sunset / Fiddler on the Roof
11. Hurting Each Other

Joy

Dinah Washington - The Jazz Masters - 100 anos de Swing

1. Bye Bye Blues
2. Crazy He Calls Me
3. No More
4. Blue Skies
5. A Foggy Day
6. I Let A Song Out of My Heart
7. Darn That Dream
8. Our Love Is Here to Stay
9. Love for Sale
10. (No, No, No) You Can't Love Two
11. Come Rain or Come Shine
12. There Is No Greater Love
13. Raindrops
14. Manhattan
15. What A Difference A Day Makes
16. Mad About the Boy

(born Aug. 29, 1924, Tuscaloosa, Ala., U.S. — died Dec. 14, 1963, Detroit, Mich.) U.S. singer. Washington sang in church choirs as a child. She joined Lionel Hampton's band in 1943, embarking on a solo career in 1946. Her recordings encompassed a wide variety of idioms including rhythm and blues, jazz, and country music; her "What a Difference a Day Makes" (1959) was a pop hit. Known as "Queen of the Blues," she combined precise diction and intonation with an alternately gentle and brassy vocal timbre, and her voice was remarkable for its clarity and projection. She had remarkable vocal control. Even after she crossed over to the popular (pop) music market, in which she had her greatest commercial success, Washington retained many of her earlier fans because of her passionate, supple style.

Dinah Washington was at once one of the most beloved and controversial singers of the mid-20th century -- beloved to her fans, devotees, and fellow singers; controversial to critics who still accuse her of selling out her art to commerce and bad taste. Her principal sin, apparently, was to cultivate a distinctive vocal style that was at home in all kinds of music, be it R&B, blues, jazz, middle of the road pop -- and she probably would have made a fine gospel or country singer had she the time. Hers was a gritty, salty, high-pitched voice, marked by absolute clarity of diction and clipped, bluesy phrasing. Washington's personal life was turbulent, with seven marriages behind her, and her interpretations showed it, for she displayed a tough, totally unsentimental, yet still gripping hold on the universal subject of lost love. She has had a huge influence on R&B and jazz singers who have followed in her wake, notably Nancy Wilson, Esther Phillips, and Diane Schuur, and her music is abundantly available nowadays via the huge seven-volume series The Complete Dinah Washington on Mercury.

Born Ruth Lee Jones, she moved to Chicago at age three and was raised in a world of gospel, playing the piano and directing her church choir. At 15, after winning an amateur contest at the Regal Theatre, she began performing in nightclubs as a pianist and singer, opening at the Garrick Bar in 1942. Talent manager Joe Glaser heard her there and recommended her to Lionel Hampton, who asked her to join his band. Hampton says that it was he who gave Ruth Jones the name Dinah Washington, although other sources claim it was Glaser or the manager of the Garrick Bar. In any case, she stayed with Hampton from 1943 to 1946 and made her recording debut for Keynote at the end of 1943 in a blues session organized by Leonard Feather with a sextet drawn from the Hampton band. With Feather's "Evil Gal Blues" as her first hit, the records took off, and by the time she left Hampton to go solo, Washington was already an R&B headliner. Signing with the young Mercury label, Washington produced an enviable string of Top Ten hits on the R&B charts from 1948 to 1955, singing blues, standards, novelties, pop covers, even Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart." She also recorded many straight jazz sessions with big bands and small combos, most memorably with Clifford Brown on Dinah Jams but also with Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, Ben Webster, Wynton Kelly, and the young Joe Zawinul (who was her regular accompanist for a couple of years).

In 1959, Washington made a sudden breakthrough into the mainstream pop market with "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes," a revival of a Dorsey Brothers hit set to a Latin American bolero tune. For the rest of her career, she would concentrate on singing ballads backed by lush orchestrations for Mercury and Roulette, a formula similar to that of another R&B-based singer at that time, Ray Charles, and one that drew plenty of fire from critics even though her basic vocal approach had not changed one iota. Although her later records could be as banal as any easy listening dross of the period, there are gems to be found, like Billie Holiday's "Don't Explain," which has a beautiful, bluesy Ernie Wilkins chart conducted by Quincy Jones. Struggling with a weight problem, Washington died of an accidental overdose of diet pills mixed with alcohol at the tragically early age of 39, still in peak voice, still singing the blues in an L.A. club only two weeks before the end. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide

Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra - Sounds of Romance - Volume 2

1. Handy Man
2. Looks Like We Made It
3. It Was Almost Like A Song
4. Baby I'm Yours
5. Nobody Does It Better
6. Sometimes When We Touch
7. The Air That I Breathe
8. Lover Come Back to Me
9. Three Times A Lady
10. Walking in Rhythm
11. Things We Do for Love
12. Bluer Than Blue
13. Tonight You Belong to Me
14. Torn Between Two Lovers
15. Somewhere in the Night
16. The Night Has 1000 Eyes
17. Higher and Higher
18. Don't Worry Baby

Sounds of Romance 2

Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra - Sounds of Romance - Volume 1

1. Little Things Mean A Lot
2. Can't Smile Without You
3. Feelings
4. Chances Are
5. After the Lovin'
6. Blue Bayou
7. Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue
8. There I've Said It Again
9. I Just Fall in Love Again
10. Dancing Queen
11. Blueberry Hill
12. Talking in Your Sleep
13. You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine
14. Just Walkin' in the Rain
15. Hopelessly Devoted to You
16. Afternoon Delight
17. How Deep Is Your Love
18. Before the Next Teardrop Falls

Sounds of Romance 1

Francis Charles Chacksfield was born in Battle, East Sussex, and as a child learned to play piano and organ. He appeared at Hastings Music Festivals by the time he was 14, and then became deputy church organist at Salehurst. After working for a short period in a solicitor's office he decided on a career in music, and by the late 1930s led a small band at Tonbridge in Kent. At the beginning of World War II he joined the Royal Corps of Signals, and, following a radio broadcast as a pianist, was posted to ENSA at Salisbury where he became the arranger for Stars In Battledress, an armed forces entertainment troupe, and shared an office with comedian Charlie Chester.

After the war, he worked with Chester and on BBC Radio as an arranger and conductor. He also worked as musical director for both Henry Hall and Geraldo, and began recording under his own name in 1951 as "Frank Chacksfield's Tunesmiths". In early 1953 he had his first top ten hit, "Little Red Monkey", on the Parlophone label. This was a novelty recording featuring Jack Jordan on the clavioline, and reportedly the first record featuring an electronic instrument to feature on the UK pop chart. He signed a recording contract with Decca Records in 1953, and formed a 40-piece orchestra with a large string section, the "Singing Strings". His first record release for Decca, Charlie Chaplin's themes for his film Limelight, won him a Gold Disc in the USA, and in Britain, where it reached #2 in the charts, won him the New Musical Express award as Record of the Year. His next 78 single, "Ebb Tide", became the first British instrumental recording to reach #1 in some American charts, providing a second Gold Disc, and he was voted the most promising new orchestra of the year in the US.

He became one of Britain's most well known orchestra leaders internationally, and is estimated to have sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. His material was "mood music", similar to that of Mantovani, including ballads, waltzes, and movie themes. In 1954 he began presenting a series on BBC TV, which continued occasionally until the early 1960s. Chacksfield was responsible for the musical arrangement of the first UK entry into the Eurovision Song Contest 1957; "All" by Patricia Bredin. He continued to write music, release singles and albums through the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared regularly on BBC radio.

He continued to record occasionally until the 1990s, from the 1970s primarily on the Phase 4 label. He also developed business interests in publishing and recorded for Starborne Productions, a company supplying "canned music" for use by easy listening radio stations and others. Many of these recordings were made commercially available in 2007. His last album was Thanks for the Memories (Academy Award Winners 1934-55), released in 1991. Chacksfield died in Kent in 1995, after having suffered for several years from Parkinson's Disease.

His song, "Après Ski", was featured in the 2006 video game Saint's Row for the Xbox 360.

(from Answers.com)

Francisco Garcia - 15 Romantic Guitar Evergreens

1. Again
2. Blue Moon
3. Mona Lisa
4. Symphony
5. The Things We Did Last
6. It Might As Well Be Spring
7. Love in the Sand
8. Guilty
9. Now Is the Hour
10. Misty Nights
11. Strangers in the Night
12. My Eyes Are for You
13. Our Romance
14. Summertime
15. Jacky's Dreams

Romantic Guitar

Leroy Holmes - Sophisticated Strings

1. There's A Small Hotel
2. What Is This Thing Called Love
3. At Last
4. Powerhouse
5. The Hour of Parting
6. The Moon Was Yellow
7. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
8. Mood Indigo
9. Humoresque
10. Blue Moon
11. Sophisticated Lady
12. Tico Tico

Sophisticated Strings

LeRoy Holmes (born Alvin Holmes September 22, 1913, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – July 27, 1986, Los Angeles, California) was an American songwriter, composer, arranger and conductor.

Holmes studied music at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and the Juilliard School in New York, before working with a number of bandleaders during the 1930s and early 40s. These included Ernst Toch, Vincent Lopez, and Harry James

After serving as a lieutenant in the US Navy during the Second World War, he moved to Hollywood, where he was hired by MGM Music Studios as a house arranger and conductor, before later moving to United Artists. During his time with MGM, he backed numerous vocalists, including Judy Garland, and in 1954 made what is possibly his best known recording, a version of the theme to the film The High and the Mighty. The song is known for its distinctive accompanying whistling, which was provided by Fred Lowery. Holmes provided the orchestration for Tommy Edwards epic 1958 hit "It's All In The Game", and tried rock and R&B with his backing to the Impalas "Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)". Holmes also wrote the theme song to the television series International Detective.

He moved to United Artists Records in the early 1960s, where he contributed to many compilations of movie themes, released albums under his own name and backed a succession of singers, notably Gloria Lynne and Shirley Bassey. In addition, he produced albums for a number of United Artists acts, including the Briarwood Singers. He also worked on the music for the 1977 film The Chicken Chronicles (see 1977 in film).

(from Answers.com)

Billy Vaughn - La Isla Bonita

1. La Isla Bonita
2. Yesterday
3. When
4. Always on My Mind
5. Cherish
6. Knowing Me, Knowing You
7. La Paloma
8. Wheels
9. La Bamba
10. Sail Along Silvery Moon
11. Aloha Oe
12. Diana
13. Blue Hawaii
14. Morgen
15. Melody of Love
16. Say You, Say Me

La Isla Bonita

Billy Vaughn was one of the most popular orchestra leaders and pop music arrangers of the '50s and early '60s. In fact, he had more pop hits than any other orchestra leader during the rock & roll era. Vaughn was also the musical director for many of the hitmakers on Dot Records, including Pat Boone, the Fontane Sisters, and Gale Storm. As a pop music arranger, his most distinctive feature was his clean, nonoffensive mainstream adaptations of rock & roll and R&B hits. Vaughn was also a recording artist, and he cut a number of albums of easy listening, instrumental music that were very popular throughout the '60s.

Vaughn began his professional music career in 1952, forming the vocal quartet the Hilltoppers with Don McGuire, Jimmy Sacca, and Seymour Speigelman. From 1952 to 1957, the Hilltoppers had numerous hit singles, beginning with Vaughn's song "Trying." He left the group in 1955 to join Dot Records as a musical director.

Vaughn was responsible for most of Dot's biggest hits of the '50s as he rearranged popular rock & roll and R&B songs for white, mainstream groups. His first success was with the Fontane Sisters, who sang with his orchestra on all their singles, including their 1954 breakthrough hit "Hearts of Stone." However, Dot's biggest success was Pat Boone, who had a series of hits with Vaughn's cleaned-up arrangements of rock & roll songs.

At the same time he was leading the vocal pop division of Dot, Billy Vaughn was recording his own instrumental records, which frequently were also covers of R&B and country songs. Beginning with 1954's "Melody of Love," Vaughn had a string of easy listening U.S. hit singles that ran for over a decade. He also recorded numerous hit albums, with 36 of his records entering the U.S. album charts between 1958 and 1970.

Though he was the most successful orchestra leader of the rock & roll era, he wasn't able to sustain an audience in the late '60s. Vaughn released his last album in 1970 and quietly retired. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide.

The Strings of Paris - Romantic Guitar Melodies - Featuring 'Django' Williams - Conducted by Jean Paul de la Tour

1. Hey Jude
2. La Più Bella Del Mondo
3. Mona Lisa
4. Misty
5. Violetta
6. Michelle
7. Mama Don't Know
8. My Way
9. Blue Moon
10. Cuando Caliente El Sol
11. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
12. Arumbai
13. Bewitched
14. More
15. September Morn'
16. Yesterday

Romantic Guitar Melodies

Frank Sinatra - Ao Vivo - In Monte Carlo

1. All the Way
2. I've Got You Under My Skin
3. Moonlight in Vermont
4. The Lady Is A Tramp
5. I Get A Kick Out of You
6. When Your Love Has Gone
7. On the Road to Mandalay
8. April in Paris
9. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
10. Monique
11. Where or When
12. You Make Me Feel so Young
13. Come Fly with Me

Percy Faith and His Orchestra - A Summer Place - Volume 3

1. Theme from "A Summer Place"
2. Since I Fell for You
3. Come Saturday Morning
4. The Windmills of Your Mind
5. For the Good Times
6. Blowin' in the Wind
7. I'm Gonna Go Fishin'
8. Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
9. Love Theme from "Romeo and Juliet"
10. Mrs. Robinson
11. Here, There and Everywhere
12. You Are the Sunshine of My Life

Summer Place - Vol. 3

Percy Faith and His Orchestra - A Summer Place - Volume 2

1. Aquarius
2. Leaving on A Jet Plane
3. Do I Hear A Waltz?
4. Never My Love
5. Fifth Movement (Tubular Bells)
6. Cherry, Cherry
7. Moon River
8. I Need You
9. Stranger on the Shore
10. He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
11. Rose Garden
12. The Way We Were

Summer Place - Vol. 2

Percy Faith and His Orchestra - A Summer Place - Volume 1

1. Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head
2. Lady Sings the Blues
3. Comes Once in A Lifetime
4. Make It Easy on Yourself
5. Funny Girl
6. Feelings
7. Can't Get Used to Losing You
8. How Can I Be Sure
9. Annie's Song
10. Superstar
11. Spanish Harlem
12. Never Can Say Goodbye

Summer Place - Vol. 1

Nelson Riddle - A Touch of Class

1. Let's Face the Music and Dance
2. Lisbon Antigua
3. Port au Prince
4. Theme from "The Proud Ones"
5. Route 66 Theme
6. Younger Than Springtime
7. I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)
8. The More I See You
9. You and the Night and the Music
10. For All We Know
11. September in the Rain
12. C'est Magnifique
13. My Baby Just Cares for Me
14. I Get Along Without You Very Well
15. Magic Moments
16. I Love You Paris

A Touch Of Class

Nelson Riddle was quite possibly the greatest arranger in the history of American popular music. Over the course of his long and distinguished career, he was also a popular soundtrack composer, a conductor, a trombonist, and an occasional hitmaker in his own right. He worked with many of the major pop vocalists of his day, but it was his immortal work with Frank Sinatra, particularly on the singer's justly revered Capitol concept albums, that cemented Riddle's enduring legacy. Riddle was a master of mood and subtlety, and an expert at drawing out a song's emotional subtext. He was highly versatile in terms of style, mood, and tempo, and packed his charts full of rhythmic and melodic variations and rich tonal colors that blended seamlessly behind the lead vocal line. He often wrote specifically for individual vocalists, keeping their strengths and limitations in mind and pushing them to deliver emotionally resonant performances. As such, Riddle was perfectly suited to the task of framing vocal interpreters, as opposed to just singers; he was most in sync with the more nuanced and artistically ambitious vocalists, like Sinatra. Riddle knew how to lay back and bring certain lyrics or vocal subtleties to the forefront, and how to add countermelodies that emphasized other lyrics, or made important transitions. He could draw the listener in with catchy embellishments, challenge them with adventurous harmonies, and build to climaxes that faded into surprisingly restrained endings. In short, Riddle was everything a top-notch singer could ask for.

Nelson Smock Riddle was born June 1, 1921, in Oradell, NJ. His father was an amateur musician who performed in a local band, and Riddle learned classical piano as a child, later switching to trombone at age 14. Debussy and Ravel were favorites early on, though he also listened to pop music and big-band swing. In 1940, he joined Jerry Wald's dance orchestra as trombonist and arranger; the following year, he moved on to Charlie Spivak's band, leaving to join the merchant marine in 1943. Exiting the service, he spent 1944-1945 as a trombonist with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, also writing a couple of arrangements ("Laura," "I Should Care"). In 1946, he returned to the New York area, where he arranged for big bands like the Elgart Brothers and Elliot Lawrence. By year's end, however, he had decided to relocate to Los Angeles, where he landed a job as an arranger for Bob Crosby. From there he moved on to become a staff arranger at NBC Radio in 1947, also composing background music for dramatic programs, and continued to study arranging and conducting with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Victor Young.

Riddle caught his first big break when Les Baxter recruited him to ghostwrite a few arrangements for Nat King Cole. One of Riddle's efforts, "Mona Lisa," became Cole's biggest hit ever in 1950 (though it was credited to Baxter). "Too Young" was another huge success in 1951, and Cole hired Riddle as his primary arranger; that relationship would endure for over a decade and produce classics like "Unforgettable." In 1952, Riddle wrote an arrangement of "The Blacksmith Blues" for Ella Mae Morse that turned even more heads at Capitol; soon, the label hired him on as an in-house arranger.

When Frank Sinatra signed with Capitol in 1953, the label encouraged him to work with the up-and-coming Riddle; Sinatra was reluctant, initially wanting to remain loyal to his chief Columbia arranger, Axel Stordahl. He soon recognized the freshness of Riddle's approach, however, and eventually came to regard Riddle as his most sympathetic collaborator. The first song they cut together was "I've Got the World on a String," and as Sinatra moved into the LP format, Riddle became a hugely important collaborator. Sinatra wanted to record conceptually unified albums that created consistent moods, and Riddle's arrangements had to draw out the emotional subtext of the material Sinatra chose. Riddle's work was alternately romantic (the 10" LPs Songs for Young Lovers and Swing Easy), desolate and intimate (In the Wee Small Hours, Only the Lonely), or confident and hard-swinging (Songs for Swingin' Lovers!, A Swingin' Affair!). The results were some of the finest and most celebrated albums in the history of popular music.

Capitol signed Riddle as an artist in his own right during the early '50s; leading his own orchestra, he recorded a series of albums (upward of ten) geared for the easy listening audience. In 1956, he scored a breakout hit single with "Lisbon Antigua," an instrumental of European origin that climbed all the way to number one on the pop charts. The follow-up "Port au Prince" made the Top 20, as did two albums, 1957's Hey...Let Yourself Go! and 1958's C'mon...Get Happy!. Plus, his 1958 composition "Cross Country Suite" won him his first Grammy. As the '50s wore on, Riddle got increasingly involved in the motion picture industry, thanks in part to Sinatra; he worked on the scores for the Sinatra films Johnny Concho (1956), Pal Joey (1957), A Hole in the Head (1959), and Come Blow Your Horn (1963), plus the Rat Pack vehicles Ocean's Eleven (1960) and Robin and the Seven Hoods (1964). Branching out into other film projects, he worked on the W.C. Handy biopic St. Louis Blues (1958) and Stanley Kubrick's Lolita, and earning Oscar nominations for his scores for Li'l Abner (1959) and the Cole Porter musical Can-Can (1960). He also served as the musical director on variety shows starring Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Rosemary Clooney.

In addition to Riddle's 1950s associations with Sinatra and Cole, he wrote arrangements for -- among others -- Betty Hutton, Jimmy Wakely, Peggy Lee, Dinah Shore, and Judy Garland, the latter of whom turned in two of her finest interpretive albums in 1956's Judy and 1958's Judy in Love under Riddle's guidance. At the end of the decade, he began a fruitful relationship with Ella Fitzgerald, cutting two sessions with his orchestra backing her up (Ella Swings Brightly With Nelson and Ella Swings Gently With Nelson) and contributing extensively to her mammoth Songbooks series, particularly the Gershwin, Kern, and Mercer volumes. Over the course of the '60s, Riddle went on to work with the likes of Rosemary Clooney (1960's Rosie Solves the Swingin' Riddle), Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Al Martino, Johnny Mathis (1961's I'll Buy You a Star), Shirley Bassey (1962's Let's Face the Music), Billy Eckstine, Jack Jones, Eddie Fisher, Keely Smith, and many, many others. His last full album with Sinatra was 1966's Strangers in the Night, on which Riddle's feel for contemporary pop in the post-rock & roll age helped Sinatra regain his commercial standing.

Meanwhile, Riddle continued his soundtrack work, crafting some of his most notable material for television. He wrote the distinctive theme for The Untouchables in 1959, and his theme song to the series Route 66 was hugely popular, even making the pop charts when it was released as a single in 1962. Although Riddle didn't write the legendary theme song to the Batman TV series, he scored many of the individual episodes. He also worked on shows like The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Tarzan, Emergency!, and Barnaby Jones, among others. In 1967, he signed on as musical director of the popular Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and went on to serve in a similar capacity on early-'70s variety shows hosted by Julie Andrews and Helen Reddy. He earned another Oscar nomination for his work adapting the score of Paint Your Wagon (1969), and notched his first Oscar win for the score of 1974's The Great Gatsby. Meanwhile, Riddle continued to work with Sinatra on special projects, including the singer's 1971 farewell concert at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles, and a 1974 comeback show at Madison Square Garden. As his music grew increasingly jazzy and driving, he also continued his own recording career on Sinatra's Reprise label for a time, later switching to Liberty/United Artists and a succession of smaller imprints.

By the mid-'70s, Riddle was largely retired, a combination of changing musical tastes and health problems that necessarily curtailed his activities. He emerged in the early '80s to work with Linda Ronstadt on a succession of traditional pop albums: 1983's What's New, 1984's Lush Life, and 1986's For Sentimental Reasons. The former two both earned him Grammys for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocals. Riddle's final completed project was Blue Skies, a 1985 collaboration with opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa. He passed away in Los Angeles on October 6, 1985. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

Ray Anthony & His Orchestra - Dream Dancing - Volume 3

1. Darn That Dream
2. Easy to Love
3. It's the Talk of the Town
4. This Love of Mine
5. I Only Have Eyes for You
6. When Your Love Has Gone
7. Out of Nowhere
8. East of the Sun (And West of the Moon)
9. April in Paris
10. You'll Never Know
11. Moonlight in Vermont
12. Dream Dancing

Dream Dancing 3

Ray Anthony & His Orchestra - Dream Dancing - Volume 2

1. Laura
2. When I Fall in Love
3. The Nearness of You
4. Falling in Love with Love
5. I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)
6. I'll Never Smile Again
7. Autumn in New York
8. Street of Dreams
9. There's A Small Hotel
10. Embraceable You
11. Where or When
12. I'll Be Seeing You

Dream Dancing 2

Ray Anthony & His Orchestra - Dream Dancing - Volume 1

1. I've Got You Under My Skin
2. I Hadn't Anyone Till You
3. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
4. September Song
5. I Cover the Waterfront
6. Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland
7. I Didn't Know What Time It Was
8. Stars Fell on Alabama
9. You Do Something to Me
10. Far Away Places
11. Thanks for the Memory
12. Day by Day

Dream Dancing 1

Hugo Winterhalter - The Eyes of Love - Volume 2

1. Music Box in Blue
2. A Swedish Rhapsody
3. Laura
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Chile Cha-Cha
6. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (from the Broadway play "Roberta")
7. High on A Windy Hill
8. Spellbound (from the Alfred Hitchcock Film "Spellbound")
9. Granada
10. September in the Rain
11. Sleigh Ride
12. The Coca-Cola Company Theme (Theme from the "Eddie Fisher Show")
13. Swingin' on A Star
14. Fandango
15. Volare
16. Autumn in New York
17. The Continental (from the Film "The Gay Divorcee")
18. La Cumparsita
19. Vaya Con Dios
20. Warsaw Concerto

The Eyes of Love 2

Easy listening arranger and composer Hugo Winterhalter was born August 15, 1909 in Wilkes-Barre, PA, later studying violin and reed instruments at the New England Conservatory of Music. After graduating, he taught school for several years before turning professional during the mid-'30s, serving as a sideman and arranger for Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Raymond Scott, Claude Thornhill, and others. Winterhalter also arranged and conducted sessions for singers including Dinah Shore and Billy Eckstine, and in 1948 he was named musical director at MGM. After a two-year stint with the label, he moved to Columbia, where he scored a hit with his orchestral reading of "Blue Christmas."

In 1950, Winterhalter signed on with RCA Victor, where he arranged sessions for acts including Eddie Fisher, Perry Como, and the Ames Brothers; he also headlined a series of instrumental albums, among them 1952's Great Music Themes of Television, one of the first collections of TV theme songs ever recorded. Other LPs included

The Two Sides of Hugo Winterhalter (reflecting both his big-band and light-classical interests), Big and Sweet with a Beat, and a series of Hugo Winterhalter Goes albums, which explored various international styles. Winterhalter also notched a series of chart hits, including "Blue Tango," "Vanessa," "The Little Shoemaker," and "Song of the Barefoot Contessa"; with pianist Eddie Heywood, he even reached the number two spot with 1956's "Canadian Sunset."

Winterhalter remained on the RCA payroll until 1963, at which time he jumped to Kapp; that same year, he also penned the main title theme for the film Diamond Head. At Kapp he recorded a handful of albums including The Best of '64 and its follow-up, The Big Hits of 1965, before exiting the label to work on Broadway. He later worked in television as well, and continued recording the occasional LP for budget labels including Musicor. Winterhalter died in Greenwich, CT on September 17, 1973. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Hugo Winterhalter - The Eyes of Love - Volume 1

1. Vanessa
2. I Only Have Eyes for You
3. Around the World (from "Around the World in 80 Days")
4. The Eyes of Love
5. Canadian Sunset
6. Anna (from the Film "Anna")
7. Frenesi
8. Hungarian Dance No. 5 (Brahms)
9. Dream of Olwen (theme from "Hall of Fame")
10. Gigi (from the MGM Film "Gigi")
11. Cheerful Little Earful
12. Land of Dreams (with Eddie Heywood, piano)
13. Blue Tango
14. Green Eyes
15. Mademoiselle de Paris
16. Delicado
17. Never on Sunday
18. Moonlight in Vermont
19. Shadow Waltz
20. Song of the Barefoot Contessa

The Eyes of Love 1

An orchestra of extraordinary versatilitiy, a modern sound; sparkling arrangements featuring strings, sometimes with a bluesy touch - this was the music brought to us by Hugo Winterhalter. We concentrate on Hugo's orchestral work in this collection, recorded at New York's Webster Hall during the period of 1954 through 1964.

Mr. Winterhalter was born August 15, 1909, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where he studied violin and reed instruments in high school. He first studied the violin at age six! Hugo became an orchestra leader while attending Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In 1925 his professional career began as a dance band sideman, earning six dollars for each performance. During the dozen years playing in dance bands, reed instruments were his tools of the trade, however, he finally did some arranging for strings in the mid 40's for Tommy Dorsey. He has arranging credits with Vaughn Monroe, count Basie, Will Bradley, Claude Thornhill, Billy Eckstine and Jimmy Dorsey.

After joining the company in 1950, Mr. Winterhalter soon held the title of head musical director for RCA, recording his own arrangements for orchestra, along with backings for balladeers such as Eddie Fisher, Jay P. Morgan and Kay Starr.

Two selections in this collection are splendid examples of his composing skills, proving that he was one of the very gifted "hyphenated" musicians of the era - composer-conductor-arranger. His was a big sound; strings scored along with plenty of French horns, tympani and solo brass with generous use of a "modern" sound - that of an electric guitar. This presentation includes some far-reaching examples of the color and diversity that were part of the Winterhalter sound; we have "Sleigh Ride" that sounds not a bit wintry, but is unabashedly ornate. In "The Coca-Cola Song" we have nostalgia - this was the theme for the Eddie Fisher Show. "Music Box in Blue" is a clever melodic and rhythmic piece that features the normally quiet celeste and plucked strings. Several selections pay tribute to his many travelogue albums, such as 'Hugo Winterhalter Goes...Continental...Gypsy...South of the Border...Latin...', and Hugo recorded a beautiful album-tribute to composer Harry Warren; from that 1964 album we hear "I Only Have Eyes for You", "September in the Rain", and "Shadow Waltz".

While some of the selections date back over forty years, they sound quite fresh, as the fifties and sixties were very much the "hi-fi" and "stereo" era. Hugo Winterhalter's RCA albums demonstrated well the advgantages of both innovations. Now we can hear these great recordings in their purest form, without clicks, rumble, pops, all the annoyances inherent with the Long Playing record!

Hugo Winterhalter died September 17, 1974 at the age of 64. It's been a long time since any substantial amount of his recorded legacy has been available until now, with (The Eyes of Love) - music to tresure and enjoy.

(Bill Halvorsen, from the original liner notes)

George Melachrino - Begin the Beguine - Featuring The Melachrino Strings

1. Masquerade
2. The Swan
3. The Pink Lady Waltz
4. Serenade (Schubert)
5. Vision d'Amour
6. Out of My Dreams
7. Dusk
8. Begin the Beguine
9. Portrait of A Lady
10. Destiny
11. La Golondrina
12. The Donkey Serenade
13. Serenade ("Les Millions d'Arlequin")
14. Malagueña
15. Poème
16. Estrellita
17. El Relicario
18. They Didn't Believe Me
19. Intermezzo ("Cavalleria Rusticana" - Mascagni)
20. Lady of Spain
21. Moonlight Serenade
22. Indian Summer
23. Woodland Revel
24. Autumn
25. Romance in E flat (Rubinstein)

Begin the Beguine

Music and the theatre seem to have been in George Melachrino's blood; happily he managed to combine both to his own satisfaction and our great delight. In 1950 when Nat Karson started his famous stage shows at the Empire, Leicester Square, Melachrino supplied the orchestra. He also supplied much of the music, writing scores as required for ballets or jazz production numbers with equal facility. The Empire Girls became, once again, one of the sights of London, but a newer and even more inspiring spectacle was George at the rostrum urging on his singing strings to greater efforts.

All his life, music has played a vital part in Melachrino's existence. At the age of four he was already the proud possessor of a miniature violin upon which his stepfather - a theatre orchestra conductor - taught him to play. Later he entered Trinity College of Music where he gravitated naturally towards string instruments and chamber works. Having mastered the violin and viola and being able to acquit himself creditably on the 'cello, the insatiable Melachrino started on the wind instruments, the oboe, clarinet and saxophone, and worked his way through the entire orchestra until only the harp and piano remained outside his range of accomplishments. In addition, he developed an extremely pleasant singing voice (at 18 he was already broadcasting solos from the Savoy Hill studios) and was beginning to be talked about as a very original arranger and composer.

In 1939 George had advanced so far in his professional that he was fronting his own dance band at the Café de Paris and broadcasting pretty regularly from the BBC, but then the Battle of Britain closed things down all over the West End and Melachrino volunteered for the forces.

Posted to the Corps of Military Police he graduated via the cookhouse to P.T. Instructor, making a name for himself 'en route' as an entertainer specialising in juggling and knockabout comedy. an ijured back put him out of active service and he was moved to the War Office where he was responsible for recording musical programmes for broadcasting to troops overseas. Later, promoted to R.S.M., Melachrino became musical director of the newly-formed British Band of the A.E.F. which gained a tremendous reputation over the air, not only with the troops but among civilians who found the ideal antidote for the stress and strains of wartime Britain in the quiet, soothing strains of music in the Melachrino manner.

Upon demobilisation he absorbed the cream of his A.E.F. personnel into the George Melachrino Orchestra and, with these picked musicians as a nucleus of an ever-expanding organisation, he more than consolidated his position in the post-war musical world, while through his distinctive compositions and arrangements for films, radio, theatre, the ballroom, and latterly on TV, his name became a household word.

(From the original liner notes)

George Melachrino (born George Militiades; 1 May, 1909 — 18 June 1965) was a musician, movie composer, and musical director who was English born of Greek and Italian descent. He was an accomplished player of the violin, viola, oboe, clarinet and saxophone.

George Melachrino was born in London, England. As a young boy, he had a love of music. At the age of five, he began composing and by the age of fourteen he enrolled in the Trinity College of Music. In 1927, he began his career by singing and playing at the Savoy Hill Studios in London. For the next twelve years, he played in many different bands and orchestras. In the 1930s, Melachrino started working for bands led by Ambrose and Bert Firman, and started playing on radio for the BBC. By 1939, he started his own band and secured a contract at the "Café de Paris". He joined the Army a year later, and received training at the "Corps of Military Police" where he became a P.T. Instructor. Melachrino also gained experience as a military musician, at the "Army Broadcasting Department", as Musical Director for the recording of entertainment for overseas forces, leading the British Band of the American Expeditionary Forces and the Orchestra Khaki. After the war, in 1945, he formed the "George Melachrino Orchestra", an orchestra that became synonymous with sweet and melodious music.

Melachrino frequently performed on BBC and American Armed Forces Radio. He vied with Mantovani in trying to dominate the post World War II easy listening audiences.

Melachrino has a "Star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Esquivel and His Orchestra - Strings Aflame

1. Guadalajara
2. Scheherezade (Rimsky-Korsakoff)
3. Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
4. Andalusian Sky
5. Misirlou
6. Sun Valley Ski Run
7. Malagueña
8. Fantasy
9. Foolin' Around
10. Gypsy Lament
11. I Love Paris
12. Turkish March

Strings Aflame

Esquivel - Exploring New Sounds in Stereo

1. My Blue Heaven
2. Bella Mora
3. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
4. Lazy Bones
5. Spellbound
6. All of Me
7. Whatchamacallit
8. La Ronde
9. My Number One Love
10. The 3rd Man Theme

Exploring New Sounds

Juan García Esquivel (January 20, 1918 – January 3, 2002) often simply known as Esquivel!, was a Mexican band leader, pianist, and composer for television and films. He is recognized today as one of the foremost exponents of a sophisticated style of largely instrumental music that combines elements of lounge music and jazz with Latin flavors. Esquivel is sometimes called "The King of Space Age Pop" and "The Busby Berkley of Cocktail Music." Esquivel is considered one of the foremost exponents of a style of late 1950s-early 1960s quirky instrumental pop that became known (in retrospect) as "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music".

He was born in Tampico, Tamaulipas, and his family moved to Mexico City in 1928 where he studied at the UNAM.

Esquivel is considered the king of a style of late 1950s-early 1960s quirky instrumental pop known today as Lounge music. Esquivel's musical style was highly idiosyncratic, and although elements sound like his contemporaries, he had many stylistic tics that distinguished his music and made it instantly recognizable, including exotic percussion, wordless vocals, virtuoso piano runs, and exaggerated dynamic shifts in volume. He used many jazz-like elements, but other than his piano solos, there is no improvisation and the works are tightly, meticulously arranged by Esquivel himself, who considered himself a perfectionist as a composer, performer and recording artist.

His orchestration tended toward the very lush; he combined an orchestra, his own heavily-ornamented piano style, a mixed chorus, and a long list of novel instruments, such as Chinese bells, mariachi bands, whistling, and numerous percussion instruments. The chorus was often called upon to sing only nonsense syllables, most famously "zu-zu" and "pow!" A survey of Esquivel's recordings reveals a fondness for glissandi, sometimes on a half-valved trumpet, sometimes on a kettle drum, but most frequently on pitched percussion instruments and slide guitars.

Esquivel's use of stereo recording was legendary, occasionally using two bands recording simultaneously in separate studios, such as on his album Latin-Esque (1962). The song "Mucha Muchacha" makes particularly mind-bending use of the separation, with the chorus and brass rapidly alternating sides.

He arranged many traditional Mexican songs like "Bésame Mucho", "La Bamba", "El Manisero" (Cuban/Mexican) and "La Bikina"; also Brazilian songs like "Aquarela do Brasil" (also known simply as "Brazil"), "Surfboard" and "Agua de Beber", and composed spicy lounge-like novelties such as "Mini Skirt", "Yeyo", "Latin-Esque", "Mucha Muchacha" and "Whatchamacallit". He was commissioned to compose the music of a Mexican children's TV show Odisea Burbujas.

His concerts also featured elaborate light shows, years before effects like that became popular in live music. He performed in Las Vegas on several occasions, often as the opening act for Frank Sinatra.

Several compilations of Esquivel's music were issued starting with Space Age Bachelor Pad Music in 1994. The apparent success of these releases led to reissues of several of Esquivel's albums. The first reissues were compiled by Irwin Chusid, who also produced the first CD reissues of Raymond Scott and The Langley Schools Music Project.

The last recording Esquivel worked on was Merry Christmas from the Space-Age Bachelor Pad in 1996, for which he did a voiceover on a track by the band Combustible Edison, as well as including several obscure tracks from his past sessions. The last CD released during his lifetime, See It In Sound, was actually recorded in 1960, but was not released at the time because the record company considered it wasn't commercial enough. When finally released in 1998, it exhibited very unusual and introspective stylings absent from his other works, including a version of "Brazil" which is played as a musical soundscape of a man bar-hopping, and the band playing different renditions of "Brazil" at each bar.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.