Love Themes From Hollywood - Victor Young

 

Invitation

Love Themes From Hollywood

Victor Young and His Orchestra

Decca Records DL 8364

1958

From the back cover: Victor Young was born in 1900 in Chicago. He inherited his musical talents from his father, an accomplished musician and singer. At four he was plucking the strings of a violin given to him by his grandfather, and at six he was playing recognizable melodies on the same instrument.

When Victor Young was ten he was sent to live with his grandfather in Warsaw. Here he aroused the interest of the director of the Imperial Conservatory and worked hard to justify this dignified attention. He later graduated from the Conservatory and received a Guarnerius Violin from a Polish banker.

After the signing of the Armistice of World War I he returned to America and married his Polish sweetheart in California. National interest followed, and soon Young was back in his home town in Chicago, where he conducted large orchestras in plush movie palaces. He was able now to compose and arrange his own music. Striking a compromise with the jazz mood of the day, he became one of the first true exponents of that great type of American music.

Riding the rising tide of his fortune, he was made musical director for Balaban and Katz. In this era of the twenties the whole nation was singing his "Sweet Sue" and now in the fifties, they are still singing it.

A roll call of his popular tunes would fill many pages, but a few of his top hits of the roaring twenties include "A Ghost Of A Chance," "Street Of Dream," "Can't We Talk It Over," "Love Me Tonight," "Lawd You Made The Night Too Long," "A Hundred Years From Today," "Let Me Be Born Again," "Beautiful Love," "Sweet Madness," "Give Me A Heart To Sing To," "Old Man Of The Mountain," "Je Vous Adore,"

Today's youngsters cannot only sing his "Sweet Sue" but a flock of other Victor Young tunes, ranging from other hits still popular to the recent song hit, "My Foolish Heart,"

Victor Young' sensitive scores mad him the objective of Hollywood music talent scouts and he came to Paramount Studios in 1935. Examples of his talent are shown in many pictures, the complete list numbering around two hundred. Some of them are: "For Whom The Bell Tolls," "Love Letters," "Golden Earrings," September Affari," "Ridin' High," "Samson And Delilah," "Something To Live For," "The Greatest Show On Earth," all for Paramount and, in the freelance field, "My Foolish Heart," "The Quiet Man," "Sands Of Iwo Jima," "The Korean Story," etc.

Victor Young has been etching for Decca Records since the waxery's inception in 1934. He has recorded for them his most important motion picture scores in album form, "For Whom The Bell Tolls," "Love Letters," Golden Earrings," "Samson And Delilah," "The Quiet Man," and others.

In the realm of serious music, several large orchestral compositions of his are "Pearls On Velvet," "Arizona Sketches, ""Leaves Of Grass," "Stella By Starlight," "Manhattan Concerto," all of which have been performed during past seasons by the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras.

From Billboard - May 3, 1958: The late movie composer's romantic settings of themes from films make up an attractive item. Prime appeal will  be to the movie-goer. Themes include "Spellbound," "My Foolish Heart" and "You My Love."

Spellbound

A Place In The Sund

Tara's Theme

Elizabeth And Essex

The Best Years Of Our Lives

Invitation

My Foolish Heart

Cathy

Tall Men

Theme from "East Of Eden"

The World Is Mine 

You, My Love