FrDougal9000
08-06-2019, 12:25 PM
Hey there, everyone! I hope you're all doing well, and that y'all had a lovely weekend! Today, I've got an album upload that I'm really excited to show y'all! Not only is it for a fairly obscure album of British TV theme tunes from the 70s that hasn't seen much exposure elsewhere, but it's also the first time that I've truly collaborated with someone to make this happen! The album was purchased and ripped by Tangotreats himself (along with him scanning the covers included in the upload; my contribution was the idea to rip this particular album and paying for half of the purchase), so you know what that means - it's time for a Co-Production post! I've included write-ups from both Tango and myself where we discuss different aspects of this album, so it'll hopefully be an entertaining read in addition to the great music!
A Tangotreats / FrDougal9000 Co-Production
Sixteen Small Screen Greats, featuring Ronnie Hazlehurst & His Orchestra
Composed by Ronnie Hazlehurst, Dudley Simpson, Kenyon Emrys-Roberts, Benson & Lewis, Alexander Faris, Robert Farnon, Johnny Mandel, Wilfred Josephs, and Yannis Markopoulos
FLAC:
https://mega.nz/#!lWRW2C6T!lZz2VA85s_HmM4PkYslzHv3PQ1HtvUtXvge6fnF50dI
http://www.mediafire.com/file/4hkhkerlxn4fzeu/SSSG_FLAC.zip/file
MP3:
https://mega.nz/#!ALwFiCoJ!ioa0E8Q2enaoJOsBAlH72NPM0IAYsxlQ3MeOAPoaGaQ
http://www.mediafire.com/file/vn7bvhbrb786ugu/SSSG_MP3.zip/file
(Included with the album are scans of the album's cover and vinyl sides, along with notes on who composed what since the album only lists their surnames.)
Tango's Thoughts:
"Most of you will probably be eyeing this album suspiciously, thinking "Ronnie who? Who the hell is that? What's this about?" and you might be tempted to skip over it - particularly if you're put off by the dire 1970s cover art... But do give it a try - this is a very fun 45 minutes.
Ronnie Hazlehurst was EVERYWHERE from the late 1960s when he became Light Entertainment Music Director at the BBC until his semi-retirement in the 1990s... but arguably his "golden age" was the 1970s during which he wrote some of the most recognisable, and most popular TV theme tunes of all time. He was known for dropping in musical jokes into his themes - most famously in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, where the entire theme spells out the name of the show in Morse code. A phenomenal composer, a master tunesmith, and a highly sought-after arranger and conductor, Ronnie Hazlehurst had it all. Though he retired from the BBC in the mid 1990s, he stayed on as composer for long-running gentle country comedy "Last of the Summer Wine" until his death in 2007, writing its iconic theme tune and scoring every episode to picture from 1973 until 2007 and recording it with a live 12-piece chamber orchestra. After he died, Nigel Hess and Jim Parker shared scoring duties recording with the same ensemble until 2010 when the show came to an end.
There's a bit of everything here. Hazlehurst's own themes form the backbone of the album, with Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, The Rise And Fall Of Reginald Perrin, Last Of The Summer Wine, The Two Ronnies, Happy Ever After, I Didn't Know You Cared, and The Other One all making an appearance. Other popular themes of the era are interspersed - Yannis Markopoulos' lovely "Who Pays The Ferryman?" particularly stands out for me.
It's very much of its era... but an era where every TV show had a theme, something you could whistle, something you would remember... Even if you've never heard of any of these shows, Hazlehurst's band is great and the music is all tuneful and well worth a shot.
Technical notes: This vinyl was in very nice condition, except for the eighth track of Side A (Secret Army) which was awfully crackly. The nature of this album - close-miked brass, funky 70s drumkit, and so on, made usual noise reduction techniques difficult to impossible. After careful and repeated listening, a great deal of testing, I decided to scale them right back and work on the worst of the noise manually. In cases where there removing the noise would have hurt the musical content, the musical content won every time. To complicate matters further, the record is tightly filled (25 minutes on side A, 21 minutes on side B) and cut very hot.
The end result is a deliciously dynamic, open-sounding recordng - albeit one which wears its vinyl credentials a little more proudly than I would usually release.
Finally, thank you to FrDougal9000 for his collaboration... it was a pleasure to work on this album!"
Dougal's Thoughts:
"Since Tango largely talked about Hazlehurst, I'll compliment his thoughts by writing about the album overall and the works of other composers.
Something I especially like about this album is the mix of themes from both sitcoms and dramas. In addition to the programmes Tango mentioned above, you're also getting themes from Blake's 7, Secret Army (which is perhaps best known for serving as the inspiration for the farcical 80s comedy Allo Allo), the 1975 version of Poldark, Wings, Who Pays The Ferryman?, The Duchess of Duke Street, I, Claudius and even M.A.S.H.!
What's just as interesting is that these were all created by other composers, which shows off their particular talents while also providing an introduction to their work:
-Dudley Simpson (best known for scoring many Doctor Who serials in the 60s and 70s)
-Kenyon Emrys-Roberts (mainly worked with the BBC as a music composer for their TV projects and library music, including To Serve Them All My Days and the 1977 adaptation of Dracula)
-Alexander Faris (composed the theme to the original Upstairs, Downstairs along with many musicals and operas, and helped to revive interest in Jacques Offenbach's operettas)
-Robert Farnon (composed the soundtracks for 40+ films, along with three full-length symphonies and Cascades to the Sea, among many other classical works)
-Johnny Mandel (a composer and arranger for soundtracks, jazz and pop songs, with Suicide Is Painless being his most famous work as the theme for the M.A.S.H. film and TV series)
-Wilfred Josephs (a very prolific composer with a lot of experience in both soundtracks and concert works)
-Yannis Markopoulos (a Greek composer who worked mainly in classical works)
(Benson & Lewis seems to be the odd duck, since I can't find any info on them besides them composing music for sports programmes during the 60s and 70s.)
This also allows for a mix of genres and moods that'll appeal to different tastes. Many of Hazlehurst's tunes have a strong 70's funk sensibility, while the likes of Farnon's Secret Army and Roberts' Poldark are more classically driven themes with an emphasis on establishing their show's respective moods (though they still manage to feature memorable melodies). Blake's 7 goes for a mix of traditional bombastic sci-fi with synthized instruments along with a more jazzy middle section, Wings features a more intimate performance that enhances its nostalgic theme, and Who Pays The Ferryman? is easily the most distinct of the pieces with its flamenco guitars, complete lack of brass, and its slow build up with just strings and the percussion.
As an aside, I'm fairly certain that the theme songs not composed by Hazlehurst were arranged or performed specifically for this album, since there's elements in the instrumentation or arrangement that don't appear in the versions featured in the shows themselves. (The biggest tell is in Who Pays The Ferryman?, which is played at a slower pace than the show's arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjulErof-_w)
Overall, it's an excellent album that's actually gotten me a bit interested in checking out some of these shows (especially Poldark, with its gorgeous theme tune that far outclasses the 2015 version's theme; despite my general fondness for Anne Dudley's work on that series), and Tango has done a fantastic job mastering it to make for a quality listen. Massive thanks to him for indulging my idea and taking it this far that people will be able to enjoy these classic theme tunes!
I hope you enjoy the music, and that you have a lovely day! :)"
A Tangotreats / FrDougal9000 Co-Production
Sixteen Small Screen Greats, featuring Ronnie Hazlehurst & His Orchestra
Composed by Ronnie Hazlehurst, Dudley Simpson, Kenyon Emrys-Roberts, Benson & Lewis, Alexander Faris, Robert Farnon, Johnny Mandel, Wilfred Josephs, and Yannis Markopoulos
FLAC:
https://mega.nz/#!lWRW2C6T!lZz2VA85s_HmM4PkYslzHv3PQ1HtvUtXvge6fnF50dI
http://www.mediafire.com/file/4hkhkerlxn4fzeu/SSSG_FLAC.zip/file
MP3:
https://mega.nz/#!ALwFiCoJ!ioa0E8Q2enaoJOsBAlH72NPM0IAYsxlQ3MeOAPoaGaQ
http://www.mediafire.com/file/vn7bvhbrb786ugu/SSSG_MP3.zip/file
(Included with the album are scans of the album's cover and vinyl sides, along with notes on who composed what since the album only lists their surnames.)
Tango's Thoughts:
"Most of you will probably be eyeing this album suspiciously, thinking "Ronnie who? Who the hell is that? What's this about?" and you might be tempted to skip over it - particularly if you're put off by the dire 1970s cover art... But do give it a try - this is a very fun 45 minutes.
Ronnie Hazlehurst was EVERYWHERE from the late 1960s when he became Light Entertainment Music Director at the BBC until his semi-retirement in the 1990s... but arguably his "golden age" was the 1970s during which he wrote some of the most recognisable, and most popular TV theme tunes of all time. He was known for dropping in musical jokes into his themes - most famously in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, where the entire theme spells out the name of the show in Morse code. A phenomenal composer, a master tunesmith, and a highly sought-after arranger and conductor, Ronnie Hazlehurst had it all. Though he retired from the BBC in the mid 1990s, he stayed on as composer for long-running gentle country comedy "Last of the Summer Wine" until his death in 2007, writing its iconic theme tune and scoring every episode to picture from 1973 until 2007 and recording it with a live 12-piece chamber orchestra. After he died, Nigel Hess and Jim Parker shared scoring duties recording with the same ensemble until 2010 when the show came to an end.
There's a bit of everything here. Hazlehurst's own themes form the backbone of the album, with Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, The Rise And Fall Of Reginald Perrin, Last Of The Summer Wine, The Two Ronnies, Happy Ever After, I Didn't Know You Cared, and The Other One all making an appearance. Other popular themes of the era are interspersed - Yannis Markopoulos' lovely "Who Pays The Ferryman?" particularly stands out for me.
It's very much of its era... but an era where every TV show had a theme, something you could whistle, something you would remember... Even if you've never heard of any of these shows, Hazlehurst's band is great and the music is all tuneful and well worth a shot.
Technical notes: This vinyl was in very nice condition, except for the eighth track of Side A (Secret Army) which was awfully crackly. The nature of this album - close-miked brass, funky 70s drumkit, and so on, made usual noise reduction techniques difficult to impossible. After careful and repeated listening, a great deal of testing, I decided to scale them right back and work on the worst of the noise manually. In cases where there removing the noise would have hurt the musical content, the musical content won every time. To complicate matters further, the record is tightly filled (25 minutes on side A, 21 minutes on side B) and cut very hot.
The end result is a deliciously dynamic, open-sounding recordng - albeit one which wears its vinyl credentials a little more proudly than I would usually release.
Finally, thank you to FrDougal9000 for his collaboration... it was a pleasure to work on this album!"
Dougal's Thoughts:
"Since Tango largely talked about Hazlehurst, I'll compliment his thoughts by writing about the album overall and the works of other composers.
Something I especially like about this album is the mix of themes from both sitcoms and dramas. In addition to the programmes Tango mentioned above, you're also getting themes from Blake's 7, Secret Army (which is perhaps best known for serving as the inspiration for the farcical 80s comedy Allo Allo), the 1975 version of Poldark, Wings, Who Pays The Ferryman?, The Duchess of Duke Street, I, Claudius and even M.A.S.H.!
What's just as interesting is that these were all created by other composers, which shows off their particular talents while also providing an introduction to their work:
-Dudley Simpson (best known for scoring many Doctor Who serials in the 60s and 70s)
-Kenyon Emrys-Roberts (mainly worked with the BBC as a music composer for their TV projects and library music, including To Serve Them All My Days and the 1977 adaptation of Dracula)
-Alexander Faris (composed the theme to the original Upstairs, Downstairs along with many musicals and operas, and helped to revive interest in Jacques Offenbach's operettas)
-Robert Farnon (composed the soundtracks for 40+ films, along with three full-length symphonies and Cascades to the Sea, among many other classical works)
-Johnny Mandel (a composer and arranger for soundtracks, jazz and pop songs, with Suicide Is Painless being his most famous work as the theme for the M.A.S.H. film and TV series)
-Wilfred Josephs (a very prolific composer with a lot of experience in both soundtracks and concert works)
-Yannis Markopoulos (a Greek composer who worked mainly in classical works)
(Benson & Lewis seems to be the odd duck, since I can't find any info on them besides them composing music for sports programmes during the 60s and 70s.)
This also allows for a mix of genres and moods that'll appeal to different tastes. Many of Hazlehurst's tunes have a strong 70's funk sensibility, while the likes of Farnon's Secret Army and Roberts' Poldark are more classically driven themes with an emphasis on establishing their show's respective moods (though they still manage to feature memorable melodies). Blake's 7 goes for a mix of traditional bombastic sci-fi with synthized instruments along with a more jazzy middle section, Wings features a more intimate performance that enhances its nostalgic theme, and Who Pays The Ferryman? is easily the most distinct of the pieces with its flamenco guitars, complete lack of brass, and its slow build up with just strings and the percussion.
As an aside, I'm fairly certain that the theme songs not composed by Hazlehurst were arranged or performed specifically for this album, since there's elements in the instrumentation or arrangement that don't appear in the versions featured in the shows themselves. (The biggest tell is in Who Pays The Ferryman?, which is played at a slower pace than the show's arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjulErof-_w)
Overall, it's an excellent album that's actually gotten me a bit interested in checking out some of these shows (especially Poldark, with its gorgeous theme tune that far outclasses the 2015 version's theme; despite my general fondness for Anne Dudley's work on that series), and Tango has done a fantastic job mastering it to make for a quality listen. Massive thanks to him for indulging my idea and taking it this far that people will be able to enjoy these classic theme tunes!
I hope you enjoy the music, and that you have a lovely day! :)"