Not for one minute do I think that even Keith Richards made an appearance in the recording studio for this all-instrumental album of Rolling Stones, Beatles, 4 Seasons, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, and of course, Sonny & Cher songs. "Under the direction of Keith Richard," I think took place when he was in another room or even in another city. Nevertheless, I suspect that this album was pulled together by the great and brilliant Andrew Loog Oldham.
On one level this is or was a knock-off album to probably cash in the song publishing dough, but beyond that hustle, this is a great album. As one can gather I'm a huge fan of the Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra, which is Oldham's version of doing Phil Spector, but in turn, and due to the temperament of Oldham, it becomes an original piece of work. "Todays Pop Symphony" is the classical baroque version of the Oldham orchestra. Stings galore as well as huge brass arrangements at that time (and always) classics. The beauty of this album, although it's based on the melodies of the classic Stones and soul, through the arrangement it sounds very different. This is a classic album of doing arrangements right and should be used in a classroom for further study. I'm going to take a wild guess that John Paul Jones had a hand in the arrangements, but there is no clear credit, except for Keith Richard, which again, I greatly doubt he had much to do with this album.
As Noel Coward once noted there is beauty in 'cheap music,' and The Aranbee Pop Symphony is a total delight from track one to the last track eleven.
No comments:
Post a Comment