Geoffrey Love (4 September 1917 – 8 July 1991) was a prolific

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

arranger and composer of

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, n ...

and pop versions of

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themes. He became famous in the late 1950s, playing under the pseudonym of Manuel and The Music of The Mountains.

Early years

Love was born in

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Hal ...

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

, England, the only son and younger of two surviving children (an elder sister Cornelia) of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

Thomas Edward (Kidd) Love and his English wife, Frances Helen Maycock (1892–1975), an actress and singer. The Loves travelled around Britain as entertainers, but, following the death of his father, the family returned to their grandmother's house in Todmorden. Whilst at school, Love learned the

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

. After leaving school at 15, Love worked as a car mechanic and played trombone at dance halls in the evening. Having turned professional at 17, Love joined Freddie Platt's band. Later, in 1936, he joined

Jan Ralfini Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

's band playing in London and learned to play jazz. With the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Love was called up and joined the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...

. Whilst in the armed forces, Love spent time learning orchestration by questioning musicians how best to write for their individual instruments. Love married Cicely Joyce Peters (known as Joy, 1923/4–1993) on 4 April 1942. She worked alongside Love, organising his recording sessions and accounts. They had two sons,

Adrian Adrian is a form of the Latin language, Latin given name Adrianus (given name), Adrianus or Hadrianus (disambiguation), Hadrianus. Its ultimate origin is most likely via the former river Adria (river), Adria from the Venetic language, Venetic and ...

(1944–1999), who became a well-known radio presenter, and Nigel (1948–2013).

Post-war career

Following his release from the army, Love became a freelance trombonist and arranger, and also played with

Stanley Black Stanley Black OBE (14 June 1913 – 27 November 2002) was an English bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores, recording prolifically for the Decca label (including their subsidiaries ''Lond ...

's BBC orchestra. He also developed his orchestration through the tutelage of the harpist

Marie Goossens Marie Henriette Goossens (11 August 1894 - 18 December 1991) was an English harpist, a member of the famous Goossens musical family and the older sister of Sidonie Goossens, also a harpist. Born in London, she was taught at the Royal College ...

. In the early 1950s, along with saxophonist Harry Gold, his brother Laurie Gold and pianist

Norrie Paramor Norman William Paramor (15 May 1914 – 9 September 1979), known professionally as Norrie Paramor, was a British record producer, composer, arranger, pianist, bandleader, and orchestral conductor. He is best known for his work with Cliff Ri ...

, Love was a member of the 'Pieces of Eight' playing

Dixieland jazz Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ...

. Although Love continued to play trombone at recording sessions (for example with bandleader

Lew Stone Louis Stone known professionally as Lew Stone (28 June 1898 – 13 February 1969) was a British bandleader and arranger of the British dance band era, and was well known in Britain during the 1930s. He was known as a skillful, innovative a ...

), he was doing more and more orchestral arrangements. His arrangements were played by the

Cliff Adams Singers The Cliff Adams Singers were a British male/female List of vocal groups, vocal group, known for ballads and novelty songs, and especially their regular performances on BBC Radio from the 1950s onwards. The ensemble was established in 1954 by Cl ...

, Ambrose and

Ken Mackintosh Kenneth Victor Mackintosh (4 August 1919 – 22 November 2005) was an English saxophonist, composer and bandleader. He accompanied singers such as Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey and Matt Monro. Early life Mackintosh was born in Liversedge, Y ...

dance bands, as well work for television and radio orchestras. By the mid-1950s Love was writing for several recording labels - moving from Philips to

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

and

PolyGram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

before finally settling at

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

. Whilst at the

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

label he arranged for

Frankie Vaughan Frankie Vaughan (born Frank Fruim Abelson; 3 February 1928 – 17 September 1999) was an English singer and actor who recorded more than 80 easy listening and traditional pop singles in his lifetime. He was known as "Mr. Moonlight" after his ...

and

Alma Cogan Alma Angela Cohen Cogan (19 May 1932 – 26 October 1966) was an English singer of traditional pop in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dubbed the "Girl with the Giggle in Her Voice", she was the highest paid British female entertainer of her era. C ...

among others. Whilst working at Columbia, he arranged

Laurie London Laurie London (born 19 January 1944) is an English singer, who achieved fame as a boy singer of the 1950s, for both his gospel and novelty songs recording in both English and German. He is best known for his hit single of the spiritual song "He's ...

's gospel song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", a 1957 chart topper in the US. In the late 1950s, playing under the pseudonym of 'Manuel and his Music of the Mountains', Love's created his ''Theme from Honeymoon'' (1959) which proved popular in the UK. His attempt to keep his identity secret whilst playing as 'Manuel' was impossible due to success, especially in the US in 1959 and 1960. In 1959 he and his orchestra recorded an album with British singer Shirley Bassey named ''The Fabulous Shirley Bassey''. It was her first album for the Columbia label. In 1964, "Geoff Love's Music" backed the British rock duo

Peter and Gordon Peter and Gordon were a British pop duo, composed of Peter Asher (b. 1944) and Gordon Waller (1945–2009), who achieved international fame in 1964 with their first single, the million-selling single " A World Without Love". The duo had sever ...

on their first two hit singles (both written by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

), the UK and US No. 1 hit "

A World Without Love "A World Without Love" is a song recorded by the British duo Peter and Gordon and released as their first single in February 1964. It was included on the duo's debut album in the UK, and in the US on an album of the same name. The song was wri ...

" and the top 15 hit "

Nobody I Know Nobody I Know is a song written by Paul McCartney (attributed to Lennon–McCartney) which Peter and Gordon recorded in an April 1964 session at Abbey Road Studio. Peter and Gordon had had a UK and US #1 hit with the McCartney composition " A W ...

". During the 1960s and into the 1970s, Love recorded many

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s for MFP, often featuring

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

themes such as: ''Big Western Movie Themes'' (1969), ''Big War Movie Themes'' (1971), ''Big Suspense Movie Themes'' (1972), ''Your Top TV Themes'' (1972), ''Big Terror Movie Themes'' (1976) and other

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 instru ...

and disco music. ''Big Bond Movie Themes'' (1975) featuring a selection of instrumental versions of music and songs from the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film series from '' Dr. No'' up to '' The Man with the Golden Gun'' (including

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

's '' Casino Royale'' from the 1967 spoof Bond film) has since become one of Love's most sought after MFP albums. One of these MFP sets was called ''Glad with Love'' – which featured the pianist

Mrs Mills Gladys Mills (; 29 August 1918 – 24 February 1978), known as Mrs Mills, was an English pianist who was active in the 1960s and 1970s, and who released many records. Her repertoire included many sing-along and party tunes made popular in the ...

and Geoff Love on a

sing-along Sing-along, also called community singing or group singing, is an event of singing together at gatherings or parties, less formally than choir singing. One can use a songbook. Common genres are folk songs, patriotic songs, kids' songs, spirituals ...

together – with studio audience participation. One of Love's most recognised arrangements was "Rodrigo's Guitar Concerto De Aranjuez (Theme From 2nd Movement)" by Manuel and the Music of the Mountains. This was announced as the number one single in the United Kingdom in February 1976 but the chart was withdrawn four hours later due to compilation errors, making it the shortest period that a song had been number one. He also made a very popular album of arrangements of Christmas Carols and Songs * ''Christmas with Love ''(1972) Love appeared on television with pianist

Russ Conway Russ Conway, DSM (born Trevor Herbert Stanford; 2 September 1925 – 16 November 2000) was an English popular music pianist and composer. Conway had 20 piano instrumentals in the UK Singles Chart between 1957 and 1963, including two number one ...

and became well known for working alongside singer-comedian

Max Bygraves Walter William Bygraves (16 October 1922 – 31 August 2012), best known by the stage name Max Bygraves (adopted in honour of Max Miller), was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, s ...

. He was also a prolific composer, writing the

theme music 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 so ...

for the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...

'' Bless This House''. Love also made some recordings as a vocalist. He was the subject of '' This Is Your Life'' in 1975 when he was surprised by

Eamonn Andrews Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ A ...

. In the early 1980s, Love was the co-founder (with Bill Starling) of the Young Person's Concert Foundation. He travelled the country with this charity promoting music to schools and other venues. In the late 1980s, Love became involved with several brass bands. An extract of his recording, ''Tico's Tune'', was used as the theme tune for the long-running Gay Byrne Show on Ireland's

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 ( ga, RTÉ Raidió 1) is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for th ...

station.https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/2112-gay-byrne/634005-gay-byrne-show-theme-tune/

Awards

Love's prolific career garnered one platinum, fifteen gold and thirteen silver discs, and a special trophy for selling in excess of 2½ million records.

Death

Love died at the

University College Hospital University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College London ...

, Camden, London, on 8 July 1991 at the age of 73.

Geoff Love albums (billed as 'Manuel & the Music of the Mountains'; original albums)

* ''The Music of the Mountains'' (1960) * ''Mountain Carnival'' (1961) * ''Ecstasy'' (1963) * ''Mountain Fiesta'' (1964) * ''Exotica'' (1965) * ''Blue Waters'' (1966) * ''Sunrise, Sunset'' (1967) * ''Beyond the Mountains'' (1967) * ''Mirage'' (1968) * ''Magic Fountains'' (1968) * ''Reflections'' (1969) * ''Manuel and the Music of the Masters'' (1969) * ''Manuel and the Music of the Movies'' (1970) * ''Cascade'' (1971) * ''Carnival'' (1971) * ''Manuel Meets Pepe Jaramillo'' (1971) * ''Mardi Gras'' (1972) * ''The Sun, the Sea and the Sky'' (1972) * ''Horizons'' (1973) * ''Shangri-La'' (1973) * ''Y Viva España'' (1974) * ''El Bimbo'' (1975) * ''Masquerade'' (1976) * ''Mountain Fire'' (1977) * ''The Music of Manuel'' (1978) * ''The Magic of Manuel'' (1978) * ''Super Natural'' (1979) * ''Viva Manuel'' (1979) * ''Fiesta'' (1980) * ''Fantasy'' (1981)

As ''Mandingo''

* ''The Primeval Rhythm of Life'' (1972) * ''Sacrifice'' (1973) * ''Mandingo III (A Story of Survival) (1974) * ''Savage Rite'' (1975)

References

External links

The Geoff Love Appreciation Website

Photograph of Geoff Love – The National Portrait Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Love, Geoff 1917 births 1991 deaths Easy listening musicians People from Todmorden King's Royal Rifle Corps soldiers Black British musicians English people of American descent English people of African-American descent English people of Native American descent English bandleaders English male composers English music arrangers 20th-century English musicians 20th-century British male musicians British Army personnel of World War II