Percy Faith

So here’s an example of the “emergency CD.”

I picked up Percy Faith’s Greatest Hits at some library or other, committed it to tape like I always do, and everyone was happy. Then somehow or other, I managed accidently to erase part of it. So I ended up buying the CD from the HMV store in Garden City to replace the tracks I’d trashed.

That’s it – whole story. Percy Faith was Canadian, just to let you know, and he was a conductor and arranger for Columbia Records for years and years. And he made his own recordings of course, major elevator music. He put 6 records into the top 100 between 1956 and 1960, two of which were included on his greatest hits, one of which (Young Lovers) I got from the single.

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Percy Faith:

• Theme From “A Summer Place” – It doesn’t get smoother than this. This song veritably defined “crossover,” reaching number 1 on the MOR charts and the R & B charts at the same time that it reached #1 on the pop charts, which it was for 9 weeks in the winter and spring of 1960. The record was much bigger than the movie from which it came, which starred Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue. The Letterman sang it and put it back on the charts in 1965.
• Non Domenticar (Don’t Forget) – A hit for Nat King Cole.
• Till – We’ve heard this, haven’t we. Tony Bennett did it, and Mantovani. Faith’s version was a hit in the summer of 1957; The Angels did it in 1961 (called it ‘Til) and The Vogues did it in 1968. I’ve said it before, you’d have to have a heart of stone for this song not to make you melt.
• All My Love – Patti Page did this. Another beautiful song.
• Jamaican Rhumba – Maybe it’s a rhumba, but it doesn’t sound all that Jamaican.
• Delicado
• The Song From Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart) – Felicia Sanders on vocal. In the grand style of jazz bands / orchestras (not that this is jazz) she comes in half way through. This was a number 1 hit back around 1954. There was a new movie that has nothing to do with this.
• Tropical Merengue
• They Can’t Take That Away From Me
• The Rain In Spain (From the Broadway Production “My Fair Lady”) – I guess the title has all the information you need.
• The Syncopated Clock
• Swedish Rhapsody (Midsummer Vigil) – We heard this by Mantovani.
• Theme For Young Lovers – This was the follow up to Summer Place, it was a bit of a soundalike, and it snuck into the top 40 in the summer of 1960.