Latest Information - August 2008
Bill Halvorsen's Percy Faith Pages - They're back!
I am delighted to say that Bill Halvorsen has reconsidered and the
good news is that The Percy Faith Pages are back!
For many years they have been a major source of information about
Faith with articles, video clips and many other things to delight
Faith aficionados.
Bill's original pre-computer age listing of Percy's recordings was
the inspiration for this Discography and Bill and I have, over the
years, had much correspondence.
Ever since Percy's death, he has done much to
keep Percy's name alive, and also campaigned to ensure that virtually
all of Percy's commercial recordings are still available in the CD
age, so his decision to restore his WEB site is indeed welcome.
If you haven't yet obtained this essential
collection then immediate action is required!!
Sanctuary Group, the company behind the Living Era label, was bought
last year by Universal who have now closed down the record side of
the business and deleted the entire Living Era catalogue. Copies of
this 2 CD set are now almost impossible to find
“DELICADO” - LIVING ERA CD AJS 278
This 2CD set contains all the commercial recordings Percy Faith made
before he joined Columbia, plus a number of his early recordings for
this label including a stunning composite version of “The Song
From Moulin Rouge” which combines the Felicia Fanders vocal with
the extended orchestral arrangement. This is the first and only time
that his Decca, Majestic and RCA recordings have been available on
CD. Track Listings in CD section.
My thanks to all those who have
contacted me to say how much they have enjoyed and appreciated this collection.
This project was very much a labour of love and is
my own personal tribute to the maestro. All the titles were taken
from my own collection and restored to a very high standard using
CEDAR and other processes.
Some of my restorations from this collection were "stolen"
and issued without my permission by at least two other companies so,
although I deplore the blatant theft of my work, these CDs are now
the only way to obtain at least some of these early Faith tracks.
Delta Extra 26517 "The Percy Faith Orchestra"
is a mixture of orchestral and vocal tracks.
"Silver Strings" - part of "The Soho
Collection" - is a 3CD set from Union Square Music featuring
several orchestras.
A number of people who have bought and enjoyed DELICADO have asked if
I have done the restoration and re-mastering for any other light
music CDs. The answer is "yes" and, for those who want to
know what they are many of them are shown elsewhere on this site.
I would especially recommend a serious look at the Guild GOLDEN
AGE OF LIGHT MUSIC series which now contains 49 CDs of light music
from around the world, dating from the 1920s to the 1950s. Most of it
appears on CD for the first time, and all tracks are digitally
restored to a very high standard using CEDAR and other processes. You
will also find light orchestral and other CDs from the now defunct
Sanctuary "Living Era" catalogue - a treasure trove of
nostalgia featuring every kind of music from the distant and not so
distant past.
In the "Original Albums" section most
recording dates and venues have been added.
Much of this information is thanks to Michel Ruppli
and Ed Novitsky
Unfortunately the CD title listing
is still not fully up to date - I hope to complete this during 2008!
Japanese Re-issues of single albums during 2007
During 2007 Sony Music Entertainment in Japan have re-issued a number
of Faith albums as Limited Edition single CDs in cardboard sleeves
carrying the original LP art work. They are advertised as "DSD
Re-mastered", whatever that means, and some of them, rather
strangely, contain the same album twice, once in stereo and then the
same tracks repeated in mono. Full track listings may be found at:
As I see little point in paying the high costs of these if one
already has the Collectables and Taragon versions which were
re-mastered from the original American master tapes, I have not heard
any of them, although a friend in Japan tells me that the two or
three he has purchased sound very good indeed - better in his opinion
than previous CD issues.
To date 11 complete albums have appeared (MHCP 1264 to 1274) plus one
which contains the soundtrack of "The April Fools" which,
of course, has several Faith tracks. All but this one have had their
details added in the CD section under Sony Japan and in the CD Tracks section
The release last year of the two
Taragon CDs shown below means that, with one exception, EVERY
commercial album recorded by Percy Faith is currently available on CD.
The exception is a 2LP set recorded
"live" in Japan "THE GREAT CONCERT". As this
contains no original material, and both recording and performances
are inferior to the studio albums, this is no great loss and I do not
envisage that anyone will consider it worth re-issuing.
As well as his albums, almost every
commercial single he made is also available now on CD, together with
many additional tracks never previously issued on either singles or
albums. This means that this "latest news" section is
almost redundant but I will leave it in place for now.
I can think of no other artist with
such comprehensive CD coverage, especially when one considers that
all of the CDs containing complete albums, as well as the three CDs
containing his Columbia singles, are currently available. However,
this situation won't last forever so I suggest that, to avoid
disappointment, you order up everything you want while you can.
When stocks run out, I doubt
if any of them will be re-pressed in the forseeable future.
KOGA MELODIES & RYOICHI HATTORI MELODIES
Made in the 1970s exclusively for Japan and
never issued in the USA (although KOGA MELODIES had a limited LP
release in Europe) these are the two rarest and most sought-after
Faith albums. Shown above are the beautiful gatefold sleeves of the
original LPs, reproduced 8" x 4" size in the fold-out
booklet which was written by yours truly.
I spent much time over the years trying to
persuade someone to re-issue these two wonderful albums on CD and at
last it has become a reality. It had been thought that copyright and
other problems would prevent it ever happening but, thanks to the
efforts of Eliot Goshman of Taragon Records and Jeff James of Sony
BMG Music Entertainment (with a little encouragement from me!), both
albums are now available for the world to hear on one wonderful CD.
I do urge you to purchase this CD. As many people have asked me, I
should point out that the music is not particularly
"oriental" sounding - indeed, much of it could well have
been written by any of the great American song writers and, as
always, Percy's orchestrations are superb.
Both albums utilise the full Percy Faith Orchestra - Koga Melodies
sounds more like "traditional" Faith while Ryoichi Hattori
Melodies, dating from 1972, has more of the the later
"modern" Faith sound. Neither album features voices of any kind.
I can't believe that after more than 20
years of searching I still don't have a copy of the original 45
single issue of The Virginian
backed with Kurt Weill's Theme From Mahagonny
on US Columbia 4-42979. Not only that, I don't know anyone who has
this single - if you have a copy, or have ever seen one, please let
me know - even if you don't wish to part with it!
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You should consider joining The Robert Farnon Society
Don't be misled by the name. The
Society's superb quarterly magazine "Journal Into Melody"
covers all aspects of light music - British, European and American as
well as some jazz. The RFS Record Service can supply many light music
CDs not available through record shops. Wherever you are in the
world, why not ask the membership secretary for a free sample copy of
the magazine.