''Music Out of the Moon: Music Unusual Featuring the Theremin - Themes by Harry Revel'' (Capitol CC-47) is an album consisting of six songs on three 10-inch, 78 rpm records by bandleader

Les Baxter Leslie Thompson "Les" Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was a best-selling American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica ...

and composer

Harry Revel Harry Revel ( Glaser; 21 December 1905 – 3 November 1958) was a British-born American composer, mostly of musical theatre, working with various lyricists, notably Mack Gordon. He is also seen as a pioneer of "space age pop". Early life and car ...

with

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

player Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman released on

Capitol A capitol, named after the Capitoline Hill in Rome, is usually a legislative building where a legislature meets and makes laws for its respective political entity. Specific capitols include: * United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. * Numerous ...

in April 1947. ''Music Out of the Moon'' is considered the best-selling

record of all time.

Music

The music was a mixture of late 1940s lounge jazz and film music underpinned by Hoffman’s otherworldly theremin playing. According to the liner notes: "Harry Revel created the basic "idea" and themes while Leslie Baxter, conductor and arranger, has given them appropriately unique tone color, using mass harmonies of human voices as well as unusual instrumental effects with woodwinds, strings and bass; some without rhythm, others with a dominant, demanding beat."

Cover

''Music Out of the Moon'' was noteworthy for being one of the first albums to feature a full color cover – a risqué photograph by Paul Garrison of partially clothed actress Virginia Clark of the

Earl Carroll Theatre The Earl Carroll Theatre was a Broadway theatre at 753 Seventh Avenue near 50th Street in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built by impresario Earl Carroll and designed by architect George Keister, it opened on Febr ...

, Hollywood, sprawled across a bed – which made it stand out in an era of monochrome album packaging.

Reissues

''Music Out of the Moon'' was reissued by Capitol in 1950 on one 10-inch, 33⅓ rpm disc (Capitol H-2000). In 1954, ''Music Out of the Moon'' was combined with '' Music for Peace of Mind'' -- a six-song 1950 collaboration between Billy May, Revel and Hoffman -- on one 12-inch, 33⅓ rpm disc (Capitol T390). In 1999, Basta reissued ''Music Out of the Moon'' on a CD called ''Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman and the Theremin'', which also included '' Perfume Set to Music'' (1948) and '' Music for Peace of Mind'' (1950). In 2004, Rev-Ola issued the same three albums on a CD called ''Waves in the Ether: The Magical World of the Theremin''.

Played in space by Neil Armstrong

The Hollywood producer Mickey Kapp compiled a

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

of tracks from the album for astronaut

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...

, who brought the tape on the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...

Moon mission in 1969. He played it from the

Apollo spacecraft The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth. The expendable (single-use) spacecraft ...

on a

Sony TC-50 The Sony TC-50 was a compact cassette recorder and portable audio player designed and marketed by Sony. It was conceived for the purpose of dictation but gained popularity with the general public after its use during the Apollo program lunar missi ...

during the flight back from the Moon when it was about from Earth, and explained, "That's an old favorite of mine, about – It's an album made about 20 years ago, called ''Music Out of the Moon''."
NASA audio recording
The record appears in '' First Man'', the 2018 biopic of Armstrong directed by

Damien Chazelle Damien Sayre Chazelle (; born January 19, 1985) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is known for his films ''Whiplash'' (2014), ''La La Land'' (2016), and '' First Man'' (2018). For ''Whiplash'', he was nominated for the ...

Track listing (CC-47)

External links

Track recordings online:
Lunar Rhapsody

Moon Moods

Lunette

Celestial Nocturne

Mist O' The Moon

Radar Blues

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Music Out of the Moon 1947 albums Les Baxter albums Samuel Hoffman albums Works about the Moon