Percy Faith Albums (29)
'Passage to Romance'
Release Date 3/12/2007
Tracks 18
Label Hallmark Music
See Album Tracklist and Review
'Percy Faith and His Orchestra'
Release Date 1/22/2007
Tracks 20
Label Flashback
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'More Themes for Young Lovers'
Release Date 10/4/1988
Tracks 12
Label Columbia
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'Themes for Young Lovers'
Release Date 9/8/1987
Tracks 12
Label Columbia
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Moods get ugly in the research lab when the muzak experimentation sessions are underway, nonetheless Percy Faith gets a special tip of the hat for knowing what he is doing, for figuring out what the essential elements of any song are, combining them as if brewing tea and then always making sure there is a drum part that could drown everything else out were it just nudged up a touch. Faith versions of songs are so well known, some of them actually having followed up the Rolling Stones on radio shows during the psychedelic era, that listeners can actually recognize them. Essentially, this means Faith doesn't exactly create muzak at all, since nobody in their right mind would "recognize" an easy listening track. Generously buoyed by tunes from the best known pop hitmaking teams of the late '50s and early '60s, this selection grooves along with a rhythmic bounce all its own. Orchestra members are not identified, meaning there's no way to personally thank the fine saxophonist for a nice solo "On Broadway," Faith in this case makes the familiar surprising by overlapping an ascending harmonic variation, a bit like looking off the boardwalk and seeing the waves moving backwards. One thing Faith never did on these types of records was turn the rhythm section down too low. While the melodies of "Can't Get Used to Losing You" or "My Coloring Book" are turned into overly large washes of sound by excessively expanded sections, the pulsations of the rhythm instruments are a secure reminder of the song's actual origin, a close relation to if not exactly rock & roll. [Sony reissued the album with a bonus track in 2007.] ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Percy Faith suffered two blows as a record seller in his career. First, his LPs stopped being big successes after the British Invasion of 1964, although they continued to do well enough to rank consistently among the Top 200 bestsellers for another nine years. But by the early '70s, a generation of soft rockers had emerged to steal the audience from easy listening veterans like him. Clair, his first album of 1973, only "bubbled under" the Billboard chart, his first newly recorded LP to miss the main chart since it was expanded to 200 titles in 1967. Then, inevitably, his next release, My Love, became his first to sell too poorly to rate any recognition at all. Looking at the selections, you can see why. Nine of the 11 tracks are Faith versions of pop hits from the first half of 1973. But when the likes of Paul McCartney and the Carpenters are already making lush, easy listening-style records like "My Love" and "Sing," who needs Percy Faith's versions? As usual, the conductor is at a loss when he tries for something up-tempo; his treatment of Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" is bizarre, and "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" loses a lot without its whodunit lyrics. The two oldies among the selections are "The Twelfth of Never," Johnny Mathis' 1957 hit, which was arranged originally by Faith's Columbia Records colleague and competitor Ray Conniff, and one of Faith's classical borrowings, "Viva Vivaldi," a "switched on" treatment of the Spring movement of The Four Seasons. By 1973, albums like this had become inessential because the artists people like Faith watered down for their relaxed audiences had learned to do their own diluting. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
