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Softly, As I Leave You (album)
''Softly, as I Leave You'' is a 1964 studio album by American singer Frank Sinatra. Arranged by Ernie Freeman, several tracks such as "Softly, as I Leave You", "Then Suddenly Love" and "Available" departed from Sinatra's signature vocal jazz style by flirting with a more contemporary pop sound. The rest of the album is pieced together with leftovers from various early-'60s sessions, from many different arrangers and conductors. The title track was the first of at least four attempts to mimic the chart success of Dean Martin's #1 hit "Everybody Loves Somebody", using a driving beat, heavy strings and choral tracks. Sinatra, arranger Ernie Freeman and producer Jimmy Bowen would incorporate the same sound to songs like "When Somebody Loves You", "Tell Her You Love Her (Each Day)" and "Somewhere in Your Heart" with only minor chart success. Track listing #" Emily" (Johnny Mandel, Johnny Mercer) – 2:58 #"Here's to the Losers" ( Robert Wells, Jack Segal) – 3:05 #"Dear Heart" (Jay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, most popular entertainers of the 20th century. Sinatra is among the List of best-selling music artists, world's best-selling music artists, with an estimated 150 million record sales globally. Born to Italian Americans, Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era and was influenced by the easy-listening vocal style of Bing Crosby. He joined the Harry James band as the vocalist in 1939 before finding success as a solo artist after signing with Columbia Records in 1943, becoming the idol of the "Bobby-soxer, bobby soxers". In 1946, Sinatra released his debut album, ''The Voice of Frank Sinatra''. He then signed with Capitol Records and released several albums wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Mandel
John Alfred Mandel (November 23, 1925June 29, 2020) was an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. The musicians he worked with include Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Diane Schuur and Shirley Horn. He won five Grammy Awards, from 17 nominations; his first nomination was for his debut film score for the multi-nominated 1958 film '' I Want to Live!'' Early life Mandel was born in the borough of Manhattan in New York City on November 23, 1925. His father, Alfred, was a garment manufacturer who ran Mandel & Cash; his mother, Hannah (Hart-Rubin), had aimed to be an opera singer and discovered her son had perfect pitch at the age of five. His family was Jewish. They moved to Los Angeles in 1934, after his father's business collapsed during the Great Depression. Mandel was given piano lessons, but switched to the trumpet and later the trombone. Career Mandel studied at the Manhattan School of Music and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hal Shaper
Harold David Shaper (18 July 1931 – 8 January 2004), known as Hal Shaper, was a South African songwriter. After qualifying as a lawyer in 1955, he travelled to London to begin his five-decade-long musical career during which he worked with and wrote for well-known artists including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand and David Bowie. After establishing financial stability following the release of his first hit ''Softly, As I Leave You'', he began his own music publishing company, Sparta Florida Inc.. Aside from song titles and lyrics, Shaper also wrote for films as well as musicals. Biography Shaper was born on 18 July 1931 in Muizenberg near Cape Town as the third and youngest child of Jewish parents. His father was from Manchester and his mother from the ghetto of Lodz in Poland. He was inspired to become a songwriter after seeing the Mickey Rooney film ''Words and Music'' (1948), saying: he was "enchanted by the quality of the songs and the freshness of them" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carolyn Leigh
Carolyn Leigh (August 21, 1926 – November 19, 1983) was an American lyricist for Broadway, film, and popular songs. She is best known as the writer with partner Cy Coleman of the pop standards "Witchcraft" and " The Best Is Yet to Come". With Johnny Richards, she wrote the million-seller " Young at Heart" for the 1954 film ''Young at Heart'', starring Frank Sinatra. Biography Leigh was born to a Jewish familyTampa Jewish Federation: "Jews in the News: Mike Nichols, Yael Grobglas and Dominic Fumusa" retrieved March 18, 2017 , "''The musical was penned by five Jewish theater legends, all now deceased. Lyrics by: BETTY COMDEN, ADOLPH GREENE, and CAROLYN LEIGH — with music by: MARK CHARLAP and JULE STYNE.''"< ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman (born Seymour Kaufman; June 14, 1929 – November 18, 2004) was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist. Life and career Coleman was born Seymour Kaufman in New York City, to Ashkenazi, Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida (née Prizent) was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason.Berkvist, Rober"Cy Coleman, Composer Whose Jazz-Fired Musicals Blazed on Broadway, Dies at 75" ''The New York Times'', November 20, 2004. He was a child prodigy who gave piano recitals at venues such as Steinway Hall (57th Street), Steinway Hall, the Town Hall (New York City), Town Hall, and Carnegie Hall between the ages of six and nine.Jones, Kennet"Cy Coleman, a Master of the Show Tune, Is Dead at 75", Playbill.com, November 19, 2004. Before beginning his fabled Broadway theater, Broadway career, he led the Cy Coleman Trio, which made many recordings and was a much-in-demand club attraction. Despite the early Classical mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Costa
Dominick P. "Don" Costa (June 10, 1925 – January 19, 1983) was an American conductor and record producer. He discovered singer Paul Anka and worked on several hit albums by Frank Sinatra, including '' Sinatra and Strings'' and '' My Way''. Career Costa was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, to an Italian American family. As a child, he took a keen interest in learning the guitar, and he became a member of the CBS Radio Orchestra by the time he was in his teens. In the late 1940s, Costa moved to New York City to further his career by becoming a session musician. He played guitar with Bucky Pizzarelli on Vaughn Monroe's hit record " Ghost Riders in the Sky". It was around this time that Costa started experimenting with combinations of instruments, producing musical arrangements, and selling them to big bands. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé invited Costa to write vocal backgrounds for their recordings. He agreed and thus began an association that led to thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Van Heusen
James Van Heusen (born Edward Chester Babcock; January 26, 1913 – February 6, 1990) was an American composer. He wrote songs for films, television, and theater, and won an Emmy and four Academy Award for Best Original Song, Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Many of his compositions later went on to become jazz standards. Life and career Born in Syracuse, New York, Edward Chester Babcock began writing music while in high school. He renamed himself to Jimmy Van Heusen at age 16, after the shirt makers PVH Corp., Phillips-Van Heusen, to use as his on-air name during local shows. His close friends called him "Chet".Coppula, C. (2014). ''Jimmy Van Heusen: Swinging on a Star''. Nashville: Twin Creek Books. Jimmy was raised Methodist. Studying at Cazenovia Seminary and Syracuse University, he became friends with Jerry Arlen, the younger brother of Harold Arlen. With the elder Arlen's help, Van Heusen wrote songs for the Cotton Club revue, including "Harlem Hospitality". He then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sammy Cahn
Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. He is best known for his romantic lyrics to films and Broadway songs, as well as stand-alone songs premiered by recording companies in the Greater Los Angeles Area. He and his collaborators had a series of hit recordings with Frank Sinatra during the singer's tenure at Capitol Records, but also enjoyed hits with Dean Martin, Doris Day and many others. He played the piano and violin, and won an Oscar four times for his songs, including the popular hit " Three Coins in the Fountain". Among his most enduring songs is " Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", cowritten with Jule Styne in 1945. Life and career Cahn was born Samuel Cohen on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, the only son (he had four sisters) of Abraham and Elka Reiss Cohen, who were Jewish immigrants from Galicia, then ruled by Austria-Hungary. His sisters, Sady ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, and twenty Grammy Awards, plus a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. His works include the theme and soundtrack for the ''Peter Gunn'' television series as well as the music for ''The Pink Panther'' film series (" The Pink Panther Theme") and " Moon River" from '' Breakfast at Tiffany's''. '' The Music from Peter Gunn'' won the inaugural Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Mancini enjoyed a long collaboration in composing film scores for the film director Blake Edwards. Mancini also scored a No. 1 hit single during the rock era on the Hot 100: his arrangement and recording of the " Love Theme from ''Romeo and Juliet''" spent two weeks at the top, starting with the week ending June 28, 1969. Early lif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Evans
Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter best known for being a half of a composing-songwriting duo with Jay Livingston, specializing himself in writing lyrics for film songs. On music Livingston composed, Evans wrote the lyrics.Ray Evans papers, 1921-2012 Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, university of Pennsylvania. Biography Early life and family Ray Evans was born on February 4, 1915 to a family in Salamanca ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jay Livingston
Jay Livingston (born Jacob Harold Levison; March 28, 1915 – October 17, 2001) was an American composer best known as half of a composing-songwriting duo with Ray Evans, with whom he specialized in composing film scores and original soundtrack songs. Livingston composed the music while Evans wrote the lyrics. Biography Early life and family Jay Livingston was born Jacob Harold Levison in McDonald, Pennsylvania to Jewish parents. He had an older sister, Vera, and a younger brother, Alan W. Livingston, who became an executive with Capitol Records and later with NBC television. Career Livingston studied piano with Harry Archer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he organized a dance band and met Evans, a fellow student in the band. Though they began writing together in 1937, Livingston and Evans did not hit the top until 1946, when they set the music publishing business on fire with " To Each His Own," which reached number one on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dear Heart (song)
"Dear Heart" is a song written by Henry Mancini, Ray Evans, and Jay Livingston and performed by Andy Williams. It appears on the 1965 Andy Williams album, ''Andy Williams' Dear Heart''. The song was the theme to the 1964 movie ''Dear Heart''. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and also nominated for best song at the 22nd Golden Globe Awards. Chart performance The song reached #2 on the Adult Contemporary (chart), U.S. adult contemporary chart and #24 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' chart in 1964. Recordings *Henry Mancini released a version of the song in 1964 that reached #14 on the adult contemporary chart and #77 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. *Frank Sinatra recorded the song for his 1964 album ''Softly, as I Leave You (album), Softly, as I Leave You''. *Jack Jones (singer), Jack Jones also released a version in 1964, reaching #6 on the adult contemporary chart and #30 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. *Al Martino - for his album ''We Could'' (1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
