Does anyone still like easy listening records (Mantovani, Percy Faith, etc.)?

I would buy more VA cds of this type of music if it was being issued. (I have most of the series that were issued back in the 90s, but there were simply not many of them.)

Those European PD labels could do so much. Imagine box sets of incredibly strange music!

Guess there are not enough of us fans around

 

The better recordings of this genre I still enjoy and I buy nice LP examples when I find them, usually for very cheap.

 

All this time I thought Percy Faith was a girl singing torch type songs until I read this thread and people kept saying “he”. Always a pretty girl on the cover to my recollection. Never saw or knew much of anything but the album covers and didn’t think about one to the other being a different woman.

Edit: funny thing, I remember having one of the records bought in a bulk lot and putting it on and sitting there waiting for her to sing. She never did so I got tired of waiting and took it off. Maybe I should have paid more attention...

 

That's definitely part of the appeal to me. I wouldn't have the hundreds of EZL albums I have if they had cost more than a buck apiece. My parents were listening to the stuff on Lp in the 60s, switched to cassette in the 70s (yes, Ray Conn on cassette). They were partial to the A&M stable.

Easy Listening seemed to me to be the standard in music as a kid growing up in the 70s (esp. the early 70s) - epitomizing 'music' per se. Maybe because music of its ilk was still running in the 'background' of everything - the reruns on TV and artists of the day. It was like the unserious stepchild of Classical; less uptight than Classical, but more uptight than 'youth' music. I guess that's why they call it MOR.

It's the ubiquity of the albums in the thrift stores and the like that's amazing. From one town and state to another. If it's only a fraction of what's out there turning up, it still shows that the genre (as loosely defined as it was) sold an industry-worth of records through the 1960s, as far as Lps go. And it shows the level of care from the people (or their families) 'throwing the records out' that gets the records to the thrift stores to begin with, instead of being placed on the curb. Long after the demise of the Lp as the dominant format, old folks and their kin know that these albums were built to endure both in form and content. And they were the soundtrack of someone's life.

 

I love George Melachrino and the Living Strings as well. I am more familiar with their great Christmas music albums. Christmas Joy by George Melachrino is a fantastic holiday album and this too was remastered recently for CD a couple of years ago by the great Maria Triana for Real Gone Music and it is a true sonic delight. I also love the various Living Strings Christmas albums, especially The Spirit Of Christmas, with the legendary arranger, Johnny Douglas, at the baton. One of the greatest orchestral Christmas albums ever recorded.

 

Getting back to the great Maestro, Percy Faith, besides his three fantastic Christmas albums released during his lifetime, I highly recommend RGM's The Definitive Collection from 2016. This is a superlative two CD collection with fantastic remastering at Sony Battery Studios in New York by Maria Triana, who also co-produced the project with legendary Columbia A&R man Didier C. Deutsch. It has a well chosen variety of all his big hits and several musical styles that he explored with his orchestral arrangements and composing, including Theme From "A Summer Place", Where Is Your Heart (from "Moulin Rouge") and Delicado, all number one pop hits on the Billboard charts. Exquisite sound and 32 songs in all. A great introduction to Percy for a good chunk of his most well known songs and will only cost you around 20 bucks for a brand new copy.

 

I saw this album at a thrift today and, although I didn't buy it, I ended up streaming it on the way home. Not especially imaginative arrangements but it's a nice compendium of late 60's adult pop - Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb and such.

 

This genre of music would be completely lost right now if it wasn't for cable tv music channels and satellite radio. I have it on a lot at home from the tv. I don't really search out the records or play them due to it being non stop on those sources though.
A few years ago Sirius XM removed the Escape channel from the radio line up, moving it to online only. There was such a backlash from customers, (myself included) they actually brought it back to the channel lineup. Unbelievable really. The sound engineering and production on those recordings are unique to that genre.

 

She's cute, but anyone who makes a joke utilizing the words "See the tree, how *big* it's grown" is just plain tacky!

 

I am a major fanatic of Living Strings, Living Guitars, Living Marimbas, and Living Jazz. I buy near mint copies when I find them. I also love George Melachrino's string albums a lot.

 

I have many of the Hollyridge Strings records and I like them all for what they are. They have a certain very '60's sound.

 

I love that stuff. Just to flash my hipster cred, I was into it long before it was cool and before people started calling it "lounge pad music." Although I already had some in my collection, several years ago, I read Joseph Lanza's book Elevator Music which traces the genre from its roots of being piped into some early elevators (so people wouldn't panic, thinking the cables would snap), the history of Muzak, the rise and fall of "beautiful music" radio, into new age and ambient music. I've actually read the book 3 times. The first reading sent me out to the thrift stores and I started buying stacks of Mantovani, Percy Faith, Lawrence Welk, and more. I ended up with more of that stuff than any one person needs, so I purged quite a few of the albums but kept a good many,too. I find it soothing and stress-relieving and sometimes it's just what I need.

 

I love the Ray Conniff Singers so much, I have 10 of their albums including all 3 Christmas albums and their double live album.

 

The Hollyridge Strings made some killer instrumental albums. The ones Stu Phillips arranged are an absolute gas. I mean he has some rhythm and some verve to those great records of the past. I have tried to score one of The Beatles albums on CD, but they usually cost an arm and a leg. I did get the one on Nat King Cole and it is fantastic. My favorite CD that Stu arranged for the Hollyridge Strings is Christmas Favorites, which Chip Arcuri over at the YuleLog.com rates as one of the top 50 greatest Christmas albums of all time on his amazing top 500 list of Christmas albums, most of which come from the Golden Age of Christmas between the late 1950's to the middle to late 1960's

Chip has been steadily trying to get most of these great albums from the Golden Age Of Christmas released on CD in remastered glory with original album artwork and great liner notes, mostly now through the Real Gone Music label. I have the honor this year of writing the new liner notes for the twofer edition of John Klein's A Christmas Sound Spectacular in its original and iconic Living Stereo version, along with his second lesser known follow-up album, Let's Ring the Bells ALL AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE. Chip should be announcing the full Real Gone Christmas music line-up in the next few weeks and there should be some absolute gems in there from these instrumental giants of the Easy Listening music genre.

 

I have all the Beatles ones and a few others (Beach Boys-Simon & Garfunkel). Now I need that Christmas album!

 

What channel is it on Sirius?

 

'Sounds' like a book I need to read.

 

I just bought that book on Amazon based on another poster showing a picture of it. It is suppose to arrive tomorrow.

 

I am envious of your collection too, but you will love that Christmas album. The CD on Collectors Choice is stellar, but out of print so it demands big bucks on eBay. Chip, over at the YuleLog.com, has been pushing to try to get Real Gone Music to re-issue it again. The man who owns and runs RGM, Gordon Anderson, also owned and ran Collectors Choice.

 

Ray Conniff's three Christmas albums hit the charts a total of 16 times between the three of them. RGM did a great twofer CD with all three of the albums together in one collection.

 

Is it inconceivable that someone today could make easy listening instrumental versions of current hits?

 

I'm not really a fan of this kind of music-I'm actually more of a fan of the much more generic "production" music often used as the music bed for things like documentaries, commercials, and public service films. This music really came back to the fore when it was used extensively on "The Ren & Stimpy Show", of which I was a huge fan. Things like this:

 

What's interesting is that Muzak was developed and ran alongside the Easy Listening phenomenon during the 40s-50s. One would have thought that EZL had inspired the development of Muzak, but they were contemporary streams. I look forward to reading about it in detail and see to how they describe any of the overlap/mutualities.

 

Actually, the best place for this kind of conversation on the internet was the exotica mailing list in the 1990s and early 2000s. Back when you could find many, many more of these kinds of albums in thrift stores or record store dollar bins, this was where we shared info on the artists and titles that were really worth seeking out.

 

Before the big lounge boom of the 90’s, I was picking up all these Exotica and Easy Listening albums in the mid to late 80’s for 50 cents at thrift stores. Always bought near mint copies, either mono or stereo---upgrading covers when I could. I ended up owned 3 and 4 copies of most of these albums…. and then the boom hit. I cashed in, sold all the extra for crazy prices during that time……which paid for my collection to grow in other areas, upgrade my equipment (the first of many times), and bought stock (which I still have). Good times! Most of the 2,000 or so Exotica and Easy Listening albums I have in the collection came from this period of buying in the 80’s, and I really enjoy most of this music today.