25-578: Sounds Orchestral was a British studio-based easy listening group, assembled by John Schroeder with Johnny Pearson in 1964. John Schroeder had worked with Johnny Pearson previously over at Oriole Records , producing Johnny Pearson's first solo album. Moving to Pye , Schroeder was quick to assemble the line-up which would become Sounds Orchestral, intended to be a competitor group to EMI 's successful Sounds Incorporated . Johnny Pearson (piano), Kenny Clare (drums and percussion), and Tony Reeves (bassist, who later played with Curved Air ) filled out
50-430: A form of break in the song. In commercial popular music , instrumental tracks are sometimes renderings, remixes of a corresponding release that features vocals, but they may also be compositions originally conceived without vocals. One example of a genre in which both vocal/instrumental and solely instrumental songs are produced is blues. A blues band often uses mostly songs that have lyrics that are sung, but during
75-433: A lengthy history stretching back to the decades of the early twentieth century. Easy listening music featured popular vocalists such as Frank Sinatra , Bing Crosby , Dean Martin , Patti Page , Tony Bennett , Nat King Cole , Rosemary Clooney , Doris Day , Perry Como , Engelbert Humperdinck , The Carpenters , The Mills Brothers , The Ink Spots , Julie London , and many others. The somewhat derisive term lounge lizard
100-412: A percentage of vocals, arrangements and tempos to fit various parts of the broadcast day. Easy listening music is often confused with lounge music , but while it was popular in some of the same venues it was meant to be listened to for enjoyment rather than as background sound. The style has been synonymous with the tag "with strings". String instruments had been used in sweet bands in the 1930s and
125-640: A successful solo career on other record labels. He was also music arranger on the UK BBC television programme, Top of the Pops . At the end of the late 1980s, the CD era arrived. A number of Sounds Orchestral albums were re-released for the first time on compact disc. Most notable was the reissue in 1991, of the fourth 1966 Sounds Orchestral album, Sounds Orchestral Play Favourite Classical Melodies . Retitled Classical Classics , but with eight new tracks by Schroeder and Pearson,
150-434: Is performed live by a single instrumentalist or a musical ensemble , which could range in components from a duo or trio to a large big band, concert band or orchestra . In a song that is otherwise sung, a section that is not sung but which is played by instruments can be called an instrumental interlude , or, if it occurs at the beginning of the song, before the singer starts to sing, an instrumental introduction . If
175-660: The UK Singles Chart some three months earlier. The follow-up, "Moonglow" (1965) reached No. 43 in the UK. In Canada, "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" reached #6 on the CHUM Charts and #5 on the RPM AC charts, and " Canadian Sunset " was #25 on RPM's Top 40. Sounds Orchestral made one last original album, in 1977 for K-tel , featuring 20 of the most current and popular television and movie themes. By
200-460: The Ultra-Lounge series of lounge music albums. The lounge style was a direct contradiction to the grunge music that dominated the period. Instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening , a broader sense of
225-649: The Wind " hit No. 1 on the 1–15 May 1965 US Adult Contemporary charts and No. 10 on 8 May 1965 Hot 100 . With Sound Orchestral's peak that week, the British Commonwealth came closer than it ever had or would to a clean sweep of a weekly Hot 100's Top 10 , lacking only a hit at number two instead of "Count Me In" by the US group Gary Lewis & the Playboys . "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" sold over one million copies and achieved gold disc status. The track peaked at No. 5 in
250-542: The World , "The public prominence and profitability of easy listening [in the postwar years] led to its close association with the so-called ' Establishment ' that would eventually be demonized by the rock counterculture ." In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), rock critic Robert Christgau said "semiclassical music is a systematic dilution of highbrow preferences". Easy listening/lounge singers have
275-404: The above were 12-inch LP vinyl. Cassettes were also issued for the later titles. Some of the above have been repeated on CD. Various releases on CD occur through Castle UK and other labels, starting 1989. Easy listening Easy listening (including mood music ) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of
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#1733085766366300-570: The album was dedicated to the memory of Sounds Orchestral members who had died, including McGurk, Clare, and Gilbert. Pearson himself died on 20 March 2011. In Australia, some of these were released through Astor, the forerunner to Polygram. Some releases were released in New Zealand through Astor, others through Polygram, New Zealand. In Canada and the US, Sounds Orchestral was released through Parkway and easy listening independent record labels. From 1970, see also Johnny Pearson and his Orchestra. All
325-432: The band's show, they may also perform instrumental songs which only include electric guitar , harmonica , upright bass / electric bass and drum kit . Some recordings which include brief or non-musical use of the human voice are typically considered instrumentals. Examples include songs with the following: Songs including actual musical—rhythmic, melodic, and lyrical—vocals might still be categorized as instrumentals if
350-533: The close of 1977, Sounds Orchestral had released sixteen different record albums, twelve vinyl 7" singles and three vinyl EPs, besides those in the United Kingdom, which had many differently packaged versions of the latter, particularly singles. Pianist Johnny Pearson is featured on all the Sounds Orchestral albums. When Sounds Orchestral had effectively come to an end in 1977, Pearson had already established
375-467: The developing easy listening genre. Jackie Gleason , a master at this genre, whose first ten albums went gold, expressed the goal of producing "musical wallpaper that should never be intrusive, but conducive". Similarly, in 1956 John Serry Sr. sought to utilize the accordion within the context of a jazz sextet in order to create a soothing mood ideally suited for "low pressure" listening on his album Squeeze Play . Jerry Murad also contributed to
400-598: The early 1970s. Billboard ' s Easy Listening chart morphed into the Adult Contemporary chart in 1979, and continues to this day. During the format's heyday in the 1960s, it was not at all uncommon for easy listening instrumental singles to reach the top of the charts on the Billboard Hot 100 (and stay there for several weeks). Beautiful music, which grew up alongside easy listening music, had rigid standards for instrumentation, e.g., few or no saxophones (at
425-552: The group. Other members included Peter McGurk on bass, who died in June 1968. McGurk's position was assumed by Frank Clark. Generally in the studio, there would be a trio, backed by other instruments led by Tony Gilbert, who would play violin on many of the tracks. On the second last album in 1975, members had changed to Johnny Pearson on piano, Ronnie Verrell on drums, and Russ Stapleford on bass guitar. Sounds Orchestral's version of Vince Guaraldi 's 1962 instrumental " Cast Your Fate to
450-408: The instrumental section highlights the skill, musicality, and often the virtuosity of a particular performer (or group of performers), the section may be called a "solo" (e.g., the guitar solo that is a key section of heavy metal music and hard rock songs). If the instruments are percussion instruments , the interlude can be called a percussion interlude or "percussion break". These interludes are
475-400: The music, including a variety of types of harmonica. The magazines Billboard and Record World featured easy listening singles in independently audited record charts. Generally 40 positions in length, they charted airplay on stations such as WNEW-FM , New York City, WWEZ, Cincinnati, and KMPC , Los Angeles. Record World began their listings January 29, 1967, and ended these charts in
500-405: The road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards , hit songs , non- rock vocals and instrumental covers of selected popular rock songs. It mostly concentrates on music that pre-dates the rock and roll era, characteristically on music from the 1940s and 1950s. It was differentiated from the mostly instrumental beautiful music format by its variety of styles, including
525-474: The time, the saxophone was associated with less refined styles such as jazz and rock and roll , although Billy Vaughn was an exception to the rule), and restrictions on how many vocal pieces could be played in an hour. The easy listening radio format has been generally, but not completely, superseded by the soft adult contemporary format. According to the Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of
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#1733085766366550-593: The vocals appear only as a short part of an extended piece (e.g., " Unchained Melody " (Les Baxter), " Batman Theme ", " TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) ", " Pick Up the Pieces ", "The Hustle", " Fly, Robin, Fly ", " Get Up and Boogie ", " Do It Any Way You Wanna ", and " Gonna Fly Now "), though this definition is loose and subjective. Falling just outside of that definition is " Theme from Shaft " by Isaac Hayes . " Better Off Alone ", which began as an instrumental by DJ Jurgen , had vocals by Judith Pronk , who would become
575-402: The word song may refer to instrumentals. The music is primarily or exclusively produced using musical instruments . An instrumental can exist in music notation , after it is written by a composer ; in the mind of the composer (especially in cases where the composer themselves will perform the piece, as in the case of a blues solo guitarist or a folk music fiddle player); as a piece that
600-452: Was coined then, and less well-known lounge singers have often been ridiculed as dinosaurs of past eras and parodied for their smarmy delivery of standards. In the early 1990s the lounge revival was in full swing and included such groups as Combustible Edison , Love Jones , The Cocktails, Pink Martini and Nightcaps . Alternative band Stereolab demonstrated the influence of lounge with releases such as Space Age Bachelor Pad Music and
625-402: Was the dominant soundtrack to movies of Hollywood's Golden Age. In the 1940s and 1950s strings had been used in jazz and popular music contexts. As examples in the jazz genre, there are recordings of Frank Sinatra . Another example of a practitioner in the popular context was Dinah Washington 's "What a Difference a Day Makes". In the 1950s the use of strings quickly became a main feature of
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