Diplomat was a Synthetic Plastics Co. label, which makes The Themes from Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare and Other Great TV Shows a fairly extraordinary issue--for SPC, I mean. First off, despite the typically lousy pressing, the sound quality is mostly very good. Second, there's amazingly little fakery going on, selection-wise. That is to say, most of these really are the TV themes in question. (Helps that several are public-domain pieces.) Exceptions: Victory at Sea (while a clever arrangement, this is not the VAS theme), The French Review and The Hawaiian Spectacular--the last two, because I can find no record of any such TV shows having ever existed.
Plus, there was no Alfred Hitchcock TV Show. There were Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, however. And it was The Danny Thomas Show--no "TV." Minor points, but still....
The p.d. selections are Tales from the Vienna Woods (Arthur Murray), Danny Boy (Danny Thomas), and Funeral March of a Marionette (Hitchcock). No doubt, SPC had recordings of these sitting around in their vast, cheap library.
The Late Show theme is, of course, Leroy Anderson's wonderful The Syncopated Clock.
Anyway, a whopping seven out of ten of these TV themes are the real McCoy, making this a near-legit collection in that regard. Most astonishingly, the titles on the back jacket are listed in the actual order they appear on the disc. And the cover is rather nice. Maybe I dreamed the whole thing.
(Bear with the lethargic Ben Casey rendition--it gets much better.)
Click here to hear: The Themes from...
Theme from Ben Casey
Theme from Cheyenne
Theme from the Late Show
Theme from Arthur Murray's TV Party
Theme from the French Review
Theme from Dr. Kildare
Theme from Victory at Sea
Theme from the Danny Thomas TV Show
Theme from the Alfred Hitchcock TV Show
Theme from the Hawaiian Spectacular
(No artists credited; Diplomat 2269; 1962)
Sorry about the Zippshare shenanigans--just close the fake page that comes up when you first press the donwload button, then try again. Should work second time. And, of course, choose "block" for notifications.
Lee
6 comments:
Danny Thomas? Cheyenne?? Late Show??? Remember them all well. Thanks for this gem, Lee. If Casey is lethargic, blame it on Sam Jaffe and Dr. Zorba.
Ha! Glad you enjoyed. This is by far one of the most enjoyable collections in the history of the 99-cent bin.
I've always thought that cover was a ripoff of this Valjean LP:
https://www.discogs.com/Valjean-The-Theme-From-Ben-Casey/release/3018532
But maybe they both riff on the Ben Casey titles...
Could be. I certainly see this as rip on the Valjean LP, content-wise--a very low-rent rip-off, since Carlton had the $$ to manage a much better line-up of current TV shows. And because the "Casey" and "Kildare" tracks have the Valjean/Roger Williams-style piano arpeggios.
The ZippyShare version has disappeared. Pity this sounds just up my alley.
Graham,
Yes, Zippy is not the best storage option--files vanish after 30 days of inactivity. Let me see if I can find the original rip. If so, I'll re-up it for you.
Post a Comment