Premiere! - Frank Perkins

The Frustrated Floorwalker

Premiere!
Frank Perkins And His "Pops" Orchestra
A Collection Of Original Orchestral Novelties
Decca Records DL 7551 (10 Inch Disc)
1953

From the back cover: Frank Perkins was born April 21, 1908, in Salem, Massachusetts. Although all members of his family were intensely fond of music in all its forms, not one was a performer except his mother, who played light classics on the piano for her own amusement. Frank was educated in the local public schools, graduated from the Moses Brown School in Providence and the even better know Brown University in the same city. In 1929 he got 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 instruments of percussion, 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 Bela Bartok.

All of this equipped him as a well-rounded musician. In college 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, when he went with Warner Brothers as conductor and composer. Since 1946 he has devoted more and more time to his own compositions, achieving many screen credits for his motion picture work.

Here is a collection which presents Perkins in a series of moods and a range which covers almost the entire gamut of musical effects.

From Billboard - July 3, 1954: Frank Perkins's first Decca album is a collection of original orchestral novelties by the conductor himself. Many of them are charming, and the overall effect is light, romantic and thoroly enjoyable. However, Perkins well-known in the movie background music field, has yet to build a reputation in the record market, and both his name and the instrumentals in this album will be unfamiliar to the average disk buyer. Fans of David Rose, Mantovani and Bernie Wayne should find Perkins to their liking.

Kentucky Trotter
The Deserted Patio
Barbara
Popgun Patrol
Fandango
Feliciana
Escapade
The Frustrated Floorwalker