A Painter In Sound – Pre-Beatles Productions & Classical Influences

• Not only are we painting sound pictures, our palette is infinite.” George Martin

• An anthology of George Martin’s sound productions before the advent of the Beatles; before the collaboration that would change popular music forever.

• He re-defined the role of producer; pioneering the recording itself as an art form.

• This edition is testament to a elegant, fearless musical innovator.

The surrealistic, sometimes free-form recordings he created with comic geniuses Sellers, Milligan, Cribbins and Ustinov involved sound effects and collage. These madcap sonic adventures, allied to his understanding of the workings of an orchestra, his contacts within the classical fraternity, his love of the romantic and impressionist composers, and his fascination with studio experimentation made George Martin uniquely able to provide a particular objectivity and realise what the ever-curious Beatles, or any artist, would ask of him.

As head of Parlophone, determined to explode the label onto the scene, he sought artists of character; taking mobile recording units out to capture Flanders And Swann’s two-man show and the irreverent satirical revue, Beyond The Fringe. The Top Five was breached in 1960 both by Matt Monro and by Peter Sellers And Sophia Loren. George Martin’s first UK Number One single, and an exemplar, was ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’ by The Temperance Seven who combined a revival of popular music from the 20s with styles from the Edwardian era.

DISC ONE

In All Directions
1 Antonín Dvořák: Serenade for Winds in D minor, Op. 44 – Moderato quasi Marcia (London Baroque Ensemble / Karl Haas)
2 Frank Chacksfield`s Tunesmiths – Little Red Monkey
3 Kenneth McKellar – Corn Rigs Are Bonnie
4 The Kirchin Band – Bandbox
5 Cléö Laine with the Johnny Dankworth Seven
– Honeysuckle Rose
6 Sidney Torch and His Orchestra – Bicycle Belles
7 Dick James – Robin Hood
8 Eve Boswell – Besame Mucho
9 Bert Weedon – Theme from ITV’s 64,000 Question
10 The Vipers Skiffle Group – Don’t You Rock Me Daddy-O
11 Ron Goodwin & His Concert Orchestra – Skiffling Strings
12 Jim Dale – Don’t Let Go
13 Ron Goodwin and His Orchestra – Mercury Gets the Message
14 Jack Parnell & His Orchestra – Trip to Mars
15 Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band – Saturday Jump
16 Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band – The House that Humph Built
17 Christopher Logue – Lithe Girl, Brown Girl
18 Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra – Girl from Corsica
19 Nadia Cattouse – Long Time Boy
20 Johnny Dankworth &. His Orchestra – African Waltz
21 The Temperance Seven – You’re Driving me Crazy
22 The Temperance Seven – Pasadena
23 The Temperance Seven – Everybody Loves My Baby
24 Ray Cathode – Time Beat
25 Ray Cathode – Waltz in Orbit
26 The Fentones – Just for Jerry
27 Ralph Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending (London Philharmonic Orchestra / Adrian Boult)

DISC TWO

Experiments With Pop
1 Johnny Dankworth & His Orchestra – Experiments with Mice
2 Flanders and Swann – The Gnu Song
3 Ian Wallace – The Hippopotamus Song
4 Humphrey Lyttelton & His Band – Bad Penny Blues
5 Peter Sellers – I’m So Ashamed
6 Fred Flange & Peter Sellers – You Keep Me Swingin’
7 The Temperance Seven With vocal refrain by Peter Sellers – Ukulele Lady
8 Irene Handl & Peter Sellers – Shadows On The Grass
9 Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren – Goodness Gracious Me!
10 Sophia Loren – Zoo be Zoo be Zoo
11 Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren – Bangers & Mash
12 Tommy Watt & His Orchestra – Victorian Plums
13 Matt Monro – Portrait of Our Love
14 Flanders and Swann – The Armadillo
15 Flanders and Swann – The Spider in the Bath
16 Matt Monro – My Kind of Girl
17 Ron Goodwin & His Orchestra – Murder She Says
18 Bernard Cribbins – The Hole In the Ground
19 Bernard Cribbins – Right, Said Fred
20 Ron Goodwin & His Orchestra – Barefoot Girl
21 The Goons (Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe) – Tale of Men’s Shirts

DISC THREE

COMEDY SURREALIST
1 Peter Ustinov – Mock Mozart
2 Peter Ustinov – Phoney Folk-Lore
3 The Goons (Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan) – Unchained Melody
4 Count Jim Moriarty with Gravely Stephens and the Massed Alberts – You Gotta Go Oww!
5 Peter Sellers – Jakka and the Flying Saucers (Parts 1 & 2)
From BEYOND THE FRINGE
6 Alan Bennett – Take A Pew
7 Dudley Moore – And the Same to You
8 Peter Cook – Sitting on the Bench
9 Spike Milligan – The Sewers of the Strand
10 Michael Bentine – Train Commercial : The Astronauts
11 The Alberts – Morse Code Melody
BRIDGE ON THE RIVER WYE
(Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Jonathan Miller, Peter Cook)
12 Bridge Over the River Wye (Part One)
13 Bridge Over the River Wye (Part Two)

DISC FOUR

CLASSICAL INFLUENCES
1 Gustav Holst: The Planets, Op. 32 – Venus, the Bringer of Peace (Adagio) (BBC Symphony Orchestra / Malcolm Sargent)
2 Maurice Ravel: Prélude in A Minor (Vlado Perlemuter; piano)
3 Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé – Lever du jour / Daphnis & Chloe are Reunited (Boston Symphony Orchestra & New England Conservatory Chorus / Charles Munch)
4 Maurice Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin – Fugue (Monique Haas: piano)
5 Claude Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (Philharmonia Orchestra / Guido Cantelli)
6 Claude Debussy: L’isle joyeuse (Samson François: piano)
7 Frederick Delius – The Walk to the Paradise Garden (from A Village Romeo and Juliet) (Halle Orchestra / John Barbirolli) 8 Frederick Delius – La Calinda (from Koanga) (London Philharmonic Orchestra / Thomas Beecham)
9 Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten: Foggy, Foggy Dew (Peter Pears: tenor; Benjamin Britten: piano)
10 Domenico Cimarosa: Oboe Concerto in C Minor: I. Introduzione. Larghetto (Evelyn Rothwell: oboe – Pro Arte Orchestra / John Barbirolli)
11 Gershwin: Bess, You is My Woman (from Porgy & Bess) (Todd Duncan And Anne Brown – Decca Symphony Orchestra / Alexander Smallens)
12 Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion, BWV244 – No.1 Chorus: “Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen” (Munich-Bach Orchestra and Chorus / Karl Richter)
13 Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 – Adagio sostenuto (William Kapell: piano – The Robin Hood Dell Orchestra of Philadelphia / William Steinberg)
14 Frédéric Chopin – Preludes for Piano, Op. 28: No. 4 in E minor (Geza Anda: piano)