Amazing Discovery

[nidostar]

I am currently having another bash at digitising many of my vinyl albums. I've just completed I Remember Yesterday by the great Donna Summer which reached No 1 in the UK in 1977. Whilst I was waiting for the album to finish recording I took a look at the sleeve notes. I was amazed, though I suppose I shouldn't have been entirely surprised, to see that guitars are credited to Geoff Bastow and Mats Björklund and bass is credited to Les Hurdle. Of course when I bought this album in the late 70s none of these names would have meant anything to me as I didn't discover library music until the early 2000s. All the same it's a fascinating discovery.

It makes me wonder what other successful commercial releases have been credited to library legends. Any offers?

[Psyclon]

I knew Mats was a well-known name amongst studio musicians. I think the CD album of the MOSAIQUE albums - especially the track "The Zip" - sounds so incredibly Milli Vanilli (and is in general a multi-layered treat to the ears where you have well-panned poly-rhythms going on and discover new things all the time!). Bastow is also pretty wild when it comes to his contribuations to the music industry.

[Bronic]

Without cheating, what I can remember:

Tony Hymas scored a big worldwide hit with his Ph.D. project

Frank Ricotti did percussion on Lucio Battisti's Una Donna Per Amico during his peak 70's run.

This obscure but brilliant synthpop album by Italian singer Flavio Paulin has its surprising hard electronic edge coming from Amedeo Tommasi.

And I keep seeing names tied to the acclaimed Magma/Weidorje bands from the Zeuhl scene in French library especially the prominent bassist Jannick Top. It's scary music very different from his library work.

[apmnut]

Valentino's Walter Murphy had a huge hit with a disco arrangement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which even wound up on the soundtrack for "Saturday Night Fever"!

[BenKirb]

Valentino's Walter Murphy had a huge hit with a disco arrangement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which even wound up on the soundtrack for "Saturday Night Fever"!

He also composed the Family Guy theme song!

[Retronic]

I watched the ABBA Switzerland TV special the other day and Dick Walter and someone else we know but I forget who were musical directors or such like in it.  Dave Gold was a regular on the Muppet Show and Johnny Pearson orchestrated the Top of the Pops shows in the 70’s in the UK.

[nidostar]

I watched the ABBA Switzerland TV special the other day and Dick Walter and someone else we know but I forget who were musical directors or such like in it.  Dave Gold was a regular on the Muppet Show and Johnny Pearson orchestrated the Top of the Pops shows in the 70’s in the UK.

Yes of course. And apart from Sleepy Shores, the theme to Owen MD, Pearson also penned Heather which featured on the Carpenters’ Now And Then album. Though I think it is less common to see mention of a library composer in album credits as a performer?

[Lord Thames]

Heather was a KPM track, Autumn Reverie, that Richard Carpenter heard on an advert and fell in love with - Johnny Pearson later conducted the orchestra when they did a show for the BBC.

The Peppers, who had a hit with Pepper Box in the 70s, were basically the house band at TeleMusic at the time

[bardwell64]

One of my favourite instrumental albums in the early to mid 1980s was James Last's "Seduction". I honestly wish he'd made more albums of this style.

However, fast forward about 35 years, and I was listening to Himiko Kikuchi and some of her music which had featured on BBC Ceefax tapes in the UK, and I noticed the name Ernie Watts on saxophone. I noticed his style was similar to the sax on James Last's "Seduction", so I looked at the sleeve notes for that album and was amazed to find the name Ernie Watts! All those years and I had never known!

With regard to Geoff Bastow and Mats Björklund on the Donna Summer album, they are great musicians and no surprise to see their names on pop albums, but it's surprising to find both their names together considering one was based in the UK and the other in Germany! They must have sourced their musicians from a world wide database, which is not bad for the 1970s!

[nidostar]

With regard to Geoff Bastow and Mats Björklund on the Donna Summer album, they are great musicians and no surprise to see their names on pop albums, but it's surprising to find both their names together considering one was based in the UK and the other in Germany! They must have sourced their musicians from a world wide database, which is not bad for the 1970s!

I know that Giorgio Moroder who produced I Remember Yesterday was based in Munich during the 70's so I suppose no surprise that he must have come across Björklund during his time there. What I didn't know, and courtesy of Wikipedia (before anyone thinks I'm a know-it-all!!), was that despite his Yorkshire roots Geoff Bastow was also based in Germany for most of his career and in Munich during the late 70's. Apparently he collaborated with Moroder on a number of projects. Bastow died in Berlin in 2007 aged just 57 and his grave is on the Westfriedhof in Munich.

[stackjackson]

As I recall, Donna Summer was a regular session vocalist for the libraries.

[Yohanes Salomo]

Valentino's Walter Murphy had a huge hit with a disco arrangement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which even wound up on the soundtrack for "Saturday Night Fever"!

He also composed the Family Guy theme song!

I know right?! I agree with you guys! He was my number one favorite composer!

[nidostar]

As I recall, Donna Summer was a regular session vocalist for the libraries.

Brilliant! Every post here lives up to the title of the thread!
And yes, Wikipedia again mentions "while working as a model part-time and backing singer in Munich, [Donna] Summer met producer Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte during a recording session for Three Dog Night at Musicland Studios." Seems it was all happening in Munich back then.

[Lord Thames]

As I recall, Donna Summer was a regular session vocalist for the libraries.

She sang on Peter Thomas' soundtrack for 11 Uhr 20 - I think she was still in the German cast of Hair at that point

[Psyclon]

Mats, according to an interview, also mentioned how well-developed the German recording scene/studio musician scene was back in the 70s and 80s. I mean, just from the libraries alone, SONOTON, COLOURSOUND, INTERSOUND and the likes pioneered (with SONOTON bringing the concept of underscores into play if I remember correctly). He also never actually met Donna Summer though and for Boney M. it took him 2 years to actually meet them in person. Whilst those names are featured on the sleeves of hot sellers and associated a lot with known library musicians, most of the stuff seems to be pretty "grounded" studio work. The aforementioned "Farian-esque" sound of the HAPPY RECORDS albums he contributed (I just re-listened "MOSAIQUE 2") are just another sign that they "just made music" for whoever requested them and if not, they'd produce something on their own - library music. That is what I gather from that. I often pondered what these people do. Living only off of the licenses  -  I always doubted that's enough.