#lance fortune

Be Mine - Lance Fortune (peaked at Number 4)

The strings at the start of this are trying to pull the same trick that Craig Douglas has pulled in both of his hit songs so far, a straightforward lift from songs like Buddy Holly's It Doesn't Matter Any More - apparently "rock and roll with pizzicato strings" was a whole marketable thing in 1959 and 1960. Between that, a chord progression that could have been nicked straight from At the Hop, and the rather roguish pronunciation of "bay-beh" in the middle instead of "baby", it's clear we're trying for rock and roll here.

Trying being the key word. Because there is also somthing undeniably naff about this one, with cheesy lyrics delivered in a rather arch, enunciated way that wouldn't have been out of place half a decade earlier, firmly in the pre-rock and roll era. Lots of rounded "ooo" sounds, and and slightly forced rhymes and stilted phrasing. Look at the first lines alone: If I always want your kisses, / Try to show you just what bliss is, / Then fulful all of your wishes, / Would you / Be willing / To be mine? Talk about awkward in the mouth.

I do appreciate a few rather Northern-sounding vowels peeking through in spots, particularly on "just" and "love". Lance was from Birkenhead originally, and had joined a band called the Firecrests (awesome band name) while still a student there. They got a start playing Buddy Holly covers - because of course they did - until Lance got his big solo break, which was the point at which he became "Lance Fortune", a name originally suggested to and rejected by the artist who settled on "Georgie Fame". Who we will absolutely be hearing from, I'm sure.

This song wasn't a Lance Fortune original, though. Instead, we're looking at a cover of a German hit, Alle Mädchen wollen küssen ("All the girls want to kiss") which seems to have been translated into a whole bunch of languages. That German schlager origin maybe explains the general cheesiness of it. It also means that there are a bunch of German versions including, rather improbably, a punk version by the Toten Hosen. Lance's version seems to be the best known in English, though - it was enough of a hit, that Lance apparently because quite a hot commodity, or at least enough of a hot commodity for him to be one of two artists picked, a month later, to replace Eddie Cochran as a supporting act for Gene Vincent's UK tour, after Eddie's untimely death in a road accident.

That said, this song is still a huge pile of cheese. Definite downgrade from Eddie Cochran, sorry Lance.

Theme from A Summer Place - Percy Faith and His Orchestra (2)

You know this piece. You may not think you do, but you do. It's used in TV or ads as a gag, almost, something to symbolise people having a carefree, serene time, their worries forgotten in the bliss of it all. That's how smooth and laid-back this sounds, a real orchestral, easy listening hit. Even without "Theme from" in the title, you can immediately can tell that this was from a film, purely from the big, sweeping strings, the high, sweet flutes, the horns that come in about thirty seconds in to give the track a bit more heft. It's cinematic, and it's epic, but it's also very pretty, a sort of dreamy waltz that lives and dies on how much you are or aren't bothered by the main theme repeating. Because holy moly, does the theme from the first few lines repeat a lot throughout this whole thing. It's basically made up of one or two lines that are just repeated back and forth between various different instruments, and it means that by the end, you can almost certainly hum along - a good, recognisable hook.

For all that, thoguh, A Summer Place isn't a hugely well-known film nowadays - it seems to be notable mainly for this musical theme, composed originally by one Max Steiner, and played, in the 1959 soundtrack version, by Hugo Winterhalter and his orchestra. It was only a year later that Percy released his version (which has since become the most well known version). The film's about two former teenage lovers, who meet up twenty years later when their children have a love affair together. There's class tension, forbidden romance, a messy divorce, a rescue from the Coast Guard and a teenage pregnancy - clearly a lot going on in this film, all of it quite melodramatic-sounding. I also found this quote from a reviewer, who claimed that it was "one of the most laboriously and garishly sex-scented movies in years". So there's that, too. It's a lovely soundtrack, for it, though - the film's set on a little touristy island off the coast of Maine, and I can absolutely see Max's lush strings setting that off perfectly, giving a sense of Pine Island as this idyllic, romantic holiday spot. I think I'd watch it, though I'm not sure if I'd actually enjoy it or not.

The song, either way, was a huge hit - it remains the longest-standing instrumental Billboard Number 1 in the US, and while it didn't make Number 1 in the UK, it did still hang around for a lengthy 31 weeks in the charts, with seven of those in the top 10. And compared to some tracks, I can kind of see why people were buying this - I'd enjoy having this on around the house, occasionally. I was fully not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, since I'm not generally a fan of "easy listening" type stuff. But while it's definitely easy on the ear, it never falls into the trap of being soupy or getting bogged down in overly frilly stuff. It's sentimental, but as long as you go in prepared for that, it's really quite a pleasant listen. It would be good to sample, I bet.

I fully didn't expect to like Theme from A Summer Place as much as I did. A proper surprise, right there. It's cheesy, but in an expected and very listenable way, and I was charmed by the flutes and the brass, and the way that the string motif just floats over the top of them almost effortlessly. Very serene, very relaxing. Whereas Be Mine was just cheesy. Not a hard pick, this week.