Welcome to the PERCY FAITH Pages

featuring the music and memory of

Percy Faith 1908-1976

a broadband internet connection is required to enjoy this site

Marilyn Leonard, Percy Faith's daughter, died after a long battle with cancer on January 1, 2010.  Marilyn was a wonderful, kind friend who spent many hours on the phone talking about her father's work, and then hosted me for a 1-week visit in May of 1991 where I was able to learn more about Percy Faith, seeing the artwork Percy collected and enjoyed, and all the awards and miscellaneous items in his office in his home; we made a low-production value video of my visit.  I feel very sad at losing the kind Marilyn who absolutely loved her father Percy's music and knew every track.  My sincere condolences go out to her family, friends, and all who will miss her.  The obituary:

LEONARD, Marilyn Born December 5, 1931 in Toronto Canada to Mary and Percy Faith. It is with great sorrow that we announce the loss of our mother and friend, Marilyn Faith Leonard who passed away January 1 at the age of 78 after a long but courageous battle with cancer. Left to cherish her memory are her children Lisa McCloskey, Rick Gleitsman, Judy Kaplan, son-in-law Jim Kaplan, and grandchildren Steven Stinson, Brittany, Austin and Lily Gleitsman, Zach and Mattie Kaplan. She had a great love for music, cooking, all things creative, and her "band of sisters." There was not a soul that met her that didn't fall in love with her. She was a caring and dedicated friend and her spirit of generosity and open-heartedness will long be remembered by all who knew her.
She is now reunited in heaven with her son Johnny, Jack Leonard the love of her life, her father whom she dearly adored, her mother and her brother Peter.  Thursday, January 7 at 11:00 a.m. Published in Los Angeles Times from January 5 to January 6, 2010

=====================

How Bill came to know MARILYN LEONARD, Percy Faith's daughter

and finally posted 11/2011...

Video of Bill's trip to meet Dolly and Marilyn in May 1991

(if your computer refuses to play windows media files please click the link below for the same file on YOUTUBE version that will probably work (!) on just about any computer)

YOUTUBE uploaded by Robert Bybee

HASTILY WRITTEN NOTES about Percy's Christmas Albums (12/25 is almost here again!)

Percy Faith's song "My Heart Cries For You" gets Inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

by Rick Gleitsman, grandson of Percy Faith

Sorry the quality is so lousy, it was shot on my still camera, and it ends abruptly as I was asked to stand up. It's cute to hear my 88 year old Great Aunt, Percy's sister, sitting next to me say "That's my Brother". :)

Anyway, it is on youtube titled: Movie #1 Recut by RgpropsEnjoy!!! (Gosh I hope this works)!!! Enjoy!!!

http://youtu.be/YeGlzGniI0E

----Rick Gleitsman

FOR BUSINESS QUESTIONS REGARDING THE MUSIC/RIGHTS/USAGE of Percy Faith and his orchestra, please contact:

RICK GLEITSMAN, PercyFaithMusic@gmail.com

A Recording Session for historical purposes - permission granted only for personal use!

NICK PERITO in the Capitol LA Studios conducting Percy Faith's Music for the JVC Series (1994)

part 1   part 2   part 3   part 4   part 5   part 6   part 7   part 8   part 9   part 10   part 11   part 12   part 13   part 14   part 15   part 16   part 17   part 18   part 19   part 20 part 21   part 22   part 23   part 24   part 25

this is divided not by human but by an ancient Panasonic, try hj-join or some PD file joiner, you might be able to create one 160 minute file (more or less).  This is provided for users of this web page and not for redistribution; it's to give everyone a chance to REALLY see inside a recording studio, with Nick Perito conducting Percy Faith's arrangements for JVC.  At that time we had NO idea that Taragon and Collectables would reissue Percy's analog recordings from the 50's through 1975, as seen below, and they sound great!  Please email me if you find this enjoyable and want more if there is any...  These are large files and probably won't stream except on fast cable or FIOS connections, so please right-click and "save as" so that you can view them offline.  This material is used  on this site with permission of the Faith family and Terry Woodson who was the producer for this series...  for historical, non-commercial purposes.  Now you will know what electricity is generated at a real recording session - takes, listening, deciding on re-takes, etc.  Great educational material!  You'll see Dolly and Marilyn in there, ENJOY!

The sparse notes indicate that the tapes were originally sent to Dolly (Mary) Faith by JVC.  I was honored to receive these session tapes and some of Marilyn's "Handicam" tapes by Percy Faith's grandchildren.  I hope to share one of the concerts conducted by Alan Broadbent soon.

MITCH MILLER 1911-2010

8/2/2010: on July 31, we have lost Mitch Miller - performing musician, arranger, conductor, oboist, and the man who hired Percy Faith into Columbia Records in 1950.  Mitch Miller was 99 years old.  Mitch hired the famous vocalists, and assigned various arrangers who worked for him (and he arranged music as well) to launch their careers.  Such "youngsters" as Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, and many others saw huge careers that were launched by contracts with Columbia and Mitch; and often through the orchestral magic of Percy Faith!  This was a good deal for Percy, as he really wanted to record instrumentally and not be involved with vocalists; so for the duration of the 1950's Faith had a deal with Columbia and Mitch, that he'd record for the "youngsters" - and in turn he could record orchestral albums under his own name... and he did just that!  I don't have a link but the New York Times website has an excellent article about Mr. Miller - wow - he used to work with George Gershwin!!!

I was honored to talk to Mitch on the phone a few times in the 1990's and again for the BBC Radio 2 program "The Arrangers" where he gladly agreed to participate in the show (they sent interviewers with recording equipment to his home).  He was rather sad that his music had been forgotten but I think I encouraged him a bit when I started listing some of his Lp's that had been digitally remastered for CD reissue.  I know that he was very pleased when two of his own albums, along with the two albums he recorded with Percy Faith, were reissued intact.  MANON is a Faith composition, and here is a track from the album "Columbia House Party" where Mitch just happens to have an oboe that squeaks to life, and Percy Faith started playing the song as a piano solo - but Mitch came through with the expressive oboe - right click and save the track then hear what could easily have been a thirteenth track to MUSIC UNTIL MIDNIGHT!

MANON by Percy Faith, composer and pianist, with Mitch Miller on the oboe!

His orchestra heard "on the air" in Canada and the United States, since the 1930's, Mr. Faith brought us his unique sound, rich arrangements featuring his favorite section of the orchestra - the strings, that carried the Faith signature sound of rich countermelodies and harmonic developments across sections of the orchestra.  Pictured above, Percy at the piano in the living room of his Encino home in 1966, "California 1966" in his own writing (this is an original picture from the family collection   That Faith recorded 45 albums is a head-scratcher, Faith recorded closer to 90 albums, and that does not include the many "random track collection" albums that could no doubt double that number worldwide.  I believe this error began with a press release, I still have a copy somewhere.   The Collectables series of CD's now available cover Percy's entire Columbia career.  There are CD's available that go back to the "pre-Columbia" days of Decca, Majestic, and RCA, please see Alan Bunting's website for details.

PERCY FAITH:   COMPOSER-CONDUCTOR-ARRANGER

Percy Faith had a tremendous career, doing just what he wanted to do, creating albums of beautiful music.   Actually that's the second half of his career, the first was "on the air" bringing his unique orchestral style to radio.  Few are aware he did much outside of SUMMER PLACE, DELICADO or MOULIN ROUGE - but view these pages and you'll realize that he recorded over a thousand arrangements with a style that could never be duplicated.  After all these years, we are rewarded with our treasured albums being available in the "best possible" sound of the compact disc; see below!   There are several great CD reissues by Taragon and Collectables, and manufacturing remains with Sony (Taragon does its own remastering), so the quality is superb.   It is a great tribute to PERCY FAITH that his music still delights listeners in the year 2000 and beyond.  Millions of thanks go to Good Music, Collectables, and Taragon for bringing Faith's music to us in the window-on-sound CD format.

  Follow the link below to read a comprehensive article about the successes Mr. Faith achieved in the music world - from his childhood job as a pianist accompanying silent motion pictures.  Also, there is a series of important articles about our favorite subject, "Popular Music for Orchestra" - and "The Orchestral Sound."  Great, educational reading by Alfred Holden and Dick O'Connor.  9/30/2009: Dick O'Connor's great article about the history and origins of the beautiful music format that gave us so much good listening for many years.  Now you can read a concise history of how this all got started and progressed, with our favorite artists providing the treasured music, click on the link below, in .pdf format.  Most media files are in the Windows Media formats, however both Apple and Microsoft have software available that will let Apple users use these files

this file went missing a long time ago... the most important of them all; the original file vanished and this recreation is way too dark, but until I can re-render it at least it's back:

Percy Faith: video containing the Paul Whiteman show (America's Greatest Bands), a promotional spot for Columbia Records with Percy Faith and Goddard Leiberson, and the 1966 broadcast of the Canadian Broadcasting Company program "Off The Record"

NOTES ABOUT THIS VIDEO:

The first several minutes are SILENT - and ironically in color, I cannot identify what performance this was, only that it was some very early "movie" footage taken while Percy was conducting the orchestra.  The entire video is too dark - I suggest using your media player controls to brighten it.  I tried to brighten it during this re-rendering but it was unsatisfactory.  At some point I'll try to re-render it with a program offering better correction.  The original tape is too dark, and I had brightened it long ago; sadly, the file vanished so until I get my equipment working again please use your own media player brightness control.

Click to See AND hear the PERCY FAITH Orchestra

A Brief History of Beautiful Music Radio ©2009 Richard O'Connor

  Click to read more about Faith -  and the evolution of popular music for orchestra!

The BBC Radio 2 Series: THE ARRANGERS: Percy Faith

Part of an interview with GENE LEES (added 5/2011)*

 KMPC 1972 interview Percy Faith - Wink Martindale added 3/18/2008

Dick O'Connor's TRIBUTE TO ROBERT FARNON April, 2005

Radio and Recording Techniques by Percy Faith, contributed by Dick O'Connor (circa 1958)

THE THIRD DAY is available now - click for more information

Bill's trip to LA in 1991 to meet Dolly Faith and Marilyn Leonard

added 11/04/2011 'scuse the video quality; Marilyn's Sony Handicam took good pictures, however this broken editor will not accept large files.  This is an abridged version of my wonderful trip to the home of Dolly Faith hosted by Percy's daughter Marilyn, from May, 1991.  There is more "learning" in this film than perhaps any other; it will show that Percy and Dolly had a great appreciation for art, and on the way home Marilyn showed me (and you) some of the beauty and huge houses of Encino.  Later, we go through many of Percy Faith's photo albums that were involved with his great career and music.  I'm sorry the resolution isn't better, but we've been unable to locate the original Handicam tape.  Though not of ideal resolution there are wonderful photos in Percy's albums.

Vocalist Buddy Clark with Percy Faith and His Orchestra from the 1940's (5/2011)

I'm sorry to say there has been only one person interested in this collection, of which I have probably 100 shows, so I will not post any more unless the shows are of interest, let me know if they are!

WQMR/WGAY memories can be found here.

(I realize there are broken parts to this "closed site" - will work on fixes if I can).  This site was a tribute to Washington, DC/Silver Spring Maryland's source of "great albums of beautiful music" starting in 1960, and there was "good music" played before the station was purchased and format changed at that time, but information is hard to come by)   MUSIC IN THE AIR became a Sunday show on the Connie B. Gay owned station in 1960, though it had evidently run in the 1950's, so this station had a long history of "good music." 

Check out Amazon.com, THE VIRGINIAN is available on DVD.  Percy Faith wrote the famous theme, but I can only account for about 2 1/2 episodes Percy scored from start to finish, and it's really difficult to listen and determine how much was "borrowed" from the pilot and used throughout season 1, and the Season 2 episode 1 isn't scored by Faith, I believe episode 3 is, however.  I do have some of the raw "takes" from the pilot episode, fascinating listening.  Percy Faith never recorded the theme played "straight" in stereo, but does have a "jazzed up" version included on the album CS 9009, The Love Goddesses, which includes the beautiful "Celia's Waltz" from the pilot - though in the television show scored with strings and flutes, and in this version the melody is often given to the saxophone (which Percy often did).

Percy Faith?  Japan?  Starting in 1966, Percy began concert tours of about a month's duration, around 20 cities, throughout Japan, where people loved to hear his renditions of popular music, including Gershwin and showtunes.  The Japanese audiences love his music and through all these years, Percy's original manuscripts brought his arrangements to life in Japanese concert halls, to listeners young, old, and in-between.  Too bad it can't happen in the "corporate" environment of the United States...  In the spring of 1976, just a few months after his death, the concert that sadly became a "tribute to Percy Faith" was conducted by DAVID ROSE.  Then for many years, Alan Broadbent took the baton, followed in the 90's by the late Nick Perito.  Orchestra manager Terry Woodson, conductor for Frank Sinatra, Jr., now conducts the live sounds of Percy Faith arrangements via tours of several Japanese cities every few years.  I plan to post one or two of these concerts as recorded by Marilyn on her Sony Handicam, she was always seated near the back of the concert hall, but the simple-yet-beautiful stages were well captured. 

KOGA MELODIES - HATTORI MELODIES

Note that Hattori was released in the midst of the "SQ Quad" frenzy and unlike some of Faith's domestically released albums, sounds excellent on the SQ album.  Taragon, however, chose to use what must have been the two-channel mix for the CD reissue now available; the mix is very different and rather diffuse and "in my opinion" not better than the Lp (the opposite from my impressions of other Faith SQ releases where the albums sounded terrible with very isolated tracks and exagerrated out-of-phase material used to "drive" the sound to the back speakers, especially if you had a receiver with "Wavematching Logic" that would steer the apparent sound of all channels to what would be the loudest.  Put another way, the SQ releases of Faith's albums, e.g., "Clair" - sound lousy.  The standard stereo mixes are fine, though it is my understanding that "Clair" and all albums after that were recorded using 8-tracks, mixed down and customary reverb added for 2-channel stereo.  I was also told that Percy Faith was most likely the very last "holdout" who didn't want "multitrack" recordings.

You can see the liner notes in the photo below are in Japanese, here is a translation from jazz collector Keizo Takada of Tokyo - Keizo got me copies of Koga and Hattori when first released.  This translation is excerpted from a letter to me from Keizo dated February 25, 1976:

"It was just after the War when I heard the name of Percy Faith for the first time.  I had been attracted by the music of Kostelanetz with its flavor of symphonic jazz before I heard Percy Faith, and when I received the record of my melodies made by Percy Faith, I was so excited that I felt as though I was a child.  As I enjoyed the Koga Melodies Lp, I had looked forward to hearing the Percy Faith arrangements of my melodies.  The arrangements are unique.  I am an arranger myself and I heard his arrangements with critical ears, however, his arrangements, with preludes and interludes which I could never think of, utterly knocked me down.  I felt unavoidable difference in attitude toward music which probably came from cultural difference.  The same can be said if I arranged some American music.  It is very welcome that many Japanese music melodies are played by various musicians abroad and that Japanese melodies are introduced to world music lovers.  I look forward to seeing Percy Faith on his next trip to Japan.  - Ryoichi Hattori"

 

 

2005 Japan Concerts Program Cover Art front and back, Terry Woodson conducting

2005 Program

2005 Concert Photo 1

2005 Concert Photo 2

2005 Concert Photo 3

(concert photos above courtesy Toshiho Namba)

Spring, 2003 Concert Pictures from Japan courtesy Kats-Aoyama and Takeo Kimura

 

The Living Strings

(a very incomplete tribute to a great bunch of albums recorded on the RCA Camden (cheap) label with wonderful music by such conductors as William Hill-Bowen and Johnny Douglas; if you run across these in dusty used record shops, they are fine albums in spite of their, er, economical packaging and sometimes bad pressings; to me the work of Douglas, Bowen, and several others really makes up a lot of the backbone of what we used to enjoy on "beautiful music" formatted stations.

We have much reason to celebrate the music and memory of Mr. Faith in the following splendid CD reissues!

TARAGON - the first group of CD's pictured below are available from www.taragon.com) Please note 12/2011 Malaguena, and VIVA!/Exotic Strings shown below, are out of print and no longer available.

 continentalromanticreissue.jpg (27467 bytes)malaguenareissue.jpg (22241 bytes)spsomreissue.jpg (25668 bytes)vivaexoticreissue.jpg (26106 bytes)

Contenental Music/Romantic Music; Malaguena; Music from South Pacific/The Sound of Music; VIVA (the music of Mexico)/Exotic Strings; TOUCHDOWN; Koga Melodies/Hattori Melodies, incredibly good remastering from the analog originals in this collection.

The CD's pictured below are available from Collectables www.oldies.com

view some original cover art that predates what you see in the current reissues - plus a couple albums from Japan - Music Of Christmas, Continental Music, Romantic Music, Music Until Midnight, Kismet, Music from Hollywood, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Hattori Melodies, and The Crystal Sound Orchestra (explanation on that page).  Here's an alternate cover to Hattori Melodies

The Collectables series:

  1. COL 6056 - Bouquet/Bouquet of Love
  2. COL 5832 - Camelot/My Fair Lady
  3. COL 6085 - Delicado/Amour, Amor, Amore
  4. COL 6057 - Passport to Romance/Mucho Gusto
  5. COL 5843 - Tara's Theme from "Gone With The Wind"/Jealousy
  6. COL 6473 - Kismet/Music From Hollywood
  7. COL 6483 - Bim! Bam!! BOOM!!!/Themes for the "In" Crowd
  8. COL 6488 - MMMitch (Mitch Miller)/MUSIC UNTIL MIDNIGHT (Percy Faith orchestra w/Mitch Miller on English Horn/Oboe plus Mitch Miller and His Orchestra in "MMMitch")
  9. COL 6640 - A Night with Sigmund Romberg/A Night with Jerome Kern (Percy Faith orchestral backings for solos and duets by vocalists Earl Wrightson and Lois Hunt
  10. COL 7429 - Today's Themes For Young Lovers / For Those In Love
  11. COL 6898 - The Music of Brazil/Shangri-La!
  12. COL 7428 - Academy Award Winners - Born Free/Windmills Of Your Mind
  13. COL 7476 - Corazon/My Love
  14. COL 7488 - Angel Of The Morning (chorus)/Black Magic Woman
  15. COL 7420 - More Themes for Young Lovers/Latin Themes for Young Lovers
  16. COL 7478 - The Love Goddesses/Hollywood's Great Themes
  17. COL 7480 - Subways Are For Sleeping/Do I Hear A Waltz?
  18. COL 7469 - Porgy and Bess/The Most Happy Fella
  19. COL 7479 - Great Folk Themes/American Serenade
  20. COL 7507 - The Beatles Album/Jesus Christ Superstar
  21. COL 7521 - Joy/Day By Day
  22. COL 7522 - Chinatown/Summer Place '76
  23. COL 7561 - Clair/New Thing
  24. COL 7564 - Li'l Abner/Broadway Bouquet
  25. COL 7563 - Bon Voyage/Carefree
  26. COL7565 - The Columbia Album of Victor Herbert
  27. COL7612 - House of Flowers/Adventure In The Sun
  28. COL7596 - It's So Peaceful In The Country/European Holiday (Percy Faith Orchestra w/Mitch Miller, English Horn/Oboe, plus Mitch Miller and His Orchestra on "European Holiday")
  29. COL7599 - Your Dance Date/American Waltzes/Carefree Rhythms
  30. COL7562 -  Music For Her (plus bonus tracks)
  31. COL7606 - Country Bouquet/Disco Party
  32. COL 7607 - Held Over (Great Movie Themes)/Leaving On A Jet Plane
  33. COL7608 - Those Were The Days/Romeo and Juliet
  34. COL7611 - Swing Low/A Look At Monaco

  35. COL9554 - Easy Listening Classics (previously released, omnibus collection)

  36. COL 7635 - Columbia Singles Volume One

  37. COL 7636 - Columbia Singles Volume Two

  38. COL 7653 - I Think I Love You

  39. COL 7815 - THE OSCAR (soundtrack)

  40. COL 7692 - Columbia Singles Volume Three

    CHECK THE COLLECTABLES PAGE if money is an object - some of these CD's are occasionally given deep discounts - check with the website www.oldies.com

Collectables forgot the liner notes on the below mentioned album titles (and a few others as well); click on the title to read them!

BOUQUET / BOUQUET OF LOVE / MUCHO GUSTO! / PASSPORT TO ROMANCE

These pictures were taken March 23, 1974 at the WMAL radio studios on Jennifer Street in Washington, DC, the day before a concert with Percy Faith as guest conductor of the USAF Concert Band with the Singing Sergeants at DAR Constitution Hall the following day (Sunday, March 24, 1974).

Here are some "nostalgic" photos/reviews taken from a 1955 concert tour Percy did with Tony Bennett.  Sadly, the very page with the most Percy Faith information, and his picture, was torn out, but it's still very interesting!

Rather too shy to write to Percy Faith I initially composed a letter (didn't keep a copy) to Irving Townsend, who was responsible for the late 60's heavy pop-flavored albums that featured the female chorus (who can ever forget "Candy Man" but I digress...) here is Faith's response! 

 

ALAN BUNTING's website http://pelstream.co.uk is the ultimate Faith resource with a complete discography (something you won't find here!) and much more for the collector.  Alan has a tremendous discography complete with cover art and the various catalog numbers applied over the decades.

I have never been real bright on inclusion of links because I'm lazy or incompetent, but one link has never been shown here and it always should have been...

http://www.duttonvocalion.com/

There are wonderful recordings from London/Decca  that we have all loved - Ronnie Aldrich and his "twin pianos" (well, not really twin pianos but some good twin-tracking and pan-potting), Stanley Black, Frank Chacksfield, etc...  Many of the recordings have been perfectly remastered and reissued through Michael Dutton's website and it is must reading for mood musikians.  Here you will find the great London Phase 4 records.  Please check out your favorite artists from London Records (Decca in the UK) here!

Here you will find a LOT of great music in a wide range of interests and going waaay back in time.  Well worth a visit... please stop by!  Robert Farnon records, even (gasp) Mantovani... there's a lot of great music here.

The ROBERT FARNON Society web page  -  Visit http://www.rfsoc.freeserve.co.uk to read about/join the Society, that has done a magnificent job of maintaining, through the years, a keen  interest in "our" type of music. 

RAY CONNIFF    The late Ray Conniff has two tremendous websites and publications, click here and below for details!  

Doug Mitchell's site:  http://www.rayconniff.info/

Manfred Thonicke's RAY CONNIFF web page: http://www.thoenicke.homepage.t-online.de/rayconniff/index.htm

CD's of vintage music  www.deltamusic.co.uk

THE JOY BOYS: Washington DC's long-running, perfect example of how great live radio could be - and now Robert Bybee has a website devoted to their on-air antics.    There's been nothing on the air for us "geezers" for a long time.  Some people had their tapes rolling, and on the Joy Boys site, you'll hear some clips of "live radio" gems.  By all means please drop by http://www.thejoyboys.com and enjoy some sounds of two of the most talented gentlemen of the airwaves.

Speaking of Washington, DC, I was born there, though my first trip home at two weeks of age was to the Maryland suburbs of DC.  Through the web I can relive the local and national television shows that served as light education and a lot of just plain fascination as a kid - heck, gosh, gee, everyone remembers Bozo The Clown, right?  Can you say WILLARD SCOTT???  Many of the shows and themes depicted here are local to the Washington area.  What's very interesting relating to music, is that we've found that a couple of the tremendously popular shows used Percy Faith themes (Countdown Carnival used "Little Bells and Big Bells" - Captain Tugg used Faith's arrangement of "Bluebell" - and we just found out that Mitch Miller did the music for the "Ranger Hal" program.  Visit Bob Bell's site and see the shows we watched as brats I mean perfect children in the 50's and 60's!!!  http://kidshow.dcmemories.com/.  Bob's site will bring back childhood memories of the television shows that some of our group of "aging boomers" grew up on - with a special emphasis, of course, on those shows from the Washington, DC television stations aimed at the kiddies

Bill Halvorsen

vistabad@kc.rr.com

Apple and Microsoft make available free downloads for Mac users to play windows media files used on this website.

 

 Entire Web Site Copyright © 1996-2012 Bill Halvorsen

  Copyrighted material may appear on this site with permission of the Faith family over the years..   For permission to use articles/pictures/sounds please write.  Permission is not granted for use of any material without attribution.