Latest Information - Updated November 2012
November 2012
REAL GONE MUSIC RE-ISSUE TWO CLASSIC FAITH ALBUMS
There's good news and bad news about this 2CD set.
The good news is that it gives us two Faith albums which have not
been available on CD for a long time, both from the original master tapes
"Music Of Christmas" and "Hallelujah!"
(originally released on CD in 1997 with its 1965 reissue title of
"Music Of Christmas Volume 2")
The bad news is that "Music Of Christmas" is re-mastered
from the original 1954 MONO recording, not the 1959 stereo one, and "Hallelujah!"
is a re-mastering of the original stereo recording of 1958, not
the re-mixed version issued on CD in 1997. I, and many
other Faith aficionados,
consider this re-mix (which hasn't been in Sony's catalogue
for over 10 years) to be superior although others, for whose opinions
I have the
greatest respect, prefer the original. For most people
though, simply having this wonderful album available again will be
all that matters.
Despite these reservations it is good that what are regarded by
many as the finest Christmas music albums ever made are available
once more.
As a bonus three of Faith's Christmas singles are included -
Sleigh Ride, Christmas In My Heart and Christmas In Killarney.
Real Gone Music
July 2012
Tape Section Update
Thanks to Mike McKenna a substantial number of cassette catalogue
numbers have been added to the tape listings. However, this
section is still incomplete and further information would be much appreciated.
June 2012
Bill Halvorsen's Percy Faith Pages
Bill Halvorsen's Percy Faith Pages are back! For many years
they have been a major source of information about Percy Faith with
articles, video clips and many other things to delight Faith
aficionados. Bill's original pre-computer age listing of Percy's
recordings was the inspiration for this Discography and Bill and I
have, over the years, had much correspondence.
Bill
Halvorsen's Percy Faith Pages
January 2012
A new section "Previously Unissued"
has been added. It lists Columbia recordings made but not
issued and recordings made for Voice of America and Armed Forces
Radio Service which were never issued commercially. However, some
have now appeared on CD and details of these are given.
November 2011
It has been a long time since I did any serious updating but a recent
e-mail from Volker Rippe pointing out a number of errors and typos
and asking several questions prompted me to take action.
Apart from incorporating Volker's suggestions in the Albums, Singles
and Original Titles sections I have also updated the CD Tracks
listing to include all of the Collectables CDs.
Percy Faith's Christmas Albums
"Hallelujah" (later known as "Music Of Christmas
Volume Two") was re-issued on CD by Sony back in the 1990s but
was only available for one season, unlike "Music Of Christmas
Volume One" and "Christmas Is", both of which are
relatively easy to find. Now Guild have released "Christmas
Celebration" (GLCD 5185) which contains 7 tracks from
"Hallelujah" as well as 2 from "Music Of
Christmas" plus tracks from the Christmas albums of Billy
Vaughn, George Melachrino, The Boston Pops, Mantovani and Wally Stott.
To find out
more about this and other CDs in The Golden Age Of Light Music series
go to my ABCD Enterprises pages.
Guild CDs are
available world-wide via Amazon and other sellers but the easiest
(and cheapest) way of obtaining them is direct from Guild
Percy Faith's recordings for ‘Voice Of
America’ and ‘Armed Forces Radio Service’
During the 1950s Percy made many recordings for use by VOA and
AFRS. Most of these were identical to his commercial recordings
but many were of titles he never recorded commercially, or different
arrangements of commercial recordings. None of these were ever
available to the public but now some of them have been issued by
Guild Music in their "Golden Age Of Light Music" series of CDs.
So far 12 of the titles never recorded commercially have appeared on
two Guild CDs
On Volume One
Balboa
Barcarolle (Vernon Duke); La Bamba De Vera Cruz - Mexican Dance
(Traditional); Ragging The Scales (Edward B. Claypole)
On Volume Two
April Showers
("Bombo") (Louis Silvers; Buddy De Sylva); Deep Blues (from
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra)(Elie Siegmeister) featuring
VINCENT J. ABATO (clarinet); Falling In Love With Love ("The
Boys From Syracuse") (Rodgers; Hart); Hoedown (from
"Rodeo" Suite) (Aaron Copland); In The Still Of The Night
("Rosalie") (Cole Porter); Night Creature (Edward 'Duke'
Ellington) featuring DUKE ELLINGTON (piano); Pavanne (Morton Gould);
The Very Thought Of You (Ray Noble); Why Do I Love You ("Show
Boat") (Jerome Kern; Oscar Hammerstein II)
To find out
more about these and other CDs in The Golden Age Of Light Music
series go to my ABCD Enterprises pages.
Guild CDs are
available world-wide via Amazon and other sellers but the easiest
(and cheapest) way of obtaining them is direct from Guild
Taragon have deleted 2 Percy Faith CDs from their catalogue
The following are no longer in the Taragon catalogue:
TARCD 1074 - Malaguena
TARCD 1076 - Viva + Exotic Strings
If you don't already have Taragon's other Faith CDs you should obtain
them before they too are deleted.
TARCD 1075 - South Pacific + The Sound Of Music
TARCD 1078 - Continental Music + Romantic Music
TARCD 1105 - Football Songs
TARCD 1106 - Koga Melodies + Ryoichi Hattori Melodies
If you haven't yet obtained this essential
collection then immediate action is required!!
Sanctuary Group, the company behind the Living Era label, was bought
in 2007 by Universal who have now closed down the record side of the
business and deleted the entire Living Era catalogue. Copies of this
2 CD set are now very hard to find
“DELICADO” - LIVING ERA CD AJS 278
This 2CD set contains all the commercial recordings Percy Faith made
before he joined Columbia, plus a number of his early recordings for
this label including a stunning composite version of “The Song
From Moulin Rouge” which combines the Felicia Fanders vocal with
the extended orchestral arrangement. This is the first and only time
that his Decca, Majestic and RCA recordings have been available on
CD. Track Listings in CD section.
My thanks to all those who have
contacted me to say how much they have enjoyed and appreciated this collection.
This project was very much a labour of love and is
my own personal tribute to the maestro. All the titles were taken
from my own collection and restored to a very high standard using
CEDAR and other processes.
Some of my restorations from this collection have been
"stolen" and issued without my permission by at least two
other companies so, although I deplore the blatant theft of my work,
these CDs are now the only way to obtain at least some of these early
Faith tracks.
Delta Extra 26517 "The Percy Faith Orchestra"
is a mixture of orchestral and vocal tracks.
"Silver Strings" - part of "The Soho
Collection" - is a 3CD set from Union Square Music featuring
several orchestras.
A number of people who have bought and enjoyed DELICADO have asked if
I have done the restoration and re-mastering for any other light
music CDs. The answer is "yes" and, for those who want to
know what they are many of them are shown elsewhere on this site.
In the "Original Albums" section most
recording dates and venues have been added.
Much of this information is thanks to Michel Ruppli
and Ed Novitsky
Japanese Re-issues of single albums during 2007
During 2007 Sony Music Entertainment in Japan re-issued a number of
Faith albums as Limited Edition single CDs in cardboard sleeves
carrying the original LP art work. They were advertised as "DSD
Re-mastered", whatever that means, and some of them, rather
strangely, contained the same album twice, once in stereo and then
the same tracks repeated in mono.
As I saw little point in paying the high costs of these if one
already had the Collectables and Taragon versions which were
re-mastered from the original American master tapes, I have not heard
any of them, although a friend in Japan tells me that the two or
three he purchased sound very good indeed - better in his opinion
than previous CD issues.
11 complete albums were issued (MHCP 1264 to 1274) plus one which
contained the soundtrack of "The April Fools" which, of
course, has several Faith tracks. All but this one have had their
details added in the CD section under Sony Japan and in the CD Tracks
section but all but one appear to have been deleted as at August 2011.
With one exception, EVERY
commercial album recorded by Percy Faith has now been released on CD
and, until recently, all were still in the catalogues.
The exception is a 2LP set recorded
"live" in Japan "THE GREAT CONCERT". As this
contains no original material, and both recording and performances
are inferior to the studio albums, this is no great loss and I do not
envisage that anyone will consider it worth re-issuing.
As well as his albums, almost every
commercial single he made is also available now on CD, together with
many additional tracks never previously issued on either singles or
albums - I can think of no other orchestra leader with such
comprehensive CD coverage
When stocks run out, as has already
happened with the Taragon CDs mentioned above, I doubt if any
of them will be re-pressed so I suggest that, to avoid
disappointment, you order those you don't have while you can.
KOGA MELODIES & RYOICHI HATTORI MELODIES
Made in the 1970s exclusively for Japan and
never issued in the USA (although KOGA MELODIES had a limited LP
release in Europe) these are the two rarest and most sought-after
Faith albums. Shown above are the beautiful gatefold sleeves of the
original LPs, reproduced 8" x 4" size in the fold-out
booklet which was written by yours truly.
I spent much time over the years trying to
persuade someone to re-issue these two wonderful albums on CD and it
eventually became a reality. It had been thought that copyright and
other problems would prevent it ever happening but, thanks to the
efforts of Eliot Goshman of Taragon Records and Jeff James of Sony
BMG Music Entertainment (with a little encouragement from me!), both
albums are now available for the world to hear on one wonderful CD.
I do urge you to purchase this CD. As many people have asked me, I
should point out that the music is not particularly
"oriental" sounding - indeed, much of it could well have
been written by any of the great American song writers and, as
always, Percy's orchestrations are superb.
Both albums utilise the full Percy Faith Orchestra - Koga Melodies
sounds more like "traditional" Faith while Ryoichi Hattori
Melodies, dating from 1972, has more of the the later
"modern" Faith sound. Neither album features voices of any kind.
I can't believe that after more than 20
years of searching I still don't have a copy of the original 45
single issue of The Virginian
backed with Kurt Weill's Theme From Mahagonny
on US Columbia 4-42979. Not only that, I don't know anyone who has
ever seen this single so, if you have a copy, or can prove it
ever existed, please let me know - even if you don't wish to part
with it!
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You should consider joining The Robert Farnon Society
Don't be misled by the name. The
Society's superb quarterly magazine "Journal Into Melody"
covers all aspects of light music - British, European and American as
well as some jazz. The RFS Record Service can supply many light music
CDs not available through record shops. Wherever you are in the
world, why not ask the membership secretary for a free sample copy of
the magazine.