TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE

1. America

2. Sound of Music

3. I Don't Know How To Love Him

4. I Could Have Danced All Night

5. People

6. As Long As He Needs Me

SIDE TWO

1. Cabaret

2. Day By Day

3. If I Were A Rich Man

4. Wand'rin' Star

5. Lost Horizon

6. Impossible Dream

Produced by : Norman Newell
Assistant Producer : Gil King
Recording Engineer : Peter Bown

 

The success or otherwise of a film musical depends totally on the quality of the music and lyrics which are featured on it.

On this album Geoff Love has selected the best-known and most successful songs from the dozen most prominent film musicals of the last decade and has added his own unique brand of arrangement to each of these items to provide an indispensable collection of Big Musical Movie Themes.
 

When the score of "The Sound of Music" comprises a large number of songs of such consistently high achievement, what better one to choose than the gracefully evocative title song?  It is fitting also that Geoff should select two items from the prolific and talented partnership of Lerner and Loewe, the excitement and vivacity of "I Could have Danced all Night" from "My Fair Lady" contrasting neatly with the more subdued philosophical hit "Wand'rin' Star" from "Paint Your Wagon", which the gravel tones of Lee
Marvin hoisted high into the best-selling singles charts.
 

The current vogue of religious rock-musicals gave rise to "Godspell" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" and Geoff has taken a song from each of these new films to include among his collection.  Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Time Rice's "I don't know how to love him" shares the same essentially plaintive and gentle mood with "Day by Day", the latter being the first and most prominent
hit song from "Godspell".

The man responsible for the new film production of "Jesus Christ Superstar", Norman Jewison, was also the producer of the highly successful and long-running film musical "Fiddler on the Roof", starring Topol, whose most famous song "If I were a Rich Man", featured by Geoff on this album, was one of the high spots of both the stage and screen versions of this musical.  A similar popularity was maintained in the transfer from stage to screen of the many times recorded "America" from "West Side Story" and of the scintillating title theme from "Cabaret".  This film, which justly established Liza Minnelli in the public eye as a superstar in her own right, re-creates with superb feeling the atmosphere of a Berlin night-club in the 1930s; and we are only too happy to heed the
bidding of our compelling Master of Ceremonies and "leave our troubles on the doorstep" as we enter and come under the spell of the cabaret.
 

Since Burt Bacharach and Hal David teamed up in 1957 they have written 192 songs together, but surprisingly their score for the film "Lost Horizon", which was chosen to feature in the Royal Film Performance of 1973, marked the first occasion on which they had composed a complete screen musical.  It is the title theme that Geoff Love has chosen to play on this occasion as he invites us to take a musical journey to Shangri-La.
 

The three songs which serve to complete Geoff's selection on this album have all become firmly established as perennial favourites in their own right.  The reputation and success of "The Impossible Dream" preceded the arrival of the film "Man of La Mancha" in this country; Barbra Streisand's definitive rendering of "People" has established the song as one which nearly all popular musical artists include in their repertoire, and "As long as he needs me" sounds as appropriate and relevant today as when Lionel Bart
first conceived it in the context of the enormously successful "Oliver".
 

All the themes played here by the Geoff Love Orchestra owe a large part of their popularity to big musical film productions.  Individually they stand out as major compositions in their own right, collectively they form a superb tribute to the music of the cinema by this country's most consistently popular orchestra.

 

Big Musical Movie Themes
Played By Geoff Love And His Orchestra
12" Vinyl, 1979
Music For Pleasure, SMFP 50059
 

This album was generously contributed by Matt Jeffery.