The World of DECCA Post 4 Classical Singers, Easy Listening and Big Bands

FOREWORD

After sorting everyone into their various groups, I found that I had a Mr David Hughes

left over. Though his LP  cover sports a THE WORLD OF THE GREAT CLASSICS tag he began as a pop singer and latterly, at best, is considered to have been a light classical tenor rather than a star of the opera such as THE WORLD OF's Joan Sutherland, of whom, more later. So, I was wondering where to place him and there seemed to be a gap just about here in my words so this is where, rather unceremoniously, he was plonked, amongst the stars of the fabulous Big Band movement. So, without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you, Mr... David ... Huyoooos!

CLASSICAL SINGERS DAVID HUGHES Geoffrey Paddison, or if you prefer, David Hughes was a classical tenor who began entertaining as a popular ballad singer in the 1950s. He took his father’s first and second names and dispensed with the surname completely. During the pop phase of

his singing career, he hosted his own TV programme called ‘Make Mine Music’ and appeared on many others. In 1956 he actually made number 27 in the UK pop charts with ‘Fountains of Rome’ which loitered for just one week before disappearing from view. This pop excursion could have been compromised as, curiously, there was another version of the same song which had reached no. 17 three weeks previously and this one stayed around the charts for a total of five weeks. Edmund Hockridge was the dashed cove and we need mention him no more, dash his cheek! OK, everybody. Calm down. Calm down …

To continue, David’s jump from pop-stardom to opera occurred during a period of re-appraisal following a heart attack at the age of 36. He trained his voice hard and was soon playing the parts he craved. The music on DAVID HUGHES: SONGS OF LOVE (SPA 287) which is one of the sub-series THE WORLD OF GREAT CLASSICS, is largely easy listening classical variety with pieces by Purcell, Handel and Gluck amongst others.

EASY LISTENING ORCHESTRAS AND BIG BANDS

MANTOVANI

We can only begin this section on the Easy Listening maestros with Mantovani. He and his orchestra started this marvellous collection of records with THE WORLD OF MANTOVANI (SPA 1) and followed it up with THE WORLD OF MANTOVANI VOL. 2 (SPA 36). His musical signature is the cascading string effect which was a way of making the sound bigger by having different parts of the string section playing marginally different parts of the melody and layering them causing a kind of reverberation. It crops up throughout both volumes appearing, for example, on the introduction of

track A1 on Volume 1, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’. Actually, it is most notable on the early hit ‘Charmaine’ but this does not feature on either LP. Mantovani had six top 10 hit singles released in the UK including ‘White Christmas’, ‘The Song From Moulin Rouge’ and ‘Swedish Rhapsody’ but it is only Cara Mia that is featured and this is an instrumental version of the actual hit that was sung by another WORLD OF heavyweight, David Whitfield, that can be heard on these albums. Still, if you are in a Mantovani mood, there are plenty of lush orchestral pieces to satisfy the urge here. MELACHRINO Another orchestra leader of similar ilk to Mantovani was Melachrino whose THE WORLD OF MELACHRINO (SPA 48) and THE WORLD OF MELACHRINO VOL. 2 (SPA 247) grace the WORLD OF collection. George Miltiades Melachrino was a composer of

easy listening music and film scores and played violin as well. During World War II, listeners to BBC radio and to stations for the American Armed Forces would have regularly heard the music of both Mantovani and Melachrino and there was a kind of competition between the two for the ears of the listening audiences. However, whereas Mantovani had several chart singles, George had just the one; ‘Autumn Concerto’ which got to number 18 in the UK. Perhaps Mantovani was more radio-friendly with more up-tempo tunes such as

the dynamic ‘Theme from The Big Country’ and ‘Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps’ which has a bossa nova beat. The slower songs of Melachrino style, whilst being a good strong sound, seem to render the tunes less obvious and actually may have obscured the melody to some degree. Maybe you can compare the two styles as the LPs of both artists include ‘April in Portugal’ and ‘The Legend of The Glass Mountain’.

ALBERT KETÈLBEY The most famous piece of music associated with Albert William Ketèlbey is probably ‘In a Monastery Garden’ and the small acorn from which this tree grew was the bird-song he heard from an open-top car during a drive in which Albert came across a

ruin of a monastery in Yorkshire. Whilst Ketèlbey composed pieces for piano and orchestra as well as quartets and overtures in a more sober vein, it was the more popular light music on which he came to concentrate. His widespread popularity is demonstrated by the varied range of locations in which his music was performed; ocean liners, hotel foyers, theatres and on the street. He also wrote prolifically for silent movies which were enormously popular in the 1920s and so provided continual opportunity for work. ‘In a Monastery Garden’ is often paired with his ‘In a Persian Market’ which is the first piece Ketèlbey wrote after the First World War in 1920, and both are found on his one LP here, THE WORLD OF ALBERT KETÈLBEY (SPA 187). In a similar vein is ’Bells Across the Meadows’ but more playful is ‘’Appy ‘Ampstead’ and these and more await your delectation.

TED HEATH

The music of Ted Heath features three times in the WORLD OF collection: THE BIG BAND WORLD OF TED HEATH (SPA 54), THE WORLD OF BIG BAND BLUES (SPA 244) AND THE TED HEATH YEARS WITH LITA ROZA AND DENNIS LOTIS (SPA 497). SPA 54

features hits from eight of Heath’s other albums including a live version of ‘Hawaiian War Chant’ which has a fun furniture-falling-down-stairs drum solo along with folk standard 'Michael Row the Boat Ashore' with swirling water sound effects … or could it be Mrs Heath stirring Ted’s cuppa? The Big Band Blues album has some lovely cool blues but most are straight forward big band swing tunes, for example, ‘Tin Roof Blues’ and ‘Honky

Tonk Train Blues’. The latter is not at all reminiscent of the pain and suffering associated with the blues but is, in fact, a jaunty upbeat choo-choo chug with blasting horns and a final diminishing decrescendo. There is also a song called ‘Royal Garden Blues’ but if that is the blues, I’m a royal gardener! Still, if the blues is, as some dictionaries would say, music containing blue notes and if blue notes are those that are flatted, and especially if those flatted notes are the third or seventh degree of the scale, well, who knows?

Finally, the album with Lita Roza, who was born of an English mother and a Filipino father and reached no. 1 in the pop charts with ‘How Much is that Doggie in the Window’, and Dennis Lotis, who was born in South Africa but was considered to be English after arriving inhe UK at the age of fifteen, is a record of vocal tunes.

(Hmm. There’s one for the Olympic Long Sentence Event). The LP track list is arranged so that each singer takes a turn alternatively except tracks A3 and B4 where the regime is interrupted by songs that feature both artists. These are two fine tunes which have the two singers in conversation. The Hank Williams song ‘Settin’ the Woods on Fire’ has them preparing excitably to ‘have a ball’ where Dennis will be Daffy and Lita will be Dilly. Ah, to be young and in love and not caring who thinks they’re silly. The band largely takes a back seat allowing the voices to take centre stage. This is a listenable album except, and I know this is all down to personal preference, track A5 where we must endure a emotionally breathless Lotis singing Such a Night, a song more associated with the croon of Elvis Presley. Check it out – see what you think.

Ted was a true Brit. Calm in the face of skirmish. On a mid-fifties tour of the US, smooth, jazz-soul crooner, Nat King Cole joined Ted’s band for a concert in the southern state of Alabama. Well, the States were just emerging from a period of pandemic racism and people black and white were beginning to appreciate each other’s music. The Deep South was a little more resistant to change and took exception to Nat sharing a stage with The Ted Heath Band. The singer was manhandled by a stage intruder who was soon joined by some of his mates. This melee was increased by the arrival of police officers and soon the party was really swinging. Well, police truncheons were, anyway. This is just the type of ruckus an English band leader is made for. He did what any patriot with a full band at his disposal would do. He had them strike up the National Anthem, of course! Most of the audience stood respectfully at ease and the fracas gradually quietened down. Job done. Good on you Mr Band Leader!

There was a growing trend, in the early fifties, for big bands such as Ted Heath’s to stand a singer out front with particular charms to attract the ladies. A Richard Bryce came to the attention of Heath who enticed him into the band promptly renaming him Mr Dickie Valentine, who crops up later in this writing. Incidentally, Bryce had already taken exception to his own real name of Richard Maxwell. CHARLIE KUNZ Young Charlie was drawn towards the keyboard end of the musical instrument spectrum but as the years went by, the piano gathered dust as he began working life as a milkman, cobbler, ribbon weaver, bookseller, mechanic and, during the First

World War, boiler riveter and bombshell builder. None of which would appear to be excellent training for his return to the more melodious life of piano-playing bandleader. Nonetheless, at nineteen years of age, that’s where he found himself,

playing the clubs of London which, for a time, included the Casani Club in Regent Street where his featured vocalist was a true star; WORLD OF’s very own Vera Lynn. Kunz’ adopted theme tune was ‘Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie’ which can be found as the first AND the last pieces of THE WORLD OF CHARLIE KUNZ (SPA 15). One can also look forward to hearing THE WORLD OF CHARLIE KUNZ VOL. 2 (SPA 70) and THE WORLD OF CHARLIE KUNZ VOL. 3 (SPA 194) and, because Charlie’s specialty was the medley, these LPs contain snippets of up to 31 tunes each. FRANK CHACKSFIELD Charlie Chaplin. There! I bet you weren’t expecting this world-famous silent comedy actor to crop up in our discourse on fine music but he is a legitimate entry. He wrote

the theme tune to his film ‘Limelight’, sometimes known as ‘Terry’s Theme’ or, less imaginatively, ‘Theme from Limelight’ and this is as it is titled on THE WORLD OF FRANK CHACKSFIELD (SPA 5). Then, as if two titles were not enough, this tune received another when words were

added and the WORLD OF monster that is Jimmy Young took it to number 8 in the pop charts as ‘Eternally’ which is the first track on JY’s WORLD OF record, which is discussed later. Francis Charles Chacksfield and his easy listening orchestra recorded over 150 LPs world-wide, six of which are found in our collection; the aforementioned SPA 5 plus a second volume (SPA 61), THE WORLD OF IMMORTAL STRAUSS WALTZES (SPA 399), THE WORLD OF IMMORTAL CLASSICS (SPA 176), THE WORLD OF OPERATIC MELODIES (SPA 266) and THE WORLD OF IMMORTAL SERENADES (SPA 298). He also crops up on several compilation WORLD OF LPs such as THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF LATIN FIRE (SPA 408) and THE WORLD OF YOUR FAMILY FAVOURITES (SPA-R 457). Including those mentioned above, Chacksfield and his orchestra can be found on 20 WORLD OFs in all.

RONNIE ALDRICH

Ronald was a pianist come arranger, composer and conductor who, whilst musical director for Thames Television, did his stuff for WORLD OFs very own Benny Hill on The Benny Hill Show. Ronnie Aldrich’s special thing was the use of two pianos to build a fuller sound, usually with one piano playing the main melody whilst the other plays counterpoint; a different, compliment-ing melody. His music-making days did not cease when drafted into the

Royal Air Force as he became pianist with the RAF Dance Band as it was called initially. The band was soon to be known as ‘The Squadronaires’. The music of Ronnie Aldrich can be found on THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF RONNIE ALDRICH (SPA 57) and THE WORLD OF RONNIE ALDRICH IN PHASE 4 (SPA 319) as well as ten compilation LPs including THE WORLD OF PHASE 4 STEREO (SPA 32) and THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF FOREIGN FILM THEMES (SPA 161) along with, misleadingly, THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF BURT BACHARACH: RONNIE ALDRICH AND HIS TWO PIANOS (SPA 193). ROBERTO MANN Roberto Mann was an orchestral conductor offering the light, easy listening tunes that seem

to have been very popular in the late sixties, examples of which can be found on THE WORLD OF ROBERTO MANN (SPA 4), THE WORLD OF WALTZES (SPA 23) and THE WORLD OF WALTZES VOL.2. (SPA 180). He also features on four other compilations including contributions to three WORLD OF EASY LISTENING LPs providing, in all, 40 tunes, though seven of them crop up twice. STANLEY BLACK Early on in Stanley Black’s music career, he joined Harry Roy’s band and stayed for

four years, Harry being another notable WORLD OF personage. It was during this period that Black found the music of Latin America that is presented on THE LATIN WORLD OF STANLEY BLACK (SPA 265). When Black began recording for DECCA he was remarkably prolific releasing up to four albums each year. Later, a few years after being taken on by DECCA as a staff conductor he was the musical director for the Cliff Richard musicals ‘The Young Ones’ and ‘Summer Holiday’. In all, Stanley Black features on 15 WORLD OF records but only on SPA 265 above and

THE FILM WORLD OF STANLEY BLACK (SPA 60), on the cover of which, he puts me in mind of a Thunderbirds puppet left staring into space on a shelf in the puppet store, does he get the bed to himself. Black’s world of films, incidentally, comprise around 200 movie titles. Other WORLD OF highlights in Stanley’s career include the writing of The Goon Show theme. EDMUNDO ROS Trinidadian Edmundo Ros came to England after a spell in the Armed Forces in the West Indies and after spending some

time trying to develop his career as a band leader, he was taken on by DECCA with whom he recorded for 30 years. He has two LPs in the WORLD OFs but what is wrong with this picture: THE LATIN WORLD OF EDMUNDO ROS VOL. 1 (SPA 71) and THE LATIN WORLD OF EDMUNDO ROS VOL. 2 (SPA 59). First

of all, the first volume is actually referred to as Vol. 1 which is unusual in itself as there is normally no reference to the volume number at all on initial albums. Secondly, the catalogue number of Vol. 2 comes before that of Vol. 1! Don't lose sleep over it, me dears! I already did so that you won't have to! Ed Ros features on eight other compilation records, such as THE WORLD OF STEREO ACTION (SPA 125) and COME TO THE WORLD OF DANCING (SPA 98). Anyway, four or so years after beginning his time at DECCA, a young Portuguese Brazilian lady popped up in England. Her name? Carmen Miranda. A performer oozing Latin fire who was backed by Edmundo’s band at the London Palladium. Ros seemed to be a magnet for important ladies as Princess Elizabeth danced her first public dance to his Latin Rumbas.

HARRY ROY Clarinet-playing Harry Roy born Lipman, led a swing big band and was prone to singing comedy songs such as, ‘I Wonder How I Look When I’m Asleep’. Ditties like

this would have gone down well when played with his band, Harry Roy’s Tiger Ragamuffins, which toured the Middle East entertaining the troops during the Second World War. Harry once rode an elephant down London’s Oxford Street in order to publicise a gig at the Palladium and his splendiferous sense of the exotic didn’t end there. It extended to his lady friends too. In fact, it extended all the way to Borneo. You see, he had a thing about a princess in Sarawak and luckily for Roy, she didn’t mind popping down the road to London in order to accept his proposal of marriage. Harry Roy has one record in our collection; THE WORLD OF HARRY ROY (SPA 141).

ROLAND SHAW Roland Edgar Shaw-Tomkins, orchestra leader, composer and musical arranger, musically arranged for WORLD OF giants Mantovani and Ted Heath. In all, Shaw’s music features on nine WORLD OF LPs; two contain Roland’s stuff exclusively and five are compilations to which he contributes. The other records are THE WORLD OF VERA LYNN VOL. 3 and THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF KENNY BAKER on which the Shaw

Orchestra backs Dame Vera on two songs and Kenny on four. Roland Shaw became arranger and producer for DECCA for whom he recorded exclusively including for their Phase 4 imprint. In fact, it is THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF THRILLERS (SPA 160), THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF FOREIGN FILM THEMES (SPA 161), THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF LATIN FIRE (SPA 408) and THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF COLOURS (SPA 484) that the Shaw Orchestra play a part of as well as the record not yet mentioned here, THE WORLD OF STEREO ACTION (SPA 125). He also made a bit of a name for himself when he recorded covers of James Bond film themes so we should not be surprised to find one of his LPs in our collection is THE WORLD OF JAMES BOND ADVENTURE (SPA 158), the other being THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF SPY THRILLERS (SPA 213). BENNY GOODMAN King of Swing American Benjamin David Goodman features on just one WORLD OF LP and has three tunes thereon: ‘One O’Clock Jump, ‘String of Pearls’ and ‘Body and Soul’ on THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF BIG BAND HITS (SPA 331). Whilst a young lad, Benny already began to show promise on the clarinet, the instrument with

to achieve fame. In fact, he was well on his way at age 11 when he first performed with a pit band (that is, one that played from an orchestra pit in a theatre or cinema etc.) and three years later, he joined the American Federation of Musicians, vowing to make music his career. His reign as the King of Swing, a title given to him in the first instance by Time magazine, kicked off in 1935 when Goodman was about 26 and in at the start of this new dance craze heralded by the Swing Era. As the Second World War began to take musicians (along with everyone else, of course) off to fight, the time of Swing began to wind down and though Benny tried out different styles of big band music and even worked with classical clarinettist, Reginald Kell, he stayed true to his roots, taking his brand around the world pretty much for the rest of his life.

STAN KENTON Stanley Newcomb Kenton was a pianist, composer and arranger who lead his own band. After a sluggish start, the Stan Kenton Orchestra began to gain recognition in 1943 when Kenton would have been 31, the band featuring high-profile soloists Art Pepper and Stan Getz for a while. You’ll remember from the Benny Goodman bit above, that it was around this time that the dance bands were beginning to fold but Kenton wasn’t waiting for luck to turn his way. He pro-actively forged new pastures, naming his sound ‘progressive jazz’ and favouring a concert orchestra set-up rather than a dance band. Always something of an experimenter, his next group was called the Innovations in Modern Music Orchestra but with 39 members it proved difficult to maintain and lasted just two tours before Stan had his own belated swing period and later, the Stan Kenton Mellophonium Band. A mellophonium slots in between the trumpets and trombones in an orchestra and so is similar to a French horn in sound but, instead of a sideways or backward facing bell, it is forward facing making it more useful for sending the sound toward an audience. Stan Kenton kept performing up until the time of his death. He has just two pieces in our collection which can be found on the abovementioned THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF BIG BAND HITS (SPA 331); a standard played in the Kenton way, ‘Take the “a” Train and something a little more experimental, ‘Artistry in Percussion’.

HARRY JAMES Also on THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF BIG BAND HITS (SPA 331) is trumpet playing Harry Haag James who provides US No. 1, ‘Sleepy Lagoon’ and ‘All or Nothing at All’. When he was about 23 years of age, he formed his first band with Frank Sinatra on vocals. In fact, Sinatra sung a version of ‘All or Nothing at All’ with the James band but we have a slower instrumental here. Prior to this, he spent time with fellow WORLD OF big band man, Benny Goodman. In the Goodman band, he formed one of the most well-respected trumpet trios in jazz with Ziggy Elman and Chris Griffin. As if musical fame was not enough, Harry also went and married film star Betty Grable by which time, he’d already appeared in the movie, Springtime in the Rockies. Before all of this, however, at age 12, little Harry James led one of the bands of the circus that his parents worked with and this after learning the drums at 4 and the trumpet at 8! So, drums at 4, Sinatra at 23 and Grable at 27. Not a bad time-line.

KENNY BAKER

The abovementioned PHASE 4 WORLD OF KENNY BAKER (SPA 508) is the only appearance of this English trumpeter in the WORLD OFs except one outing on THE PHASE 4 WORLD OF SHOW STOPPERS (SPA 162) on which he repeats a tune from SPA 508, ‘Mame’. Whilst Mr Baker had the backing of his own band later in his career, on SPA 508, he is aided and abetted by three of the above WORLD OF band leading titans; Roland Shaw, Frank Chacksfield (who takes the lion’s share i.e. seven tunes) and Ted Heath. He worked with a number of different band leaders but it was Ted

Heath who gave him his first break and even allowed Ken to borrow some of his band members in a spot during concerts to temporarily form the Kenny Baker Swing Group. He hung with Ted for three years after the end of World War II and then played sometimes with his own band and sometimes with others keeping very busy with session work, recording, contributing soundtrack work for such as The Biederbecke Affair, hosting radio shows with his band and working with such superstars of comedy as Morecambe and Wise. He even worked on The Muppets TV show. Fame indeed!

JURGEN HERMANN

The music of German composer, conductor and arranger, Jurgen Hermann’s Dancing

Strings can be heard on THE WORLD OF POPULAR SERENADES (SPA-R 131) with two of its tunes, ‘Melody in F’ and ‘Fascination’ cropping up on THE WORLD OF RADIO THEMES (SPA 269) and THE WORLD OF HAPPY SOUNDS AND MELODIES (SPA 338) respectively. ‘Melody in F’ was the theme to BBC radio show, Melodies for You which went out on Sunday mornings and then Sunday Evenings after 1992 and was later combined with Your Hundred Best Tunes. This latter was the programme presented by Alan Keith who initially chose his top 100 but this was subsequently left for the listeners to select. We will meet Mr Keith later on in our travels.

References available on request

Regarding the LP cover images, they are photographs of the records in my own collection and are taken by my own hand (which explains the slight wonkiness of some of them). All images are, however, copyright of Decca.

Any redistribution or reproduction of part or all of any image in any form is prohibited.

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