Post by johnnyhands1 on Jan 1, 2020 2:09:10 GMT -8
www.spaceagepop.com/gleason.htm
"Although Gleason could neither read or write music, he had an idea about recording music that combined popular songs with moody, string-laden orchestrations. He hired his own studio orchestra, pulled some orchestrators together, and began describing what he was looking for, occasionally picking out passages with one finger on the piano. He cut a deal with Capitol that put the risk of profit on his back, with the unheard-of break-even number of 60,000 copies sold. As it turned out, the album, Music for Lovers Only, sold over 500,000. Listeners liked how Gleason smoothed down the tunes, making them perfect background music for making out on the couch--but his TV popularity helped, too.
Gleason released over 20 albums between 1953 and 1969, all on Capitol. Many featured cornetist Bobby Hackett soloing off in a distance, as if in a fog, adding to the "moodiness" of the music. Hackett later remarked that "Jackie Gleason taught me to play," and it wasn't meant to be sarcastic. To go by the liner notes, such as the following, from Opiate D'Amour, you'd think a Gleason album would be over the top with syrupy strings:
Into this intensely romantic album, Jackie Gleason has decanted a tranquilizing potion as dreamily hypnotic as a warm breeze caressing a field of poppies.
But the truth is that these are some of the most laid-back easy listening albums ever recorded. What Hackett was crediting was Gleason's sense of restraint, an often neglected attribute among musicians. All it takes to hear that is to play a Gleason track back-to-back with one by another big easy listening name, such as Mantovani. Instead of a big, upfront sound full of instrumentation, you notice the music is subtle, very much in the background. Gleason was consciously trying to create a mood (hence the more appropriate label, mood music)."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRO1HHuHJlA&list=PLJMRnJB2zYW0KudpTIEYYeqX1RyVF09Sz