[Fmpro] Nelson Riddle

[bipcress@comcast.net]

Thanks Jeff. I always appreciate the sharing of "the good stuff" info. Just 
off the top of my head, and moving away from Nelson for a moment, check out 
the first Goldfrapp CD called FELT MOUNTAIN - featuring gorgeous, dreamy, 
and daringly youthful recapitulations of classic silver age film music 
voices such as those of Barry and Morricone. Also, their very latest CD 
brings them back to true FELT MOUNTAIN form (on about six of the cuts). God, 
I love what these two kids are doing! - JohnB

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Sultanof" <jeffsultanof at gmail.com>
To: <fmpro at nxport.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 6:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Fmpro] Nelson Riddle


>I worked with Nelson as the editor of his arranging book when I was on 
>staff
> at Warner Bros. Publications. He was a class act.
> By far his best album as an arranger is an album of music from Oklahoma,
> which was issued on CD in the UK. I believe it is still available. Run, do
> not walk, if you want to hear something incredible. Capitol deleted it 
> very
> quickly, and Nelson was not happy about it, holding a grudge for the rest 
> of
> his life.
>
> The next time you listen to Only the Lonely, bear in mind that since he 
> was
> under contract to Capitol, he got union scale for those arrangements, and 
> no
> re-use money when Frank sang them elsewhere. Union scale in those days was
> peanuts.
>
> Another arranger who wrote wonderful, thoughtful endings was Robert 
> Farnon.
> If you are unaware of Bob's work, most of his albums for London (British
> Decca) are available on CD on the Dutton label.
>
> Jeff Sultanof
>
> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 3:15 PM, Mark McKee <mark at unm.edu> wrote:
>
>> My favorite arranger without a doubt.  An inconsistent composer, but 
>> having
>> said that, "Open Highway" (the Rt. 66 theme), is one of my top ten 
>> favorite
>> compositions.  I have a copy of his original score (man that dude was 
>> always
>> flying across the page, you can see it from the "notes", which are these
>> little lines with faint dots at the top, very hard to read. I've copied 
>> the
>> whole score and am covering it with electric guitar taking over the main
>> melody.
>>
>> His arrangements were and still are unreal.  He pretty much single 
>> handedly
>> saved the legendary flat-butt ingrate Sinatra's career with his work on
>> "Only the Lonely", which I believe is the Sinatra album you would take to
>> the bomb shelter, one of those rare moments where Franky had nothing to
>> lose, no entourage, just an artist interpreting songs for art's sake. 
>> Then
>> he came back and he was an asshole again and the world was right.
>>
>> The other thing about Nelson Riddle as a composer and arranger was that 
>> he
>> took such great care with his endings, which can sometimes be an
>> afterthought for others.  He had some of the nicest song endings.
>>
>> Mark McKee
>> Multimedia Development Specialist
>> Course Development Group
>> New Media & Extended Learning
>> The University of New Mexico
>> 505-277-0691
>>
>> "We are a nation of laws, poorly written and randomly enforced."
>> Frank Zappa - American Composer
>>
>> "Now the majors are what they used to think I was: history."
>> Dolly Parton - American Role Model
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> _______________________________________________
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> Best of FMPRO: http://www.fmproquotes.com - Quotes site  by Billy Hale 
> Music
>
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