Serenade for Lovers (1969, RECORD 7, SIDE 1)

SIDE 1
AROUND THE WORLD
1. Around the World
(The Pete King Chorale and His Orchestra)
Around the World (Young-Adamson)
Michael Todd's supercolossal movie extravaganza version of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days had a score by Victor Young which won the Academy Award in 1956. The actual title tune, with lyrics by Harold Adamson, failed to be nominated for the Academy Award but, even so, this was a reward ing period for both Young and Adamson, each of whom had been songwriters for more than a quarter of a century. Young, in 1956, wrote the music for a song that was nominated for the Academy Award, "Written on the Wind," while Adamson, in 1957, wrote the lyrics for another Academy Award nominee, "An Affair to Remember."
2. A Swingin' Safari
(Ray Davis and His Button-Down Brass)
A Swingin' Safari (Kaempfert)
One of the essential requisites for a popular instrumental group during the past two decades has been a distinctive "sound"-a sound so readily identifiable that it can be recognized almost instantly by even the most casual listener. Guy Lombardo discovered such a sound almost 45 years ago and, despite the flattery of imitation, has maintained his sound and his iden tity ever since. In recent years the three groups that have had the most distinctive-and therefore the most imitated sounds-have been Billy Vaughn, Bert Kaempfert and Herb Alpert. This song brings these outstanding pop interpreters together. Bert Kaemp fert wrote "A Swingin' Safari," Billy Vaughn popularized it through his recording and here Ray Davis plays it in the inimitable Herb Alpert manner.
3. Brazil
(Morton Gould and His Orchestra)
Brazil (Barroso)
Long before Brazilian music meant bossa nova, it was most apt to mean samba. This samba, originally called "Aquarella do Brasil," was written by one of Brazil's most popular composers in the 1930s, Ary Barroso. Eddy Duchin brought it to the United States, but its most successful American treatment was the very un-Brazilian version played by Jimmy Dorsey's orchestra with a duet by Bob Eberle and Helen O'Connell. Here Morton Gould, who has had a spe cial affinity for music in the Latin vein, both as a conductor and as a composer, plays "Brazil" in an ar rangement that retains the charm and simplicity of the melody while using it as a jumping off point for an orchestral setting that gives unusual color and character to the music.
4. Torna a Surriento
(Neapolitan Mandolins)
Torna a Surriento (De Curtis)
Two brothers, Ernesto de Curtis, a pianist and com poser, and Giovanni Battista de Curtis, a poet and painter, combined their talents to create one of the most pervasively popular songs to come out of that endless well of melody, Naples. In celebration of Sor rento, across the Bay of Naples from the city of Naples and hard by the legendary island of Capri, Ernesto provided the soaring melody and Giovanni the lyric. They wrote their song early in the 20th century, probably in 1902, and its popularity has re mained undiminished since then, not only in its orig inal Neapolitan form but as a vehicle for tenors of every nationality and even as a well-remembered jazz vehicle for Stan Kenton's band.
5. Calcutta
(Ray Davis and His Button-Down Brass)
Calcutta (Gaze-Bradtke)
It took three years and a long succession of title changes before "Calcutta" found the proper form in which to become an international hit. The melody was written in 1958 by one of postwar Germany's most successful popular composers, Heino Gaze. Gaze had been a successful attorney but his song- writing, which started as a hobby, eventually took so much of his time that he gave up the law and devoted himself to music. He first called his tune "Tivoli Melody," then "Take Me Dreaming." Next came a French touch when it was known as "Nicolette" and finally it went German as "Kalkutta Liegt am Ganges." This last title was shortened and Anglicized to "Calcutta" when Lawrence Welk recorded the song in 1961 and made it a hit.
6. Valencia
(Hugo Winterhalter and His Orchestra)
Valencia (Padilla)
American popular music got its first authentic whiff of Spain in 1926 when "Valencia," written by one of Spain's most popular composers, José Padilla, was used as a focal point for the first-act finale of a revue called Great Temptations. "Valencia" reached the United States at an opportune time, capitalizing on the interest in fast marches that had been started by "The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers," introduced by Nikita Balieff in Chauve-Souris in 1922. Along with "Valencia," there was one other significant debut in Great Temptations-a monologuist named Jack Benny made his first Broadway appearance in this revue.