The Joy of Easy Listening

[mrs_emma_peel]

The Joy of Easy Listening
BBC4 … Sunday 29th May 2011 … 11.00-12.45am
BBC4 … Wednesday 1st June 2011 … 7.30-9.00pm
BBC4 … Wednesday/Thursday 2nd June 2011 … 1.00-2.30am

Just watched a thoroughly enjoyable documentary on the story of easy listening/popular music ... this extremely well-researched programme features a superb range of wonderfully enjoyable popular music from the 1950’s to the 1990’s to date.

The documentary includes the music and arrangements of Stu Phillips, Ray Conniff, Burt Bacharach, Herb Alpert, Henry Mancini, Bert Kaempfert, James Last, The Carpenters, Richard Clayderman, Jimmy Webb, Engelbert Humperdink, The Lighthouse Family, Casino Royale (1967) theme music (Herb Alpert) and the Austin Powers theme music: Soul Bossa Nova ... Quincy Jones conducted by Burt Bacharach.

There are fascinating interviews with Marion Kaempfert (daughter of Bert), Tamara Conniff (daughter of Ray), Monica Mancini (daughter of Henry), James Last, and an extremely emotional interview with Richard Carpenter. There is very brief glimpse of Diana Rigg circa Avengers era 1965-66 in her kitchen and dining room of her modern 1960’s London apartment listening to easy listening music.

Another superb programme from the best channel on television: BBC4.
Emma

Bert Kaempfert Orchestra … A Swingin’ Safari



The Carpenters in Concert 1971 ... Close To You
(Karen Carpenter was just 32 when she died in 1983).



Henry Mancini … It Had Better Be Tonight
(Instrumental version from The Pink Panther 1963)



Henry Mancini … It Had Better Be Tonight
(Fran Jeffries/Meglio Stasere version from The Pink Panther 1963)



James Last … Orange Blossom Special ... Germany Concert 2000



James Last Live … Royal Albert Hall ... London 2007



James Last Orchestra … Romance for Violin in F Major… Beethoven

[Timmy_Lea]

James Last, the man who is to music what anti-matter is to matter!

[IanG]

I saw this documentary and thought it was enjoyable too. Easy listening isn't my favourite genre of music by any means, but I grew up in a household where the radio was always on so I was familiar with a lot of the music featured in the programme. There is some good tunes in the genre, but I must admit that I think the likes of James Last have made some of the most banal rubbish ever.

[vincenzo]

I'm a huge fan of Easy/Lounge (excluding Mr Last I'm afraid) and enjoyed the prog too.

[IanG]

Emma's spot on about BBC4 though and I spread the word about it every chance I get.

[wadey]

Lynn wasn't keen but what a great programme, very, very interesting, loved it !

[julian_craster]

Where was Nat 'King' Cole in the vocalists section ?

[Steve Crook]

Where was Nat 'King' Cole in the vocalists section ?

It depends where you draw the line in the definition of "Easy Listening".

Is it good music that's easy to listen to? In which case I would include the Carpenters & Nat 'King' Cole

Or is it bland music that doesn't require any effort? In which case I wouldn't include the Carpenters or Nat 'King' Cole. They're far from bland
But I might well include some of the others mentioned

Steve

[Jack Gurney]

I've always liked easy music, which is ironic seeing as how I spend much of my time listening to the most gutwrenchingly difficult prog, psych and jazz. It probably stems, as I see it does for IanG, from a childhood spent in the kitchen listening to whatever Mum had on the radio. Like most Mums, her tastes were far more "normal" than those of my Dad. I did, of course, react against such things in my rebellious metal/shoegazing teens, but over the years, my love of "sonic tapestry" has led me to a wider appreciation of such sounds, plus, of course, a love of Brit film, which will not only reiterate to anyone that the likes of Tony Hatch and Ronnie Hazlehurst are geniuses, but drag them into the world of library music- another minefield of joy.

Ironically, although easy listening was originally meant to appeal to a wide audience, it's probably now one of the smaller cults out there- along with its relatives in 'lounge' 'exotica' 'now sound' and 'tiki' fields. There's also, of course, a rather interesting crossover with jazz, inasmuch as that most beboppers and freeformers from the 50s on, after the advent of rock, had to make a living somehow. So, the next time you find yourself listening to legendary Brit fusioneer Neil Ardley's "Kaleidoscope Of Rainbows" and ask yourself "why do the horns and woodwind on this remind me of the incidental music to The Good Life or The Two Ronnies, and also sound a bit like the arrangements on a James Last album?" the answer is, "because they were all played by the same bloody musicians!" Or at least combinations thereof. Ray Warleigh, we salute you...

[smudge]

Excellent prog and I later discovered that Enge is doing a UK Tour later this year. He and Tom Jones seemed always to be on TV in the halcyon days of my ATV childhood...tickets booked!

(LOL'd at the interviewer's slow-burn reaction to his Dolly Parton joke. Naughty Enge!!)

Smudge

[Harbottle]

Very enjoyable doc I must say much of the original EL material has its merits but I must admit I really can't a bide the reworking of pop songs by The Beatles etc especially Mr Last's horrors!

Did anyone else catch the also very enjoyable Easy Listening Hits at the BBC? The first half was great until they started to introduce the modern stuff

[zettel45]

Enjoyable doc - had to laugh, though, when James Last was on. Back in the 70s, whenever Last was on TV, my dad (a bomber pilot in WWII) would grumble "There's one I missed..."

[Brief Encounter]

Interesting programme but it seems the definition of "Easy Listening" is still open to debate. Julian above asks about Nat King Cole, who really belongs to a different group altogether, with Sinatra et al, the type who mainly sing standards. Most of the music I like is filed in HMV's 'Easy Listening' section, but this programme made me realise I'm not really keen on what 'Easy' really is: lounge music, or the kind of stuff my dad is prone to listen to (see: Lighthouse Family). Pre-rock 1950s singers, like Dickie Valentine and Joan Regan, are Easy Listening according to HMV, but what they were doing was the pop music of the day. That's what Neil Sedaka was doing when he started. I think it's only when these performers slip away from the charts and the mainstream that they 'become' Easy Listening somehow. I find a lot of Vera Lynn's later material fits into this category: I much prefer her earlier material, which was basically 'pop music' in its day.

Didn't Richard Carpenter seem on the verge of bursting into tears about it all? Not just his sister, but he seemed very annoyed with everything! Also, that director/cameran's audible laughter and 'hmmm'-ing was a bit disconcerting I found.

[Jack Gurney]

I find ANYONE who says 'hmmmmm' a lot extremely annoying. Smacks of condescension.