Search - Ronnie Aldrich :: Soft & Wicked / Come to Where the Love Is

The definition of "beautiful music".

David Kenner | Fort Worth, Texas United States | 09/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Beautiful Music" used to be a genre in the realm of popular music. It's also been called "easy listening" and then morphed into "adult contemporary". But today's adult contemporary is really just soft rock (albeit today's soft rock is harder than a lot of Top 40 was in the late 70s and early 80s). There used to be stations that played "beautiful music" exclusively: Stanley Black, Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Frank Chacksfield, etc. Most of the playlist would be recent contemporary hits covered by choral groups, pianists, and orchestras. During that time, London Records sold a lot of their patented Phase 4 Stereo LP records and reel-to-reel tapes. The series was renowned for it's technical brilliance, using state of the art recording, mixing and mastering techniques. Ronnie Aldrich was among London's best selling artists and Tony D'Amato produced many albums using Aldrich's twin pianos backed by The London Festival Orchestra. These albums were not only known for their technical brilliance (which is still quite impressive even in the 21st century) but also for their glossy, gatefold covers featuring colorful artwork and graphics and maybe a sexy model or two. The two LPs featured on this CD were originally released in 1973 and 1972, respectively. The long list of artists whose hits are covered on these albums include Carly Simon, Bread, Dawn, Al Green, Roberta Flack, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Neil Diamond, Sammy Davis Jr., Albert Hammond, and Edward Bear. There are also covers of some hits by "one hit wonders" of the time, like Danny O'Keefe, Hurricane Smith, and Hot Butter. Gato Barbieri's "Last Tango In Paris" was a hit for Herb Alpert in 1973, Nino Rota's "Godfather" theme hit big for Andy Williams, Nilsson covered Badfinger's "Without You" and had a huge hit, and The Partridge Family put out a hit cover of Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do", all of which are featured here as well. Aside from "Tango" and "Godfather", more film themes abound from movies like "The Valachi Papers" and "Young Winston" as well as the Burt Bacharach-Hal David theme to "Lost Horizon". A beautiful version of "The Impossible Dream" is here too.

Ronnie Aldrich backed by The London Festival Orchestra is almost like having Roger Williams backed by Mantovani. At any rate, it works and these albums hold up very well today.

The playing time of this CD is 81:12, which came as a surprise to me. I thought 80 minutes was the maximum amount of time on a CD. I shouldn't be surprised. When CDs originally came out, we were told it was 70 minutes, then it was 74, then 75, then 80. Who knows what the limit really is?

Anyway, the mastering job of this CD is first rate, preserving the technical brilliance of the original recordings."

Another version of the best memories of times gone...

ARMANDO R. VENEGAS | Lima, Peru | 01/31/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you were a teenager like I was in the 1970s, YOU WILL LOVE this album. It has a selected bunch of 24 classic Pop/Rock tunes of the 70s, played in beautiful arrangements for piano, orchestra and "Dooo-Dooo-Dooo" and "La-La-La" chorus lines by Ronnie Aldrich, backed by the London Festival Orchestra and Chorus. Times when all the music was available in LPs or "Single" records (8-reel tapes, 8-track cartridges and cassettes were still an almost expensive alternative)... In addition, these Decca/London productions were recorded with a wonderful sound technique titled as "Phase 4 Stereo".



I remember, there were radio stations who used to play these tunes along with other orchestral 'jewels' performed by Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, Frank Chacksfield, Herb Alpert, Bert Kaempfert, the outstanding French musician/performer/arranger Paul Mauriat, the amazing Italian sax player Fausto Papetti, Henry Mancini... An a lot of other crafted musicians and arrangers that defined the "Beautiful Music" era. Where have they gone?... Gosh, I miss to listen these stations while I drive my car!!!!



Anyway... If you bet for becoming a bit nostalgic and like to have a nice revival of that wonderful time, get this album. Sure, you won't be dissappointed!! And the sound quality of "Phase 4 Stereo" still remains!!!"