Search - keith richard, Aranbee Pop Symphony Orchestra :: Today's Pop Symphony

The history of rock music's occasional flirtations with the symphony orchestra is as long as it is spotted. But this odd, inaccurately billed (Keith Richards' participation was minimal) 1966 collection was one of the first, the brainchild of Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, whose ambitions to become something akin to the UK's Phil Spector had already produced some Stones' covers via the Andrew Oldham Orchestra. Now punningly renamed the Arranbee Pop Symphony this collection follows the same tack, covering artists such as the Beatles, Sonny & Cher, Moody Blues, Four Seasons, and Wilson Pickett. The Stones, of course, are thick in the mix, with three of the four songs covered here being unreleased at the time of the album's production; Richards' involvement was largely for promotional purposes. By today's standards Oldham's middle Baroque, starched-collar arrangements would be considered either ironic or downright kitschy, though his string quartet driven "Play With Fire" and "Mother's Little Helper" are imbued with a strange, intriguing drama. This remastered edition's bonus cut, a cover of Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long," also features a single verse inexplicably sung by Mick Jagger. --Jerry McCulley