Search - Mitch Miller :: It's So Peaceful in the Country: European Holiday

It's So Peaceful In The Country/European Holiday

Jeff Carter | Perry, Ga United States | 12/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Here is 2 more great albums on 1 cd from Collectibles.It's So Peaceful is one of the prettiest Mitch Miller/Percy Faith albums I have heard.This album features Faith doing the strings and Miller doing the oboe and horn.The oboe and horn enhance the strings.Every song on it's so peaceful is lush and beautiful with the signature Faith Strings.Here is the tracks and other info.It's So Peaceful In The Country-1956 Liner Notes Yes Every Song Lush Mono
1)It's So Peaceful In The Country
2)While Were Young
3)Goodbye John
4)I'll Be Around
5)It Could Happen To You
6)Imagination
7)Love Among The Young
8)Moonlight Becomes You
9)Who Can I Turn To
10)So Help Me
11)Darn That Dream
12)It's Always YouEuropean Holiday is mostley vocals with only 2 instrumental songs.It includes Jerry Vale,Jill Corey and The Micheal Stuart Chorous.Some of these songs are very short.The Gormet Song is only 0.58 seconds long.Most of these songs sound like songs you would here sung at a play however the last 3 sound very different.Here is the track list.European Holiday-1956 Liner Notes Yes Mono
13)Flyin Up To Europe
14)Dealer In Dreams
15)Trip Of Your Dreams
16)The Gourmet Song
17)Heavenly Holiday
18)Traveling Through Europe
19)Entre Nous
20)Under Paris Skies-Bonus Track
21)Autumn Leaves-Bonus Track Instrumental with wordless chrous
22)Without My Lover(Bolero Gaucho)Bonus Track Instrumental with Stan Freeburg on Harpsicord.Miller is doing the arranging.If you love beautiful music pick this up for It's So Peaceful.Don't let the mono sound pursuade you not to get these as they were only recorded in mono when the original albums come out.They still sound great.I'd also like to recommend the following new Percy Faith 2 on 1 cd's coming April 13th from Collectibles.Music For Her Plus Selected Singles
Those Were The Days/Romeo And Juliet
Held Over/Leaving On A Jet Plane
Country Bouquet/Disco Party
Swing Lo In Hi Fi/A Look At Monoco"

A strange industrial-musical rarity, padded with filler

Gene DeSantis | Philadelphia, PA United States | 10/25/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

""European Holiday" headlines this show; it's probably the only industrial musical on CD. SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) commissioned it in 1954 to help goose the burgeoning international tourist trade. It originally sold on side one of a 10" Columbia Transcriptions LP at travel agents for a dollar; side two featured three brief light classics by Scandinavian composers like H. C. Lumbye, licensed from Mercury and British Decca. Of the songwriters the Web is clueless; their only other work was a couple of tunes for a short-lived Broadway comedy called "Tall Story." Just as well; the songs are pleasant and forgettable -- like the production. A Mr. and Mrs. Roberts (Jerry Vale and Jill Corey) pining for a second honeymoon (one Cledge Roberts was credited as the "director") meet a travel agent (Mike Stewart, some sort of TV variety supporting hand) who digs into his folders and "Rhymes Have I" to boast "my moonlight on the Firth of Forth is really quite a bargain." Suitably impressed and keeping within budget ("you go twelve extra places -- at no extra fare!") the lovebirds meet an SAS army ("You may not be a doctor or a lawyer or a star, but you'll travel in good company -- whoever you are!") to board the Royal Viking, most likely a four-engine Douglas DC-4. (No, NOT an Airbus.) After singing halfway across the Atlantic they're met by a steward (yes, a male flight attendant; they were the rule in those days) who offers a feast to make a gourmet green with envy, but not ptomaine: "Filet mignon, the tenderest lamb, a bird in a glass or succulent ham" -- and Southwest Airlines dares to serve peanuts? Singing through the flight's second half and getting some quick double-berthed shuteye the Robertses land in Europe where they're met by seven tour guides who sound uniformly stupid. These, alas, are among the ten characters (including an SAS captain) played by the estimable Jonathan Winters in an early appearance; his name is astonishingly missing from the booklet and tray liner (another fine job from Collectables). After our couple escape him and an airport announcer who sounds just like him Mr. Roberts, gazing soulfully at his wife with his mouth, all but admits they didn't need Europe: "I found more romance in your tiniest glance than ever we found in romantic France", which should have gotten Mrs. Roberts thinking why they had to hock everything to get there. The travel agent reappears to pitch his wares to the audience as the recording ends.



Miss Corey got first-billed here; Sing-Along Mitch must have been smitten with her. But one can hear why she went away so soon: she has a strong, captivating voice, but not that special among the day's many such voices. As for Mr. Vale, while he was a few years from a blue-rinse-set daydream and seems a bit generic he is also earnest and eager, as he always was.



The rest of the album can pass with little comment. Mr. Sing-Along seems to have recorded "It's So Peaceful in the Country" at least in part as a favor to Alec Wilder, with whom he worked on his ultimate archenemy Frank Sinatra's Columbia conducting sessions. It's pretty (we forget Mitch was a wide-ranging studio oboeist before his, er, legendary reign in pop A&R) and likewise forgettable. The three singles at album's end replaced the licensed goods on the '56 "European Holiday" release for the record shops."

What's going on with that European holiday??

Suellen M. Entwisle | Australia | 07/15/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"l bought this cd because my mother used to put on 'It's so peaceful in the country' when guests were just about to arrive for dinner. The house would be sparkling, there would be something delicious cooking, the loungeroom would be bathed in soft lamp light...and this record playing soothingly in the background. Very happy memories!



'It's so peaceful in the country' is just as l remembered it. It's a lovely record. l give that 4 stars.



However it also comes bundled with 'European holiday' which is like a sound montage & radio play all rolled into one. After being soothed by 'it's so peaceful' to be attacked by that barrage is a jolt. Good for one listen for the novelty value but after that................???



My advice is find a recording of 'It's So Peaceful in the Country' and make sure it doesn't have 'European holiday'! l give it one star, mainly for being a sound capsule from the fifties."