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Hugo Winterhalter
Hugo Winterhalter (August 15, 1909 – September 17, 1973) was an American easy listening arranger and composer, best known for his arrangements and recordings for RCA Victor. Biography Hugo Ferdinand Winterhalter was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on August 15, 1909 to Hugo Winterhalter and Mary Gallagher, both second generation German-Americans. He graduated from Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Maryland in 1931, where he played saxophone for the orchestra and sang in two of the choirs. He later studied violin and reed instruments at the New England Conservatory of Music. After graduating, he taught school for several years before turning professional during the mid-1930s, serving as a sideman and arranger for Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Raymond Scott, Claude Thornhill and others. Winterhalter also arranged and conducted sessions for singers including Dinah Shore and Billy Eckstine, and in 1948 he was named musical director at MGM Records. After two years with the label ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Easy Listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, non-rock vocals and instrumental covers of selected popular rock songs. It mostly concentrates on music that pre-dates the rock and roll era, characteristically on music from the 1940s and 1950s. It was differentiated from the mostly instrumental beautiful music format by its variety of styles, including a percentage of vocals, arrangements and tempos to fit various parts of the broadcast day. Easy listening music is often confused with lounge music, but while it was popular in some of the same venues it was meant to be listened to for enjoyment rather than as background sound. History The style has been synonymous with the tag "with strings". String instruments had been used in sweet bands in the 1930s and was the dominant sound track ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an Italian-American singer, actor and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, after signing with the label in 1943. He recorded primarily vocal pop and was renowned for recordings in the intimate, easy-listening genre pioneered by multi-media star Bing Crosby. "Mr. C.", as he was nicknamed, sold millions of records and pioneered a weekly musical variety television show. His weekly television shows and seasonal specials were broadcast throughout the world. In the official RCA Records Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' magazine memorial, his life was summed up in these few words: "50 years of music and a life well lived. An example to all." Como received five Emmy Award, Emmys from 1955 to 1959, and a Christopher Award in 1956. He also shared a Peabody Award with good friend Jackie Gleason in 1956. He received a Kennedy Cente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canadian Sunset
"Canadian Sunset" is a popular song with music by jazz pianist Eddie Heywood and lyrics by Norman Gimbel. An instrumental version by Heywood and Hugo Winterhalter reached No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and No. 7 on the R&B chart in 1956. A version sung by Andy Williams was also popular that year, reaching No. 7 on the ''Billboard'' chart. The Sounds Orchestral, conducted by Johnny Pearson, hit the Easy Listening chart reaching No. 14 and the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1965 reaching No. 76. Musicvf.com, Retrieved June 3, 2013 Emergence as a jazz standard The tune has been covered by a number of jazz performers beginning in the 1960s. * |
Eddie Heywood
Edward Heywood Jr. (December 4, 1915 – January 3, 1989) was an American jazz pianist particularly active in the 1940s and 1950s. Biography Heywood was born in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. His father, Eddie Heywood Sr., was also a jazz musician from the 1920s and provided him with training from the age of 12 as an accompanist playing in the pit band in a vaudeville theater in Atlanta, occasionally accompanying singers such as Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters. Heywood moved, first to New Orleans and then to Kansas City, when vaudeville began to be replaced by sound pictures.Wilson, John S. (January 04, 1989) "Eddie Heywood, 73, Jazz Pianist, Arranger and Composer, Is Dead" '' |
The Barefoot Contessa
''The Barefoot Contessa'' is a 1954 American drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz about the life and loves of fictional Spanish sex symbol Maria Vargas. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, and Edmond O'Brien. The film's slow-paced plot focuses on social positioning and high-powered politics within the world of film and high society. For his performance, O'Brien won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the corresponding Golden Globe. Mankiewicz was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The majority of the film is explained by Harry Dawes (Bogart), narrating the events, with small sections narrated by Oscar Muldoon (O'Brien). Plot Down on his luck, a washed-up movie director and writer Harry Dawes is reduced to working for abusive, emotionally stunted business tycoon Kirk Edwards, who has decided that he wants to produce a film to boost his monumental ego. Looking for a glamorous leading lady, they go to a Madrid night ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Little Shoemaker
The Little Shoemaker" is a popular song based on the French song, "Le petit cordonnier", by Rudi Revil. The original French lyric was written by Francis Lemarque (page in French). The English language lyrics were written by Geoffrey Claremont Parsons, Nathan Korb (Francis Lemarque) and John Turner. In the United States, the best-selling version was recorded by the Gaylords, charting in 1954. In the United Kingdom, the song was the first charted hit for Petula Clark the same year. The recording by the Gaylords, with the chorus sung in both English and Italian, was released by Mercury Records as catalog number 70403. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on June 23, 1954, and lasted 19 weeks on the chart, peaking at #2. The recording by the Hugo Winterhalter orchestra on May 25, 1954, was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-5769. It first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on July 7, 1954, and lasted 11 weeks on the chart, pea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Tango
"Blue Tango" is an instrumental composition by Leroy Anderson, written for orchestra in 1951 and published in 1952. It was later turned into a popular song with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. Numerous artists have since covered "Blue Tango". Song history An instrumental version of "Blue Tango" recorded by Anderson ( Decca Records, catalog number 27875, with the flip side "Belle of the Ball") reached number one on the '' Billboard'' chart in 1952. (According to other sources, the Anderson recording first reached the charts on December 29, 1951.) ''Billboard'' ranked it as the number one song of 1952. The same recording was released in 1952 by Brunswick Records (United Kingdom) as catalog number 04870, with the same flip side. Hugo Winterhalter and his orchestra recorded "Blue Tango" at Manhattan Center, New York City, on January 22, 1952. It was released by RCA Victor as catalog number 20-4518A, with the flip side "Gypsy Trail". This version first reached the ''Billboard'' Best Seller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Kiss To Build A Dream On
"A Kiss to Build a Dream On" is a song composed by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II. In 1935, Kalmar and Ruby wrote a song called "Moonlight on the Meadow" for the Marx Brothers film '' A Night at the Opera'' (1935) but the song was not used. Hammerstein later adapted the lyrics to be "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" and it was recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1951. It was also performed by Armstrong as well as by Mickey Rooney with William Demarest, by Sally Forrest, and by Kay Brown (virtually the entire cast performed part or all of the song) in the 1951 film ''The Strip'', and was a sort of recurring theme in the film. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1951 but lost out to “ In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening”. Other recordings *Another popular recording was made by one of ''The Strip'' film's guest-stars, Monica Lewis, and in early 1952, the version by Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra, with vocalist Johnny Parker ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Record Chart
A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often in combination. These include record sales, the amount of radio airplay, the number of music download, downloads, and the amount of streaming media, streaming activity. Some charts are specific to a particular musical genre and most to a particular geographical location. The most common period covered by a chart is one week with the chart being printed or broadcast at the end of this time. Summary charts for years and decades are then calculated from their component weekly charts. Component charts have become an increasingly important way to measure the commercial success of individual songs. A common format of radio and television programmes is to run down a music chart. Chart hit A ''chart hit'' is a recording, identified by its inclu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theme Song
Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at some point during the program. The purpose of a theme song is often similar to that of a leitmotif. The phrase theme song or signature tune may also be used to refer to a signature song that has become especially associated with a particular performer or dignitary, often used as they make an entrance. Purpose From the 1950s onwards, theme music, and especially theme songs also became a valuable source of additional revenue for Hollywood film studios, many of which launched their own recording arms. This period saw the beginning of more methodical cross-promotion of music and movies. One of the first big successes, which proved very influential, was the theme song for '' High Noon'' (1952). Celebrities In the early years of radio and tel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instrumentals. The music is primarily or exclusively produced using musical instruments. An instrumental can exist in music notation, after it is written by a composer; in the mind of the composer (especially in cases where the composer themselves will perform the piece, as in the case of a blues solo guitarist or a folk music fiddle player); as a piece that is performed live by a single instrumentalist or a musical ensemble, which could range in components from a duo or trio to a large big band, concert band or orchestra. In a song that is otherwise sung, a section that is not sung but which is played by instruments can be called an instrumental interlude, or, if it occurs at the beginning of the song, before the singer starts to sing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ames Brothers
The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet, consisting of four siblings from Malden, Massachusetts, who were particularly famous in the 1950s for their traditional pop music hits. Biography The Urick brothers were born in Malden, Massachusetts. Joe (born Joseph Urick; May 3, 1921 – December 22, 2007), Gene (February 13, 1924 – April 26, 1997), Vic (May 20, 1925 – January 23, 1978), and Ed Ames (born Edmund Dantes Urick on July 9, 1927) formed the singing group the Amory Brothers, which would become the Ames Brothers. Born into a non-professional but musically talented family, the boys were raised to enjoy classical music and operatic music. Their parents, David and Sarah Urick, were Russian Jewish immigrants from Ukraine who read Shakespeare and semi-classics to their nine children from the time they were old enough to listen. Three of the brothers formed a quartet with a cousin named Lennie, and had been touring United States Army and Navy bases entertaining the troop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
