Hits of 1967-8 in the Company of Ronnie Aldrich, Gordon Franks & Paul Mauriat

EASY LOUNGE 1967-1968 in the company of Ronnie Aldrich, Gordon Franks and Paul Mauriat

1967-8 represented perhaps, a first of many peaks, in the history of easy listening instrumentals. The 60s beat had begun dominating the pop charts while the more laid back crooning styles of the 1940s and 1950s still held their own. The instrumentalists featured in three of my favourite albums from that period manage to bridge the divide between the two styles with very different outcomes – while keeping the arrangements lush.

Gordon Franks & His Orchestra
ORCHESTRAL IN THE NIGHT & STRINGS IN THE NIGHT (Dutton Vocalion CDLK 4423)

Orchestral in the Night
THE ORIGINAL LP SML 701 (1967) STEREO

1.Love in the Open Air (McCartney)
2. Brazil (Barroso; Russell)
3. It’s Nice to Go Trav’ling (Van Heusen; Cahn)
4. You Only Live Twice (Barry; Bricusse)
5. Sweet Georgia Brown (Bernie; Pinkard; Casey)
6. La Ronde (Straus; Ducreux; Purcell)
7. The More I See You (Warren; Gordon)
8. A Gal in Calico (Schwartz; Robin)
9. Ay Ay Ay (Freire arr Franks)
10. A Walk in the Black Forest (Jankowski; Mann)
11.I Remember You (Schertzinger; Mercer)
12.In Old Lisbon (Portela; do Vale; Dupree; Salina)

Strings in the Night
THE ORIGINAL LP SML 706 (1967) STEREO

13. La Dolce Vita (Rota; Vandyke; Verde)
14. The Young Girls of Rochefort (Legrand)
15. Carnival (Bonfá; Weiss; Peretti; Creatore)
16. Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (Legrand)
17. Un Homme et Une Femme (Lai; Barouh; Keller)
18. Never on Sunday (Hadjidakis; Towne)
19. Viva Maria (Delerue; Holmes; Sherman)
20. Jeux Interdits (Trad arr Yepes)
21. Rocco’s Theme (Rota; Mandel; Sachs)
22. Mondo Cane (Ortolani; Oliviero)
23. Rififi (Philippe-Gérard; Larue)
24. La Strada (Rota; Galdieri)

These two albums invite the listener to contemplate the twilight skies illuminated by the rays of a setting sun and the onset of the clouds of the night. Moody skylight, mood music. Gordon Franks manages to tune his orchestra to such a fine pitch that echoes the velvet textures of a luxuriously furnished home that has the right soundtrack to match. Occasionally, the guitar, trombone or trumpet takes the lead on his arrangements but it is the strings that command the most attention by playing the bulk of each melody front and centre. Franks rearranges all the pieces for a ‘tender moment’ by calling attention to the softly played solo instruments amidst the banks of strings. Listen to ‘Brazil’, ‘It’s so Nice to go Travvling’, ‘I Remember You’, ‘A man and a Woman’ and ‘Mondo Cane [More]’ and you’ll realize what a classy production this is!  

Ronnie Aldrich, His Two Pianos and the London Festival Orchestra give their take on the pop parade in these two delightful albums issued in 1967! On ‘Two Pianos Today’, Aldrich takes on the sounds of both the cinematic and chanteuse and turns them into signatures of his twin piano style. It works as fine samples of the Phase 4 stereo sound even in digital. What is more fascinating is that Aldrich sounds as hip as the chartbusters he covers. His paino never seems to fail in keeping up with the uptempo. The ‘switching’ between the two pianos add a surreal sense of pace and space between the musical notes: ‘Georgy Girl’ is a fine sample of this style, along with ‘Music to watch Girls By’ and ‘Somethin’ Stupid’. Some very interesting use of Mandolins on various tracks – echoing perhaps the motifs of ‘Never on Sunday’, a popular film from that period set in Greece. ‘Two Pianos in Hollywood’ take up this cinematic sound and adapt his pianos for a more string and orchestra ‘spectacular’ reminiscent of the golden screen era associated more closely perhaps with his contemporary, the arranger Stanley Black.

two pianos todayDECCA LP PFS 34132 (1967) STEREOwith the London Festival Orchestra

You Only Live Twice (Barry, Bricusse)
A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Reed, Brooker)
Georgy Girl (Springfield, Dale)
Somethin’ Stupid (Parks)
A Man And A Woman (Lai, Barough, Keller)
My Cup Runneth Over (Jones, Schmidt)
Don’t Sleep In The Subway (Hatch, Trent)
Release Me (Miller, Stevenson)
Barefoot In The Park (Hefti, Mercer)
Alfie (Bacharach, David)
Music To Watch Girls By (Ramin)
This Is My Song (Chaplin)

TWO PIANOS IN HOLLYWOOD ORIGINAL DECCA LP PFS 4108 (1967) STEREO

The Shadow Of Your Smile (Mandel, Webster)
Lara’s theme (Jarre, Webster)
Strangers In The Night (Singleton, Snyder, Kaempfert)
Chim chim cher-ee (R M & R B Sherman)
Limelight (Chaplin)
The Bible (Mayuzumi)
Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (North, Webster)
The Moulin Rouge theme (Auric, Engvick)
More (Newell, Oliviero, Ortolani)
The Apartment (Williams)
The Patch Of Blue (Wayne, Goldsmith)
Lawrence Of Arabia (Jarre)

And just to complete Aldrich’s tour of the 1967-8, the album ‘For Young Lovers’ spins out more Burt Bacharach, Bobbie Gentry, Teddy Randazzo and Jimmy Web compositions that hogged the pop charts. This result is still pure magic as Aldrich’s piano never fails to capture the beat while keeping the spirit of lush…

FOR YOUNG LOVERSDECCA LP PFS 4141 (1968) STEREO
1.Ode To Billie Joe (Gentry)
2. What The World Needs Now (Bacharach; David)
3.Love Is Blue (Popp; Cour)
4. Sunny (Hebb)
5. (I Think I’m) Going Out Of My Head (Randazzo; Weinstein)
6. Impossible Dream (Darion; Leigh)
7. Baby, Now That I’ve Found You (Macaulay; Macleod)
8.Valley Of The Dolls (A & D Previn)
9. It Must Be Him (Becaud; David)
10. Up, Up And Away (Webb)
11. To Sir With Love (London; Black)
12. Born Free (Barry; Black)

Finally, who can forget Paul Mauriat’s ‘Blooming Hits’ LP from 1968 as the hippiest of the hip instrumental albums from 1968 – it is groove, groove, groovy from start to finish…capped of course by his smash ‘L’ amour est Bleu [Love is Blue]’. My other favourites are Mauriat’s version of ‘Somethin’ Stupid’ done Latin bolero style, ‘There’s a Kind of Hush’ and ‘Seuls au Monde’. Picture below shows the EMI 1998 remastered edition on CD!