Search - Percy Faith, Miklos Rozsa, Henry Mancini :: Percy Faith: The Love Goddess; Hollywood's Great Themes

Uneven outing for Faith

Darryl Geddes | Syracuse, NY | 05/20/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This twofer, with over 70 minutes of music, provides a showcase for Faith-penned tunes and some lesser known hits from Hollywood. The Love Goddess finds the Faith arrangements full of his trademark strings, but several hits are distinctive in that Faith employs the brassiness of a big band sound, especially on Cheesecake. Keystone Kapers, with whistles and bells, is forgetful, but other selections are an easy listen. Hollywood's Great Themes contains selections that certainly would not make anyone's list of great themes from Hollywood. Would you pick the love theme from Ben Hur, or the theme from Light in the Piazza, or how about Over and Over Again from Jumbo? The only real Hollywood classic here is Moon River, though Faith does add a smattering of Richard Rodgers, with Hart and Hammerstein."

One More Great Percy Faith Twofer by Collectables

Carlos from Rio | Rio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil | 02/12/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"
Two big qualities distinguish the late Percy Faith.



First of all he was an original arranger with all those strings combined as if in a brass section in a unique sound. Second of all, he was a staff arranger for Columbia Records what gave him the opportunity to work on memorable albums by Johnny Mathis and other singers.



This twofer shows two different approaches: the first 12 takes came from his splendid album 'The Love Godessess' full of Mr. Faith's own compositions for films and TV series like 'The Virginian'. They're such inspired songs like the title song and 'Celia's Waltz'.



The second 12 takes came from another album with a miscellaneous movie soundtrack repertoire. They're such great songs by great composers but Mr. Faith's arrangements do not add any special flavor to the originals.



A special note on Collectables Records regarding its extraordinary series of twofers which have finally issued virtually all Percy Faith material."

"Miklos Rozsa epic film scores ~ Percy Faith"

J. Lovins | Missouri-USA | 07/04/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Every week I would go to the downtown library and check out the latest albums (LP's) ~ my eyes would always look for the Percy Faith releases. One of my favorites was "The Love Goddesses", featuring compositions by Maestro Faith, something about his string arrangements drew me to this album. At that time I had a reel-to-reel recorder/player and cassette recorder, would tape every album by Mr. Faith I could get my hands on. Later I would go to Webster Records the local record store in Old Webster, Mo. and purchase his latest releases.Entire album is a stand out, but here are some of the highlights ~ "MARILYN", beautiful haunting melody as strings and counter strings open, blending a harp that keeps reoccurring in your head ~ "THE VAMP", solo clarinet with plunking violins, enters the solo violin and full strings answer, simply beautiful ~ "OUR LOVE", is typical Percy Faith with an arrangement to die for ~ "CELIA'S WALTZ", a solo saxophone comes forward with counterpoints from Faith's famous string section, the melody gets under your skin and becomes intoxicating ~ "OBA! (BOSSA NOVA)", what is a Percy Faith album without Latin flavor, and this is what he does best.Second half of the album is "Hollywood's Great Themes", opening with "EL CID(LOVE THEME), "THEME FROM KING OF KINGS" and "BEN HUR(LOVE THEME)" the legendary Miklos Rozsa could do no wrong when it came to epic films, Faith's brilliant arrangement puts the listener right up there on the big screen ~ "MARIA", the wonderful song from "West Side Story" that will go one forever ~ "THEME FROM LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA", a heart-wrenching film with a light floating melody that lingers on, just take a listen to Faith's strings in top form ~ what a classic arrangement from the git-go!Total Time: 72:52 on 24 Tracks ~ Collectables 7478 ~ (3/19/2002)"