From 1956, Music to Remember You By, aka Music for Everyone--"The Top Favorites of Today and Forever." Discogs lists a Gateway edition of this LP (called Music for Everyone) which contains Skokian and Blue Indigo in place of Yesterdays and Moonlight Sonata. Why? Who knows? And, despite the absence of Skokian and Blue Indigo, those titles nevertheless appear on this cover. Another instance of saving on quality control by not having any.
This editing job was epic (a hundred or so surface "pimples"), which necessarily means the music wasn't worth the trouble I put into rescuing it. But that doesn't equate to a poor album--it's actually quite nice, and I like the patchwork, haul-in-the-filler-tracks quality. One of my blog goals is to give special attention to the more (most?) ephemeral, transitory, common-today-forgotten-tomorrow popular music items of the past, because even churned-out stuff like all those twist-ploitation LPs can prove to be more interesting and variegated than we think. We only know by investigating.
Both Sides Now identifies Cherry Blossom Pink and Apple Wine and Lisbon Antigua as previously issued Gateway releases (Gateway Top Tune 1114 and 1154--1955 and 1956), and I recognize the Roy-Cliffs on Autumn Leaves, which was released in 1955 on Gateway Records 157 (extended play) and Gateway Top Tune 1137 (single). The old sell-the-same-track-three-times bit.
Standout numbers are Lisbon Antigua, Yesterdays (showing up on four Hollywood LPs), You Go to My Head (which would be even nicer with an in-tune brass section), Picnic Theme (likely the same track credited to Michel René & His Orchestra on LPH-14, Strings in the Enchanted Garden), I've Got You Under My Skin, and Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White. The audio qualify varies in a way which suggests, not only more than one recording session, but more than one musical outfit. Which we know to be the case on the Roy-Cliffs track. Also, Just One of Those Things obviously features a combo and not an orchestra.
The back jacket is hopelessly trashed, but here's the first paragraph of the liner notes: "From the first note of musical enchantment 'til the very end of the bright and merry record session, these songs will treat your ear and tingle your musical taste with the finest in all-time favorites along with todays (sic) top-hits." Was AI already here in 1956?
DOWNLOAD: Music to Remember You By--Herbie Layne and His Orch. (Hollywood Records LP-9; 1956)
Sophisticated Lady
Lisbon Antigua
Just One of Those Things
Yesterdays
You Go to My Head
Theme from "Picnic"
Moonlight Serenade
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Autumn Leaves
In My Solitude
I've Got You Under My Skin
Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White
Lee
2 comments:
Just in time for Memorial Day!
Trying out "Just One of Those Things" and it is great. This was probably recorded for Crown Records for one of their Benny Goodman tribute albums and Hollywood tape-swapped with them for this issue. Regardless, it is a great version with some excellent clarinet playing that ranks among Benny's best work from the '40's.
Great version of "Yesterdays". For a minute, I thought the arrangement was going to go full-fledged Artie Shaw "Stardust" on us, yet it is excellent Easy Listening mood music from the '50's.
Nice saxophone and great relaxing tempo on "You Go To My Head." The Saxophone solo almost is foreshadowing the kind of clarinet sound Mr. Acker Bilk would play on "Stranger On the Shore" in 1962. The trombone choir is great; at times, it almost has kind of a "Harlem Nocturne" flavor to it. Superb seection.
The version of "Moonlight Serenade" sounds like it could be the same "Members of the Glenn Miller Orchestra" version that Crown Records released on their "Memories of Glenn Miller" album that I Purchased yesterday for a quarter at Goodwill--great version that captures the essence of the Miller original and fits perfectly onto a "mood music Easy Listening album such as this.
Like the Mambo take on "I've Got You Under My Skin"! A fresh musical spin on the Cole Porter classic. Of course, the year that this record was released, Frank Sinatra would record and release his now-iconic version of this tune on his classic "Songs For Swingin' Lovers!" album. Kind of has the flavor of the Stanley Appelewaite big Band fakes on Pickwick.
Pretty faithful fake of Perez Prado's "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" which captures the essence of the Prado original. However, the trumpet player does not quite linger on his notes before he resumes playing the way that Billy Regis does on the original Prado recording. Plus Prado's "Dilo"s are sorely missing. Like how the version ends with an almost Al Hirt-styled trumpet passage.
The band sounds like they are trying to ape Tommy Dorsey's style on this recording on "Solitude." Great contrasts of styles especially between the trombone and the saxophone in the middle of the number. Great mid-tempo Big Band music that almost has got the feel of a Henry Mancini record.
This version of "Autumn Leaves" is probably what would have happened if organist Ken Griffin or either Carmen Cavallaro or Liberace recorded together. Better than most "Real" Ken Griffin records I've heard; his sound and style is all over this recording.
Good Duke Ellington-sounding version of "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" that almost, again, has the flavor of the Stanley Applewaite Big Band fakes on Pickwick, with the exception of the trumpet section, who do a great job re-creating Cootie Williams' growling trumpet sound and style. Also good Ellington-style piano playing that also brings to mind Count Basie's style.
It sounds like Hollywood tape-swapped with Tops, because this version of Lisbon Antigua sounds almost exactly like the version that was on the All Time Favorites album you uploaded earlier this year. Pretty much nails the original Nelson Riddle recording with the exception of the Harry "Sweets" Edison-styled trumpet solo.
Pretty moody version of "Sophisticated Lady". kind of a mildly depressing way to open up an album. Very mid-tempo and different, yet ultra-classy.
At least you gave it your best shot with the sound transfer. Sometimes Hollywood's vinyl quality ranks right up there with Tops and Golden Tone, while other times it brings to mind the worst of Crown and Sutton's pressings, which it seems to be here. At least you captured the essence and the heart of the song without sacrificing much of the sound quality. Excellent Easy Listening Rack-job album. Five stars from me.
musicman1979,
Thanks for the review, and glad you loved it. I found it far more than satisfactory, too. I regard it as a fairly careless hodgepodge that turned out far better than could have been hoped. Thanks for the possible track i.d.'s. Hollywood does seem to have borrowed from anybody and everybody. I'll have to listen again to the Tops "Lisbon Antigua." I did compare it to a fake-hits version I'd posted, and I determined it wasn't the same take--but I don't remember whether or not I tested the Tops. It certainly sounds familiar, fake-wise.
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