Friday, January 09, 2015
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Tuesday, January 06, 2015
Perry Como
I have an appreciation for Perry Como coming out of this holiday season, after my facebook friend Rich Dudas sent me several of his Christmas shows on DVD with various sponsors! Love these shows! His Chesterfield and Kraft Music Hall specials had class. I got some great insight into his recording career from my pal Bill Giles, who worked many years for RCA Victor and with Como. Richard Carpenter wrote the liner notes of this 3 disc RCA Christmas collection.
WINTER IS HERE!
It's not a fit night out for man or beast! Santa's going to finish up these cookies and take a long winter's nap :)
PAUL COKER, JR.
Just had a nice, long chat with my friend Paul Coker, Jr. We have a few things coming up that we may work on together..Always enjoy talking with him! He has a great sense of humor He said he just finished a two page spread for Mad Magazine, that he had great difficulty with.
Sunday, January 04, 2015
ALFIE SCOPP
C. 2001 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt Archives Alfie Scopp, seen all the way to the right of Larry D. Mann, and voice of Charlie-In-The-Box is still living today at age 95 in Canada. Bill Giles told me that he was very close friends with Robert Goulet, and they would play cards in the studio frequently. I believe this is how Arthur met Goulet and would hire him to sing THE DAYDREAMER in 1966
JANIS ORENSTEIN
Bill reminded me of this story from my book THE MAKING OF THE RANKIN/BASS HOLIDAY CLASSIC: RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER, which I forgot about Janis Orenstein (Clarice) came to the studio after school with her mom to record "There's Always Tomorrow," and nailed it on the first take! He said he never recorded anyone that did that...it was rare. He had her do a few more takes BUT it was the first take that made it into the special and on the soundtrack album. He also told me about a soundtrack album that was attempted in the studio, that was beyond the DECCA LP that was released, that was a total disaster and never released.
BILL GILES
Had a nice long chat with my friend Bill Giles tonight, from his Florida home. Bill was the head sound engineer at RCA Victor's Canadian studios and did all of the recording there on Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He just received his Arthur Scrapbook and has nothing but kind things to say about Arthur. I learned many new things tonight about the Rudolph sessions and Bill in general, that I never knew. Bill worked with all kinds of talented artists over the years including Oscar Peterson, Paul Anka, Harry Belefonte, Perry Como, Rich Little and he worked on Elvis Presley's earliest RCA Sessions in Nashville, including the recording of "Blue Suede Shoes." He also worked on The Beatles recordings, remixing them for the states. An Amazing career in the recording industry! C. 2001 Miser Bros Press/Rick Goldschmidt archives
