Emotion, Inc. - King Guion

No Blues Is Good Blues

Emotion, Inc.
King Guion And His Orchestra
Musical Arrangements by Elliot Jacoby and Pee Wee Erwin
Title "Emotion, Inc." suggested by Jack Lazare
Produced by Sid Feller
Cover Photo: William Bell
ABC Paramount
A Product of Am-Par Record Corp.
ABC 172
1957

From the back cover: The name King Guion has, for years, been surrounded with an aura of respect and admiration from his colleagues and contemporaries of the music business. For more than a decade, he was known to be among the handful of studio musicians and arrangers in the Hollywood film studios who were on call by any studio at any time. This accounted for his status as one of the highest-paid sidemen in the world for a period of many years.

Ever since he had begun his career as a musician, King had pursued a natural desire to exploit the field of instrumental voicing and shedding to an ultimate conclusion of having created a sound so distinctive and compelling that it could readily embody an elusive, almost mysterious quality. To do this – and yet to preserve the basic melody theme – presented somewhat of a formidable challenge. Still, with the same perseverance which has been characteristic of King Guion since childhood, he was determined to attain this objective.

Within this album, then, you will hear the result of years of painstaking effort, research and constant application of purpose. With his sincere modesty, the maestro feels that it could be considered presumptuous to term this "The King Guion Sound" – but, in truth, the distinctiveness of what you are about to hear is basically and unalterably his. It is doubtful that other arrangers, musicians and composers will be able to decipher the extraordinary recipes which King Guion has concocted – at least, not for some time, and then only after some nerve-wracking and painstaking analysis.

The complexity of the arrangements and instrumental voicing notwithstanding, the listener will never be in doubt as to which of these standard compositions is being played. Mr. Guion has a deep-rooted respect for composers whose works are outstanding enough to become perennial standards, and feels that being disguised through the progressivism of some arrangers represents a flaunting of dramatic license. You will find, therefore, that the familiarity of these compositions is still preserved in King's renditions and the nostalgic flavor takes on new beauty and awe as a result.

In the development of "The King Guion Sound" and its coordinated presentation to the public, King feels that due credit should be given to those associates and interested observers who supported his theory. In this regard, important names are Mr. Gray Gordon, long an associate of Mr. Guion, a musician and ex-leader himself, who now serves as Mr. Guion's personal manager; Mr. Sid Feller, Co-Director of Popular Artists & Repertoire of ABC Paramount, who sense the tremendous portent of the sound; and to Rusty Dedrick and Al Heckler, who accomplished the amazing task of the arrangements, in collaboration with Mr. King. – Nat Hale

From Billboard - June 10, 1957: Guion continues his long-time pursuit of a "new sound," and weights his reed section too much for comfort, producing a sound that is not always attractive. As a dance band, it's often too heavy – hardly irresistible. There always are jocks looking for something different in the band line, but from the commercial viewpoint, this one hasn't got it.

My Silent Love
Don't Blame Me
When The Lover Has Gone
Someone To Watch Over Me
Lover's Paradise
(What Did I Do To Be So) Black And Blue
Alone Together
Penthouse Serenade
No Blues Is Good Blues
You Call It Madness (I Call It Love)
My Melancholy Baby
The Orient Express