The Hollyridge Strings - Light In The Piazza

This one's for you Chuck. Good friends deserve to get a little present now and then :)!

THE HOLLYRIDGE STRINGS
The Hollyridge Strings was a catchall name for the group of largely interchangeable studio musicians who recorded a series of easy listening instrumental albums for Capitol Records at the peak of the British Invasion era. The project was masterminded by music industry veteran Stu Phillips, a composer and producer who previously headlined his own series of Capitol easy listening records including Organ and Strings in Stereo before leaving the label in 1960 to become head of A&R for Colpix Records, where he produced a series of pop smashes including the Marcels' "Blue Moon," Shelley Fabares' "Johnny Angel," Paul Petersen's "My Dad," and James Darren's "Goodbye, Cruel World." In 1964 he returned to Capitol, where his familiarity and dexterity with the rock idiom made him the logical choice to cash in on Beatlemania with a record targeted at a more mature audience; the first Hollyridge Strings record, The Beatles Song Book, was a Top Ten hit, and resulted in similar collections of hits by Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons, and Simon & Garfunkel. At one point in time, no fewer than three different Hollyridge Strings LPs hovered in the Billboard Top 20, and their success spurred copycat projects from labels including Vee-Jay (the Castaway Strings), Liberty (the Sunset Strings), and MGM (the Fantabulous Strings). During his Capitol stint Phillips also headlined his own Feels Like Lovin', a minor classic of '60s soft pop that added vocals to the signature Hollyridge Strings sound.
Mort Garson and Perry Botkin, Jr. were among those who produced, arranged, and conducted the group's recordings. (And Stu Phillips of course)
(From the artist biography by Jason Ankeny)

LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Light in the Piazza is a 1962 American romantic drama film directed by Guy Green and starring Olivia de Havilland, Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton, and Barry Sullivan. Based on the 1960 novel The Light in the Piazza by Elizabeth Spencer, the film is about a beautiful but innocent young American woman traveling in Italy with her mother, and the Italian man they meet while on vacation.
The music for the film was written by Mario Nascembene.
Mario Nascimbene (28 November 1913, Milan, Italy - 6 January 2002, Rome, Italy) was one of the best known Italian film soundtrack composers of the 20th Century. His career spanned six decades, during which time he earned several awards for the innovative contents of his composing style. During his career he composed soundtracks for more than 150 films. Among them were eg "Alexander the Great", "A Farewell to Arms" "Solomon and Sheba" and "Barabbas".

MHO
A gem from the Capitol "treasury room" - highly romantic, with a clear Italian touch added by Maestro Perry Botkin Jr, who proves once more that arranging music for large orchestras was one of his master skills.
We have tried our best to come up with an acceptable sound quality as the original LP isn't in very good shape anymore :) Anyway, we hope you'll still
Enjoy !

Видео The Hollyridge Strings - Light In The Piazza канала Socratess2007