Pictures In Music - Frank Perkins

Shindig For Skeletons

Pictures In Music
Frank Perkins Conducts His Own Compositions
Decca Records DL 8467
1957

From the back cover: Frank Perkins was born in 1908, in Salem, Massachusetts. Although his entire family loved music, only his mother, who played light classics on the piano, was a performer. Frank graduated from the Moses Brown School in Providence and the better know Brown University in the same city. In 1929 he received his Ph. B in – of all things – Economics.

By the time he graduated he was practically a one-man orchestra. Although his specialty was the piano, he could play organ, trombone, saxophone, and all the percussion instruments – drums, tympani, etc. During college and after, he studied with various private instructors, including Tibor Serly, the noted music educator who was a student of the famous Hungarian composer Kodaly.

All this equipped him as a well-rounded musician. He had his own successful dance band and, after traveling briefly in Europe, returned to America to become a song writer. In 1934 he joined Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians, and remained with them as arranger until 1938, at which time he joined Warner Brothers in the capacity of conductor and composer. Since 1946 he has devoted more and more to his own compositions, achieving many screen credits for his work.

From Billboard - May 20, 1957: Title conveys good notion of contents which consists of original work novelties in the Leroy Anderson manner. "Fandango," "Shindig For Skeletons," "The Toy Automobile" are some of the vignettes that encompass a variety of moods in slick style.

Fandango
Shindig For Skeletons
Feliciana
Escapade
Frustrate Floorwalker
Carromata
The Toy Automobile
The Deserted Patio
Babara
Pop-gun Patrol
Kentucky Trotter