Library Music Themes
General Sharing & Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Lord Thames on February 08, 2024, 11:52:03 PM
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This thread was inspired by the discovery of a piece in the FDH library called It's Spring Again, written by Bruce Forsyth.
Bruce Forsyth? The legendary entertainer and game show host described by no less an authority than Kermit The Frog as 'a variety show all by himself'? Yes, that Bruce Forsyth!
It's Spring Again appears on FDH 249, and is the only library track Brucie wrote, being an instrumental version of one of his songs which the man himself recorded as a single with the Geoff Love Orchestra in 1960.
So, are there any other unlikely library music composers out there?
Well, there's Spike Milligan - the massively influential comedian and writer, who had a couple of tracks released by Maximus Music, no doubt due to his long-standing songwriting partnership with Ed Welch who also appears on the same album: discogs.com/release/11705333-Mike-Maxfield-In-The-Mood
Redvers Kyle - who wrote a couple of tracks for KPM and Harmonic, his day job was as a continuity announcer for Rediffusion, and later Yorkshire Television. There is a brief glimpse of him at 2'53" in this incredibly rare clip from 1968:
American comedian Red Skelton composed and conducted a number of tracks for Rediffusion's Reditune background music service, which while not strictly library music could well have ended up as such due to Rediffusion's dabbling in the field: discogs.com/release/8166099-Red-Skelton-Raindrops-On-A-Balalaika
Are there any other surprising people with a library skeleton in their closet? I don't know, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway!
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There are two i think of when it comes to this...
Miklós Rózsa - Composer for Ben-Hur, appeared in Paxton, i don't know how many tracks he made for the label but he *was* in there, atmosphere didn't reissue his tracks though.
Carey Blyton - A more common composer in the library field but still interesting, appeared in audio, conroy (As Roy Green) & i think Impress? The reason for why he's so notable is because he composed the theme for bananas in pyjamas.
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Dave Rose, the bandleader who penned the instrumental hits "Holiday for Strings" and "The Stripper", wrote a ton of cues for Capitol's library uncredited (those tracks were credited to Bill Loose and John Seely).
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If you look at Oscar winner Anne Dudley's career from Wikipedia it completely omits her early work for Amphonic which she made half a dozen albums.
French composer and maestro François Rauber worked with the greatest historical names in French music and soundtracks but also made releases for Auvidis.
As stated on the other topic, as a fan of Magma's 'VanderTop' phase I was quite shocked by Janick Top (under alias) doing some quite pedestrian music for April Orchestra.
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Well, as for people whose day jobs were musicians, Jacques Brel somehow managed to get a track out on KPM, while a Serge Gainsbourg composition (avec Robert Viger) was released by de Wolfe.
Sacha Distel had a composition released by KPM too, but that was in his jazz guitarist days before he hit stardom as a heartthrob balladeer.
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There are two i think of when it comes to this...
Miklós Rózsa - Composer for Ben-Hur, appeared in Paxton, i don't know how many tracks he made for the label but he *was* in there, atmosphere didn't reissue his tracks though.
Carey Blyton - A more common composer in the library field but still interesting, appeared in audio, conroy (As Roy Green) & i think Impress?
Blyton never was in Impress, but he was in JW Theme Music, alongside Boosey & Hawkes.
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Blyton never was in Impress, but he was in JW Theme Music, alongside Boosey & Hawkes.
I recall seeing an album of his for sale on the Apollo Sound website also.
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I was very shocked when I found out that Rogério Duprat, one of the most important names in Brazilian music and one of the organizers of the Tropicalia movement, composed tracks for the KPM label.
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I corrected my comment, I typed Raimundo instead of Rogério.
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Another one I just remembered: Charles Strouse, who wrote the music to such famous Broadway shows as "Bye, Bye Birdie" and "Annie", ghost-wrote some cues for Jack Shaindlin's Langlois Filmusic library.
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Here's one I remembered: Anthony Phillips, former guitar player with Genesis from 1967-1970, did library work with Atmosphere, Rouge, Themes International, Bruton, and Chappell to name a few.
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Which reminds me, the last vinyl L.P. released by Standard Music was by Brian Eno - not an easy one to find!
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And very expensive-- even the CD is mega bucks
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Which reminds me, the last vinyl L.P. released by Standard Music was by Brian Eno - not an easy one to find!
And very expensive-- even the CD is mega bucks
So who has it ripped? ;)
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Still another: George Martin, producer for the Beatles, had a cue called "Morning Ride" featured in a Standard Music Library album (ESL 113).
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And speaking of Brian Eno (and, by association, British rock in general...), a couple of the more surprising names pop up:
Patrick Campbell-Lyons (he of the duo Nirvana [NOT the Kurt Cobain version!]) did one for Bruton called "Ireland" (https://www.discogs.com/master/1793108-Patrick-Campbell-Lyons-Ireland);
and Henry Marsh (of the 70s group Sailor ["A Glass of Champagne"]) did a couple for Carlin that included his cohort on the bass side of the Nickelodeon, Phil Pickett
(https://www.discogs.com/artist/371653-Henry-Marsh).
Now if only Bill Nelson did a couple... ;)
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Talk about 'I spoke too soon'! Remember my comment about if only Bill Nelson (Be-Bop Deluxe) had done a library album?
Silly me. He did! :D (Matter of fact, it was even listed here!) It was called "Chameleon". I'm listening to it now.
Good stuff!
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And speaking of Be-Bop Deluxe... Who knew their keyboardist, Andy Clark, put out so many library albums? Certainly not me... and I'm listening to one right now on YouTube! (It's a KPM offering called "The Next One", and it's good!) :o
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Maury Laws, who was the musical director for the Rankin/Bass studio known for their various holiday specials, has a single cue on the Chappell library ("The Accuser" on C. 938).
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Maurice Jarre, known for his film work (GRAND PRIX, for example) wrote some tracks for KPM.
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And his son Jean-Michel's first album was released on Synchro-Fox!
KPM was offered Oxygene as a part of a package from the Francis Dreyfus catalogue, but Robin Philips turned it down
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Apparently, Billy May wrote several tracks for Sonoton.