Uploaded January 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE CHARTS - 1967
Song that entered the charts : "Music To Watch Girls By"
¨Performing Artist(s) : The Bob Crewe Generation
HCP = 15
The song was written by Sid Ramin and became a true instrumental "classic". The tune has been used numerous times in films and television commercials.
ENOCH LIGHT
Enoch Light began as a light classical violinist after graduating from Johns Hopkins University, performing in the US and Europe. After a near-fatal car accident in 1940 and World War II interrupted his classical career, he organized his own dance band, "The Light Brigade," and worked in clubs and hotels around the Northeast, including the Grill Room of the Hotel Taft. It was a conservative band, what was known as a "sweet band," specializing in music for middle-aged dancers. He recorded with this band for RCA and Columbia.
He broke up the band toward the end of the 1940s and went into management, working for several record companies before becoming president of Waldorf Music Hall Records in 1954. He founded his own label, Grand Award, in 1956 and had several successes with Dixieland and honky-tonk piano albums by such anonymous groups as the "Charleston City All-Stars" and "Knuckles O'Toole" (aka Dick Hyman).
Light sold Grand Award to ABC Records and formed Command in 1959 with the specific aim of capitalizing on the emerging market of stereo fanatics. He wanted his recordings to take maximum advantage of left-right channelization without stooping to tricks like "ping-pong" effects. He was a meticulous engineer and put as much effort into the quality of his recording equipment and production systems as into the music itself. He tested a number of New York studios before selecting , and he was the first to arrange the musicians to suit the audio effects he wanted to achieve. He devoted a considerable amount of prose to describing the acoustic aspects of each number--to the point that he started a new LP packaging format, the gatefold, to fit it all in. Finally, he set Command LPs apart on the store racks with bold abstract designs, the first few by the artist Josef Albers.
Light lavished attention on the recording techniques because, in his words, "Stereo is like an open umbrella. Every rib is exposed and any flaw in the silk is right there in front of your eyes."
Light produced a steady stream of Command releases, under a variety of names, sometimes featuring musicians such as Tony Mottola or Dick Hyman, sometimes under anonymous groups like "Los Admiradores." He also followed his love of classical music by releasing a series of recordings by William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that are considered among the finest of the early stereo era. He continued to experiment with techniques, becoming one of the first to use 35mm film to record instead of magnetic tape. One big advantage of film over tape was that distortions due to the drag of the original tape across the recording head ("wow" and "flutter") were reduced dramatically.
In 1965, he sold Command to ABC Records, which was itself bought by MCA a few years later. You can easily mark the end of Light's reign at Command: ABC dropped the gatefold package like a hot potato. Later, it stopped bothering with any of the interior liner notes. Light returned to the scene within months of leaving Command with a new label, Project 3, and quickly picked up many of his former Command lineup of musicians. Like Command, Project 3 featured immaculate recordings and beautiful glossy gatefold designs. Overall, though, Project 3 recordings are more conventionally easy-listening and rely far less on dramatic contrasts between channels and dynamic extremes.
VAMOS VAMOS VAMOS (NO SEAS TIMIDA)
Written by Light himself for the album "Cuerdas Latinas" (Latin Strings) which was released on his Project 3 label.
MHO
Here's a sparkling year opener with Enoch Light and his fabulous musicians in a superb shape ! This orchestral arrangement is dazzling, the technical quality is outstanding and the stereo - or should we say "spatial" - effect is just mindblowing.
If one pays particular attention to that stereo sound, if one concentrates on that aspect of the recording, one can easily imagine the orchestra - and all of its section musicians - sitting "around" you. (Closing your eyes will intensify the experience ;) ! So fasten your seatbelt 'cause here comes some musical fireworks by Enoch Light and His Orchestra !
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE CHARTS - 1967
Song that entered the charts : "Music To Watch Girls By"
¨Performing Artist(s) : The Bob Crewe Generation
HCP = 15
The song was written by Sid Ramin and became a true instrumental "classic". The tune has been used numerous times in films and television commercials.
ENOCH LIGHT
Enoch Light began as a light classical violinist after graduating from Johns Hopkins University, performing in the US and Europe. After a near-fatal car accident in 1940 and World War II interrupted his classical career, he organized his own dance band, "The Light Brigade," and worked in clubs and hotels around the Northeast, including the Grill Room of the Hotel Taft. It was a conservative band, what was known as a "sweet band," specializing in music for middle-aged dancers. He recorded with this band for RCA and Columbia.
He broke up the band toward the end of the 1940s and went into management, working for several record companies before becoming president of Waldorf Music Hall Records in 1954. He founded his own label, Grand Award, in 1956 and had several successes with Dixieland and honky-tonk piano albums by such anonymous groups as the "Charleston City All-Stars" and "Knuckles O'Toole" (aka Dick Hyman).
Light sold Grand Award to ABC Records and formed Command in 1959 with the specific aim of capitalizing on the emerging market of stereo fanatics. He wanted his recordings to take maximum advantage of left-right channelization without stooping to tricks like "ping-pong" effects. He was a meticulous engineer and put as much effort into the quality of his recording equipment and production systems as into the music itself. He tested a number of New York studios before selecting , and he was the first to arrange the musicians to suit the audio effects he wanted to achieve. He devoted a considerable amount of prose to describing the acoustic aspects of each number--to the point that he started a new LP packaging format, the gatefold, to fit it all in. Finally, he set Command LPs apart on the store racks with bold abstract designs, the first few by the artist Josef Albers.
Light lavished attention on the recording techniques because, in his words, "Stereo is like an open umbrella. Every rib is exposed and any flaw in the silk is right there in front of your eyes."
Light produced a steady stream of Command releases, under a variety of names, sometimes featuring musicians such as Tony Mottola or Dick Hyman, sometimes under anonymous groups like "Los Admiradores." He also followed his love of classical music by releasing a series of recordings by William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that are considered among the finest of the early stereo era. He continued to experiment with techniques, becoming one of the first to use 35mm film to record instead of magnetic tape. One big advantage of film over tape was that distortions due to the drag of the original tape across the recording head ("wow" and "flutter") were reduced dramatically.
In 1965, he sold Command to ABC Records, which was itself bought by MCA a few years later. You can easily mark the end of Light's reign at Command: ABC dropped the gatefold package like a hot potato. Later, it stopped bothering with any of the interior liner notes. Light returned to the scene within months of leaving Command with a new label, Project 3, and quickly picked up many of his former Command lineup of musicians. Like Command, Project 3 featured immaculate recordings and beautiful glossy gatefold designs. Overall, though, Project 3 recordings are more conventionally easy-listening and rely far less on dramatic contrasts between channels and dynamic extremes.
VAMOS VAMOS VAMOS (NO SEAS TIMIDA)
Written by Light himself for the album "Cuerdas Latinas" (Latin Strings) which was released on his Project 3 label.
MHO
Here's a sparkling year opener with Enoch Light and his fabulous musicians in a superb shape ! This orchestral arrangement is dazzling, the technical quality is outstanding and the stereo - or should we say "spatial" - effect is just mindblowing.
If one pays particular attention to that stereo sound, if one concentrates on that aspect of the recording, one can easily imagine the orchestra - and all of its section musicians - sitting "around" you. (Closing your eyes will intensify the experience ;) ! So fasten your seatbelt 'cause here comes some musical fireworks by Enoch Light and His Orchestra !
