Search - Percy Faith :: Music for Her

"countless memories surface with Faith's music"

J. Lovins | Missouri-USA | 07/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In the early to mid '50s, Maestro Percy Faith was cranking out beautiful arrangements for singers of the Columbia Record stables (Tony Bennett, Rosie Clooney, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis and Guy Mitchell) to name just a few ~ but his true and real ambition was arranging tunes of the yesterday and composing songs of his own ~ now enters the album and tunes of "Music for Her", featuring countless melodies of many decades, all arranged in perfect order by Mr. Faith ~ in the next few paragraphs let's look at some of them.Originally released on Columbia Records in 1955 (CL 705) ~ over an hour of stand outs "BUT BEAUTIFUL" (Johnny Burke/Jimmy Van Heusen), "EVERYTHING I HAVE IS YOURS" (Harold Adamson/Burton Lane)(Eddie Fisher had a knockout delivery on this standard), "I CONCENTRATE ON YOU" (Cole Porter)(Perry Como comes to mind the first time I heard this tune), "I'LL BE SEEING YOU" (Irving Kahal/Sammy Fain)(was the theme song for Liberace on his television show), "I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS" (Gus Kahn/Isham Jones)(Danny Thomas had a wonderful recording of this), "OUT OF THIS WORLD" (Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer)(one of the best performances on this is Ella Fitzgerald, she's my favorite female vocalist ever), "TAKE ME IN YOUR ARMS" (Mitchell Parish/Fred Markush), "THE NEARNESS OF YOU" (Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington)(many singers have made this their own-John Gary and Frank Sinatra just to name a few), "THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT" (Dorothy Fields/Jerome Kern)(a big song for Fred Astaire, but lately I've grown to love Michael Buble and Steve Tyrell's angle on this one), "YOU'D BE SO NICE TO COME HOME TO" (Cole Porter),"YOU'RE MINE, YOU" (Edward Heyman/Johnny Green), "YOU'RE MY EVERYTHING" (Mort Dixon/Joe Young/Harry Warren)(countless Big Band and solo performers have released this, difficult to pick any highlight as they were all original).The last sections of six tracks are the bonus goodies ~ "TRUE OR FALSE" (Carl Sigman/Percy Faith), featuring Burt Taylor on vocals and chorus from 1953 ~ "SONG FOR SWEETHEARTS(COME CLOSE)" (Carl Sigman/Percy Faith), with Betty Cox on vocals from 1954 ~ "BLUE MIRAGE (DON'T GO)" (Sam Coslow/Lotar Olias), featuring a chorus and signature tango arrangement by Percy Faith from 1955 ~ "NOT AS A STRANGER" (Buddy Kaye/Jimmy Van Heusen), the title song from the film, featured Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra as surgeons at a local hospital, vocal by Bernadine Read from 1955 ~ "THE WORLD IS MINE" (Stanley Adams/Victor Young), beautiful rendition from one of my favorite composers Victor Young, vocal performed by Val Valente (strong resemblence to Mario Lanza) from 1955 ~ "WE WON'T SAY GOODBYE" (Joe Sherman/Noel Sherman/Sid Peters), haunting strings as only Maestro Faith can do ~ the bonus tracks were all singles from 1953 to 1955, which at one time were in my single 45's collection ~ recordings sound so much better on compact disc.Collectables and Sony Music have given all the fans what they have wanted and craved for years ~ keep them coming and we will be forever grateful and in your debt...gotta love it!Total Time:66:54 on 18 Tracks ~ Collectables 7562 ~ (4/13/2004)"

Percy Faith Music For Her

Jeff Carter | Perry, Ga United States | 04/22/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you love beautiful music that got played on beautiful music stations this cd is an essential Faith collection.Faith used a heavy string contingement on this album.Every song except True or False track 15 is heavily garned with strings.This cd contains 6 singles from Faith as well that were only available on 45's until now but even the singles with the vocals contains heavy strings except 15.Tracks 1-12 are just instrumental.Tracks 13-18 are vocal.If you love beautiful music you will love Faith's versions of the nearness of you,your my everything,I'll see you in my dreams,I concencrate on you,the way you look tonight and others.This relaxing album is from 1955 and got a lot of play on beautiful stations in the 60's and 70's.It is in mono but it was ever only recorded in mono so Collectibles couldn't make it stereo but it still sounds good on cd compared to if you had the scratched lp.I also recommend 3 more beautiful music cd's by these bm artist.Melachrino Strings-Drifting and Dreaming 2 cd set 40 tracksJohn Fox under the name The Starry Night Orchestra-Twilight Time 2 cd set.Mantovani-Matovani Scene/Mantovani Sound"