Sunday, November 21, 2010

Percy Faith: Theme from A Summer Place



The other day some people were discussing what the number one single was the day they were born. With me it was Running Bear by Johnny Preston (hubba, hubba). But in looking that up I discovered that this track had also been in the top 10.

Which helps to explain why I cannot remember a time when I did not know this tune, even if I did not know what it was called. It turns out to be not Theme from a Summer Place, but Theme from A Summer Place - the theme from the film A Summer Place.

Are we allowed to like easy listening at the moment? (If not, then I refer you to Frank Zappa from a couple of weeks ago.) Personally, I always associate tunes like this with getting up early to go somewhere as a child and hearing Radio 2 playing on the coach.

A short biographical piece on Faith records that between 1951 and 1976 recorded some 85 albums for Columbia:
Faith's worst sin may have been that of being too good a craftsman. He worked strings, woodwinds, and brass together so seamlessly that the result often achieves a surface of schmaltz that belies the fine work underneath. And with that many albums, there is a certain amount of crap to be expected.
This tune is not among the crap. One day I may hit you with Raymond Lefèvre or Horst Jankowski.

1 comment:

dreamingspire said...

More lucky dip with the film clips: the Ffestiniog post now points me to http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=26710. That has Maurice Chevalier arriving by air back in Paris, plus shots of a farrier and blacksmith (reminds me of the 1950s when I waited in the blacksmiths for the bus home from school - handy in winter). So now its this post that points me to Britain Under Water.