MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
Plain text for smartphones & printers


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 


Support us financially by purchasing this disc from
Three Great American Light Orchestras
Percy Faith, David Rose, Paul Weston and their orchestras
rec. 1950-61
Full track-list at end of review
GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD 5199 [78:46]

 
Here is a very agreeable collection of two dozen well-known, well-loved numbers played by three celebrated American light orchestras. The listing below will surely decide its saleability.
 
Percy Faith was Canadian-born (Toronto) but became a naturalised American citizen in 1945. He had a long career in radio and in the recording studios stretching from the 1930s when he conducted an orchestra that included Robert Farnon as lead trumpeter, to the 1960s. He arranged all his own material. His music concentrated on the popular music of the time. He had a penchant for exotic Latin-American music as one or two of the tracks on this album attest. He provided music for some of the most famous television series of the time and he won Grammies for the theme from A Summer Place and the Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet. His full lush romantic sound speaks for itself.
 
David Rose was born in London. His family moved to America when he was just four years old. He attended the Chicago College of Music and joined a dance band before becoming an NBC Radio pianist/arranger/composer. Moving to Hollywood he formed his own orchestra in 1938 for the Mutual Broadcasting System. His big hits include: the instrumentals: ‘Holiday for Strings’ and ‘The Stripper’ plus ‘Dance of the Spanish Onion’, ‘Manhattan Square Dance’ and ‘Calypso Melody’. He wrote scores for over 20 TV series and won Emmy awards for his work on Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie and his work on three much-acclaimed Fred Astaire Specials. David Rose was the first husband of Judy Garland.
 
Paul Weston was born in Springfield Massachusetts. He began as an arranger after surviving a horrific train accident while attending Columbia University. His career break came after he sold some arrangements to the Joe Haymes Orchestra before Tommy Dorsey took them over. He created some very memorable recordings including: ‘Song of India’, ‘Stardust’ and ‘Night and Day’. He married Jo Stafford in 1952. Weston went on to work with Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore before going to Hollywood. In 1941, he arranged for his first film, Holiday Inn with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby. Other Paramount films followed and he enjoyed another career boost when he joined Capitol Records; then, later, Columbia Records. He worked with many artists and jazz musicians including: Ella Fitzgerald, Ziggy Elman, Eddie Miller and Barney Kessel. As a composer, Weston is remembered for such hits as: ‘Day by Day’, ‘I Should Care’, ‘Shrimp Boats’, ‘Autumn in Rome’ and ‘When April Comes Again’.
 
Paul Weston’s reminiscences about Jerome Kern that form the bonus track to this album are absolutely fascinating.
 
Sweet nostalgia from three of America’s biggest names in Light Music
 

Ian Lace


 
Sweet nostalgia from three of America’s biggest names in Light Music
 
Full track-list
 
Percy Faith (1908-1976) and His Orchestra: (all arrangements by Percy Faith)
‘Somewhere’ (West Side Story) Stephen Sondheim/Leonard Bernstein [2:58] rec. 1960
‘Petite’ (‘Mon Petite Monde a Moi’) David E. Coleman/Rudi Revil [3:04] rec. 1954
‘The Last Dance’ Percy Faith [2.55] rec.1956
‘My Shawl’ Stanley Adams/Xavier Cugat [4:17] rec. 1950
‘La Mer’ (Beyond the Sea) Charles Trenet featuring the Percy Faith Singers [4:41] rec. 1959
‘Mon Oncle’ (Theme from the Film) Frank Barcellini [2.38] rec. 1960
‘Italian Street Song’ (from Naughty Marietta) Victor Herbert [2:12] rec. 1958
‘Go-Go-Go-Go’ Percy Faith [2:15] rec. 1961
David Rose (1910-1990) and His Orchestra (all arrangements by David Rose)
‘California Melodies’ David Rose [2:58] rec. 1959
‘I’ve Got The World On A String’ (from Cotton Club Parade) Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler [3:01] rec. 1954
‘The Happy Bow’ David Rose [2:26] rec. 1953
‘Lonesome on Main Street’ David Rose [3:12] rec. 1953
‘The Mask Waltz’ David Rose featuring Ray Turner (piano) [3:02] rec. 1953
‘Flavia’ David Rose [2:55] rec. 1959
‘Ponderosa’ (from TV series – Bonanza) David Rose [3:22] rec. 1961
‘It’s A Most Unusual Day’ (from the film, A Date With Judy) Jimmy McHugh/Harold Adamson [2:22] rec. 1961
Paul Weston (1912-1996) and His Orchestra: (all arrangements by Paul Weston)
‘Whispers in the Dark’ Leo Robin/Frederick Hollander [2:59] rec. 1954
‘My Darling, My Darling’ (from Where’s Charley?) Frank Loesser [2:38] rec. 1961
‘Day By Day’ Paul Weston/Sammy Cahn/Axel Stordahl [3:26] rec. 1954
‘Soon’ Ira Gershwin/George Gershwin [3:21] rec. 1954
‘There Will Never Be Another You’ (from the film Iceland) Harry Warren/Mack Gordon [2:47] rec. 1959
‘When April Comes Again’ Paul Weston/Doris Schaefer [2:51] rec. 1959
‘Folks Who Live On The Hill’ (from High, Wide and Handsome) Jerome Kern [3:01] rec. 1958
‘Who’ (from the show Sunny) Jerome Kern [1:28] rec. 1958
BONUS TRACK: Paul Weston discussing his Jerome Kern recordings in 1958 for a special promotional feature by Columbia Records [6.37] rec.1958

Error processing SSI file