PENELOPE / BACHELOR IN PARADISE

Label: FSMCD Vol.7 No.18
Date: 1966 / 1961
Tracks: 63
Time = 149:09

2 CD Set

World premiere of two complete soundtracks from early sixties comedies with interesting common musical link - John Williams scores PENELOPE, Henry Mancini scores BACHELOR IN PARADISE - former plays piano on many famous albums by latter! Both scores offer plethora of bright melodies, tuneful title songs, zippy chase pieces, upbeat romantic ideas, so forth. PENELOPE offers both original MGM album sequence plus entire previously-unreleased background score. BACHELOR IN PARADISE includes Mack David/Henry Mancini title song plus complete score. Bubbling woodwinds, breezy cup-muted brass, soaring strings, "walking" bass, xylophone on melody line, other vintage Mancini-isms come from this era. Interesting thoughts: young-ish Mancini comes off triumphant PETER GUNN, MR. LUCKY projects then tackles feature films with Bing Crosby's HIGH TIMES and Bob Hope's BACHELOR IN PARADISE. Johnny Williams plays piano on both early triumphs. Ahead for Mancini are all those chestnuts: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, HATARI, CHARADE, PINK PANTHER, so forth. Both composers - of course - move on to legendary careers! Both scores presented in stereo from original elements. FSM "grand poobah" Lukas Kendall does exhaustive double duty with excellent album production, solid liner notes. Fans of STAR WARS maestro will enjoy tuneful early voice of their hero. Fans of "Hank" will cherish his still-fresh sounds. Everybody comes away happy. Knockout!