Thursday, January 31, 2008

PIZZICATO

One of the two songs from when I was a kid that stick with me is” Theme from “A Summer Place””. It was written by Max Steiner and performed by Percy Faith and his Orchestra. I can remember as a child being fascinated by the long smooth notes of the Strings coupled with the syncopated rhythm of a Piano playing what sounded almost like ‘Chopsticks” in the background.
If you think you do not know this tune click here for a really cheesy rendition that may jog your memory.
As soon as I was able to work the turntable on the Hi-Fi I would play this song over and over again. I was about 5 years old.
I did not really know what a Violin was, or who Max Steiner might be.
To this day I have never seen “A Summer Place” and can't name another Max Steiner tune.
But at the age of 5 I thought this was the most wonderful piece of music ever written.
It still falls into the top 20, and it is a pretty good song for makin' out.

The other song, from a little later in my childhood was “Can’t Get Over Losing You” by Andy Williams. I thought the vocals were good, and te melody real nice but what really got me was when the violin players would “Pluck” their strings. They call this “pizzicato” and when I was 8 years old and this song would come on the Hi-Fi I could hardly wait for that part of the song to come on and wished it would go on forever.

The 60’s were a wonderful time for Music, and I don’t think there is a period of time anywhere that music made such a transition.

Within a few years, that same Hi-Fi would be playing music very far removed from Messer’s Mancini and Williams.

4 comments:

Barbara said...

Theme from a Summer Place reminds me of summer camp. I was 12. Hormones were kicking in. Great music!

Mother of Invention said...

We used to watch Dean Martin, Andy Williams etc. on their own shows. Mancini wrote some great songs and movie themes. Did he write the theme to Romeo and Juliet?

GrizzBabe said...

This post reminds me of an 8-track my mom had of movie theme music - Dr. Zhivago and the like. She played that thing until I thought I would puke!

Water Baby said...

Daddy used to play this song about a thirty point buck and the hunters that killed it, ask him about it. It may be the reason I am so ... 'cultured'.