Showing posts with label Styrous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Styrous. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Breakfast at Tiffiny's soundtrack ~ Audrey Hepburn

vinyl LP 
photo by Styrous®


Today is the anniversary of the birth of Audrey Hepburn. To me, as well as probably millions of others, her greatest role was that of Holly Golightly in the 1961 film, Breakfast at Tiffany's. The film was based on the Truman Capote, novel Breakfast at Tiffany's.     

vinyl LP back cover
photo by Styrous®
The score for the film was composed by Henry Mancini. Aside from his Award winning song, Moon River, arguably one of the most beautiful songs ever written and which ranked number 11 on the 1964 top chart list, my favorite song is Hubcaps and Taillights. The song is one of the great stripper songs of all-time along with The Stripper, by David Rose, and the incredibly sensual 1939 jazz standard written by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers, Harlem Nocturne. My favorite version of Nocturne was by Earl Bostic; his erotic rendition on the sax is outstanding! 
vinyl LP label detail
detail photo by Styrous®


The basic plot of the film is about Holly, a country girl turned New York café society girl. As such, she has no job and lives by socializing with wealthy men, who take her to clubs and restaurants, and give her money and expensive presents; she hopes to marry one of them. According to Capote, Golightly is not a prostitute but an "American geisha."





vinyl LP sleeve front
photo by Styrous®


Breakfast at Tiffany's was received positively at the time, and won two Academy Awards: Best Original Score and Best Original Song for Moon River. It was also selected as the fourth most memorable song in Hollywood history by the American Film Institute in 2004. The film was also nominated for three other Academy Awards: Best Actress for Hepburn, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction.

In 2012, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.    



vinyl LP sleeve back
photo by Styrous®


Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929, in Brussels, Belgium. She was the epitome of chic. She was a fashion icon as well as a movie star, was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend in the Golden Age of Hollywood and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame.

photo by Bud Fraker

Bud Fraker was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1916. He Attended Los Angeles City College. He was hired by Hollywood photographer A.L. 'Whitney' Schafer at Colombia. He photographed stars of the 1930s. He also worked for Paramount Studios in the Publicity Photography Department and assisted in the portrait gallery

Hepburn was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. George H. W. Bush presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work with UNICEF. Grateful for her own good fortune after enduring the German occupation as a child, she dedicated the remainder of her life to helping impoverished children in the poorest nations. Hepburn's travels were made easier by her wide knowledge of languages; besides being naturally bilingual in English and Dutch, she also was fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, and German.
 On the evening of 20 January 1993, Hepburn died in her sleep at home. After her death, Gregory Peck went on camera and tearfully recited her favourite poem, "Unending Love" by Rabindranath Tagore. Funeral services were held at the village church of Tolochenaz on 24 January 1993. Maurice Eindiguer, the same pastor who wed Hepburn and Mel Ferrer and baptised her son Sean in 1960, presided over her funeral, while Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan of UNICEF delivered a eulogy.  
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences posthumously awarded her the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her contribution to humanity, with her son accepting on her behalf.  
"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other."
                                             - Audrey Hepburn

  


Net links:        
             
Audrey Hepburn Filmography and stage roles     
                 
YouTube links:       
       
Moon River    
Audrey Hepburn sings Moon River     
Hub Caps And Tail Lights       
Earl Bostic - Harlem Nocturne              
David Rose ~ The Stripper               
Moon River documentary  
Audrey Hepburn ~ A&E Biography     



Styrous® ~ Wednesday, May 4, 2016  

Monday, February 22, 2016

The James Dean Story soundtrack

The James Dean Story soundtrack
artwork by David Stone Martin
score by Leith Stevens 
photo by Styrous®

James Byron Dean was born on February 8, 1931. He died in a car crash on September 30, 1955. He was only 24 years old.   

James Dean 
Publicity photo
circa 1953
photographer unknown


On September 30, 1955, Dean was scheduled to compete at a racing event in Salinas, California. Accompanying the actor to the occasion was stunt coordinator Bill Hickman, Collier's photographer Sanford Roth, and Rolf Wütherich, the German mechanic from the Porsche factory who maintained Dean's Porsche 550 Spyder "Little Bastard" car. Wütherich, who had encouraged Dean to drive the car from Los Angeles to Salinas to break it in, accompanied Dean in the Porsche. At 3:30 p.m. Dean was ticketed for speeding, as was Hickman who was following behind in another car.    
 
As the group traveled to the event via U.S. Route 466, at approximately 5:15 p.m. a 1950 Ford Tudor was passing through an intersection while turning, ahead of the Porsche. Dean, unable to stop in time, slammed into the driver's side of the Ford resulting in Dean's car bouncing across the pavement onto the side of the highway. Dean's passenger, Wütherich, was thrown from the Porsche, while Dean was trapped in the car and sustained numerous fatal injuries, including a broken neck. The driver of the Ford, Donald Turnupseed, exited his damaged vehicle with minor injuries. The accident was witnessed by a number of passersby who stopped to help. A woman with nursing experience attended to Dean and detected a weak pulse, but "death appeared to have been instantaneous". Dean was pronounced dead on arrival shortly after he arrived by ambulance at the Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital at 6:20 p.m.       
 
 James Dean and Porsche Speedster 23F 
Palm Springs Races March, 1955 
photographer unknown 


On February 15, 2009, all three of the California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers who dealt with James Dean on the day of his death—Officer Otie Hunter, who ticketed Dean for speeding, and Officers Ernie Tripke and Ronald Nelson, who investigated the fatal crash—participated and shared their memories of that fateful day in an SCVTV documentary titled The Stuff of Legend: James Dean's Final Ride, co-produced by the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society (see link below).   

James Dean Gravestone
Park Cemetery, Fairmount, Indiana
photographer unknown
 
Ironically, just days before he died, in September, 1955, Dean was interviewed by actor Gig Young for a "safe driving for teenagers" public service short film which is on YouTube (link below).      

James Dean made only three films, Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark, as Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955) and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956). Dean's enduring fame and popularity rest on his performances in only these three films.



movie poster 


Released two years after Dean's death, this Warner Bros. Pictures release chronicles his short life and career via black-and-white still photographs, interviews with the aunt and uncle who raised him, his paternal grandparents and outtakes from East of Eden, footage of the opening night of Giant, and Dean's PSA for safe driving from Warner Bros. Presents.

The  narration by Martin Gabel was written by Stewart Stern, who scripted Dean's Rebel Without a Cause, and a directing credit was shared by Robert Altman and George W. George.

The score for The James Dean Story was written by Leith Stevens. Stevens also wrote The Wild One (1953), When Worlds Collide (1951), Destination Moon (1950), The War of the Worlds (1953) and many other films (see links below).     

 movie poster
Eagle-Lion Classics Inc.,



Tommy Sands sang the song, Let Me Be Loved, featured in the film (YouTube link below).  He was born Thomas Adrian "Tommy" Sands on August 27, 1937. He is an American pop music singer and actor. He started as early as 1949 and became an overnight sensation and instant teen idol when he appeared on Kraft Television Theater in January 1957 as "The Singin' Idol." The song from the show, Teen Age Crush, reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Cashbox.      

 Publicity photo
circa 1957
photographer unknown




The James Dean Story soundtrack   
      

Tracklist:  
Side 1:       
A1     Prelude    
A2     Boyhood    
A3     Who Am I?    
A4     Thinking Of Home    
A5     Rebel At Work    
A6     Finding His Power     
Side 2:       

B1     Hollywood    
B2     The Movie Star    
B3     Lost Love    
B4     Success And Then What?    
B5     Testing The Limits Of Life    
B6     Return Home    
B7     End Title (Theme) "Let Me Be Loved" -
Vocal – Tommy Sands written by Jay Livingston, Ray Evans

Credits:
        
Label: Capitol Records ‎– W-881
Format: Vinyl LP, Album, Mono
Country: US
Released: 1957
Style: Soundtrack





             
James Dean Interview on YouTube            
             
SCVTV.com The Stuff of Legend: James Dean's Final Ride        
        
Let Me Be Loved on YouTube                  
Tommy Sands discography                 

The Wild One ~ 1953           
        
The War of the Worlds ~ Worlds on Film               





Dean has become a legend larger than life.



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I started the Vinyl LP series because I have a collection of over 20,000 vinyl record albums I am selling; each blog entry is about an album from my collection. Inquire for information here.   

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Styrous® ~ Monday, February 22, 2016




Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Édith Piaf ~ Piaf at the Olympia & Milord











detail from Piaf at the Olympia 
photo by Styrous®





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I started the Vinyl LP series because I have a collection of over 20,000 vinyl record albums I am selling; each blog entry is about an album from my collection. Inquire for information here.   

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This month will be the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Édith Piaf in 1915. One of her songs, Milord, was a landmark in my life at the age of 19 or 20. One of the many albums I have of hers is this concert recording that includes this song. To hear Milord while reading the rest of this, click on this link.     
 

Piaf at the Olympia 
vinyl LP cover
photo by Styrous®

Piaf at the Olympia was recorded in October, 1962 at the Olympia music hall in Paris, France, during her last concert.    


at the Olympia music hall, Paris in 1961
photograph by Roger Lipnitzki Viollet
Getty images

Olympia music hall 
photobrapher unknown
from Wikipedia


Milord, written by Georges Moustaki, is one of the songs featured on the album. I remember Milord very well as it was the first song of hers I heard. The song also marked one of the turning points in my life. It was in 1960; I was twenty years old and I was about to embark on the journey of discovery of who and what I was.
There are years in a person's life that are turning points; when things happen that will change a life forever. 1960 was one of those years for me; it was as equally profound a watershed for me as 1958 was (see link below).

I was in the bloom of my youth and I heard Milord at a restaurant/bar/cabaret in North Beach, The Paper Doll. It was located on Cadell Place just off Union Street, it was owned by Dante Benedetti, a collegiate baseball coach. I thought the food was terrific; however, I was completely unsophisticated about food at the time, so, who knows if it really was. A steak was $1.65 but my very favorite item on the menu was prawns stuffed with crab meat. Oh, my God! I would go into Ecstasy (capped E intended) when I took a bite of one. The prawns were enormous! I have never seen any as large as them since (perhaps memory has enlarged them). I kept one of the menus for decades and would fondly look it over from time to time until I had to throw it out (with tons of other stuff) when I was evicted from the studio I'd lived in for 30 years in the Mission in 2001 (during the first dot com frenzi). Another story.
I remember a Halloween party there once during which there was a contest for the best costume and drag queens vied for the crown. I was dumbfounded at the scene of men in drag; not just men in the plural, it seemed like there were hundreds. I'd never seen anything like it. I was later to discover Polk Street (way, way, WAY before the Castro). The Paper Doll closed in 1961 and I was heartbroken.



Milord is a 1959 song with lyrics by Georges Moustaki, music by Marguerite Monnot. It is a chanson that recounts the feelings of a lower-class "girl of the port" (perhaps a prostitute) who develops a crush on an elegantly attired, upper-class British traveller (or "milord"), whom she has seen walking the streets of the town several times (with a beautiful young woman on his arm), but who has not even noticed her. The singer feels that she is nothing more than a "shadow of the street" (ombre de la rue). 

The song was a #1-hit (biggest selling song that year) in Germany in July 1960. In UK it reached #24 (1960), in Sweden #1 during 8 weeks (15/6-1/8 1960), in Norway #6 (1959), and in the United States #88 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961 (but I'd heard it earlier, as usual).

There have been many interpretations of the song: Milva of Germany, a Czechoslovakian version by Hana Hegerová, a Swedish one by Anita Lindblom, England's Frankie Vaughan (in which he explains to a man he refers to as Milord that the woman he loves is with someone else and he should forget her, relax, be happy and find another woman). In the US Cher, and even Bobby Darin took a shot at it in 1964, with slightly altered French lyrics, to account for the fact that Darin was a man (the original lyrics were written to be sung by a woman). In-grid sang a remix of Milord in her album La Vie en Rose released in 2004. The song was edited to have a faster speed (read disco) than the original. The Mo-dettes did an interesting post-punk cover of it in 1980 and believe it or not, even Benny Hill managed to mangle it (links to these songs on YouTube below).  


Piaf at the Olympia 
vinyl LP cover back
photo by Styrous®



An exhibition opened on April 14, 2015, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France François Mitterrand, the French National Library, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Édith Piaf (see link below). For the occasion, the BNF – hosts a special exhibition on the private life of the singer through 400 recordings, pictures, letters, lyrics, posters, personal objects and her famous little black dress.


Piaf at the Olympia 
vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®
Piaf at the Olympia 
vinyl LP back cover detail
detail photo by Styrous®

Capitol Records vinyl LP inner sleeve
photo by Styrous® 
Piaf at the Olympia 
photo by Styrous®
Piaf at the Olympia 
vinyl LP  label, side 1 
photo by Styrous®
Piaf at the Olympia 
vinyl LP  label, side 2 
photo by Styrous®


Piaf at the Olympia was released in 1963 on Capitol Records

Tracklist:

Side One:

A1     Roulez, Tambours    
A2     Le Diable De La Bastille    
A3     Musique À Tout Va    
A4     Le Petit Brouillard    
A5     Le Droit D'Aimer    

Side Two:

B1     Le Billard Électrique    
B2     Toi, Tu L'Entends Pas    
B3     À Quoi Ça Sert L'Amour    
B4     Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien    
B5     La Foule    
B6     Milord    

Companies etc:
    Mastered At – Capitol Mastering

Credits:
    Producer [For U.s.a.] – Dave Dexter, Jr.

Recorded in France.

Barcode and Other Identifiers

    Matrix / Runout (Side A): SP1-10368-B2
    Matrix / Runout (Side B): STX-2-10368 J-8
    Other (Mastering Stamp): Mastered By Capitol



Net links:   
  
Lyrics for Milord      
Edith Piaf á la Bibliothèque nationale de France   
1958  
    
Versions of Milord on YouTube:  
 
Édith Piaf    
Piaf on the Ed Sullivan show      
Hana Hegerová
Milva   
Cher  
Bobby Darin 
In-grid
Mo-Dettes  



Styrous® ~ Wednesday, December 2, 2015  




Tuesday, July 21, 2015

King Crimson ~ In the Court of the Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson)

vinyl LP cover painting by 
Barry Godber





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I've started this Vinyl LP series because I have a collection of over 20,000 vinyl record albums I am selling; each blog entry is about an album from my collection. Inquire for information here.   

~ ~ ~



photos by Styrous®


King Crimson ~ In the Court of the Crimson King
back cover painting by Barry Godber
vinyl LP cover




King Crimson ~ In the Court of the Crimson King
 cover painting by Barry Godber
vinyl LP gatefold cover





King Crimson ~ In the Court of the Crimson King
 cover painting by Barry Godber
vinyl LP gatefold interior
























side 1:












side 2:





Tracklist: 

Side 1:   

1 - 21st Century Schizoid Man including Mirrors
                         - written by Lake*, McDonald*, Giles*, Sinfield*, Fripp* - 7:21
2 - I Talk To The Wind
                         - written by McDonald*, Sinfield* - 6:08
3 - Epitaph including March For No Reason and Tomorrow And Tomorrow
                         - written by Lake*, McDonald*, Giles*, Sinfield*, Fripp* - 8:52

Side 2:

1 - Moonchild including The Dream and The Illusion
                         - written by Lake*, McDonald*, Giles*, Sinfield*, Fripp* - 12:15
2 - The Court Of The Crimson King including The Return Of The Fire Witch and The Dance Of The Puppets
                         - written by McDonald*, Sinfield* - 9:25  


Companies etc.

Credits:

Notes:

Terre Haute pressing with CTH suffix in matrix.

Textured gatefold sleeve.

Barcode and Other Identifiers:

  • Matrix / Runout (A Side Label): ST-A-691699CTH
  • Matrix / Runout (B Side Label): ST-A-691700CTH
  • Matrix / Runout (A Side Etch): S T A691699-1B 1 CTH T
  • Matrix / Runout (B Side Etch): S T A691700-1B 1 CTH T
King Crimson ‎– In The Court Of The Crimson King An Observation By King Crimson
Label: Atlantic ‎– SD 8245
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1969
Genre: Rock
Style: Prog Rock


Links on the Net:
   
Pure and Easy Ode to Barry Godver           
The Dork Report       
Artists UK Great album art and strange stories  

                   

        Songs on YouTube:
     
21st Century Schizoid Man 
I Talk To The Wind    
Epitaph          
Moonchild       
The Court Of The Crimson King     
Styrous® ~ Monday, July 20, 2015
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