Bernard Herrmann - Citizen Kane (1941)

"Silent Noon, an Idyll for Orchestra" by Bernard Herrmann


When Orson Welles made the trip from New York to Hollywood to make a movie, he made sure to bring his Mercury Theater actors and crew, one of which was composer Bernard Herrmann for whom Citizen Kane would be his first film score.  Before Welles, Herrmann had already made a name for himself with accolades.  He won his first composition award at the age of 13, studied music at NYU and Juilliard, and had his own orchestra by the age of 20.  Three years later in 1934, CBS hired Herrmann as staff conductor.  During his tenure at CBS, he also worked as a music director with which position he was able to promote and perform (sometimes the US premiere) some of the world's freshest composers and their compositions regularly on the radio.  And he wrote and arranged scores for friend Welles's Mercury Theater and Campbell's Playhouse (including The War of the Worlds).  With his score for Citizen Kane, Herrmann brought to the film an innovative soundtrack that took heavily from his radio background (which he called "radio scoring") that allowed him rapid changes in mood to match the rapid, unconventional timeline of the film.  François Truffaut held the score as the first to properly set music in movies.  Welles maintained Herrmann's work to be half responsible for the success of the picture.  Herrmann believed it was his greatest film work.  "It's been downhill ever since!"

Here is the discography surrounding Bernard Herrmann's debut film score:

Silent Noon, an Idyll for Orchestra (composed in 1933)
Currier & Ives Suite (composed in 1935)
Moby Dick - Cantata (composed in 1938)
Citizen Kane

"Citizen Kane Suite" by Bernard Herrmann


Pass the Headphones!!

Orson Welles - The War of the Worlds (1938)

"The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles with The Mercury Theater on the Air


Orson Welles, the prodigy, talked his way into the theater in Europe and parleyed that into a successful and heralded career as a theater and radio actor/director by the age of twenty.  What brought him to prominent, national attention was his work with CBS's Mercury Theater on the Air, a radio acting troupe that performed weekly various adaptations of classic novels and short stories.  The most famous and notorious being the 1938 adaptation of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, a sort of Halloween holiday special.  With the unique structure of a regular musical broadcast interrupted by increasingly alarming emergency news bulletins and field reportage, the United States was rapidly taken over by an alien threat from Mars starting in Grover's Mill, New Jersey.

It was a new structure for the radio and because some listeners only heard portions of the broadcast (the full script makes the dramatization quite clear both in its content and promotion), a spotty hysteria spread through the Northeastern United States and some parts of Canada that had people fleeing their homes.  If it all seems overblown, it might have been since the media ended up writing over 12,500 articles on the program and its aftermath.  Welles, as the director and lead actor of the program and by now a household name, was forced into an apology for any trouble the broadcast might have brewed.  He would end up building the event into a new career in film through an unprecedented contract with RKO.  Welles would return to the radio as an actor, but it would no longer be his primary profession.  The War of the Worlds adaptation remains the most talked about and available of his radio work.

Here is the discography surrounding Orson Welles's debut album:

The War of the Worlds

Orson Welles Apologizes


Pass the Headphones!!

Anton Karas - The Third Man (1949)

The first track of Chet Atkins's debut album was a cover of one of the most recognizable movie soundtrack themes of all time.  Legend has director Carol Reed discovering zither player Anton Karas in a Viennese Heuriger, wine taverns treated as a national landmark of culture in Austria, and recruiting him to compose and perform the soundtrack to the film he was about to shoot there, The Third Man.  Karas's "The Harry Lime Theme" unexpectedly became the most popular and memorable song of the year.  Not only did the song top the singles charts and sell over half a million copies (unheard of at the time for such a novelty single), but it also propelled Karas into international superstardom.  He toured the world in 1950 and again in 1951 but would soon return to the comfort of home in Vienna only returning to tour occasionally.

Here is the discography surrounding Anton Karas's debut album:

The Harry Lime Theme (1949 single)
The Third Man

"The Harry Lime Theme" by Anton Karas


Pass the Headphones!!

Chet Atkins - Chet Atkins' Gallopin' Guitar (1952)

"Canned Heat" by Chet Atkins


The Everly Brothers's connection in the music industry was none other than legendary country singer and musician Chet "Mr. Guitar" Atkins, who pushed the duo to a successful career even after a few misfires.  That all took place at the first peak of his career.  For more than a decade before then, Chet Atkins was an itinerant session musician who wandered from country radio station to country radio station wowing executives and DJs with his finger-picking style of playing while simultaneously being dismissed for "not being country enough".  Still, he performed with the biggest names in country music, while his reputation as a skilled musician and upstanding individual grew over the years as did his singles output.  Starting with the jazz-influenced "Guitar Blues" in 1946 recorded at The Grand Ole Opry with only a clarinetist for accompaniment, Atkins would eventually release five to six singles for RCA Victor per year with various other musicians and singers, occasionally singing himself.  This was all before his first, purely instrumental 10" LP was released in 1952 called Chet Atkins' Gallopin' Guitar.  He had no hits but this would slowly change.

Here is the discography surrounding Chet Atkins's debut album:

Guitar Blues (1946 single)
Canned Heat (1947 single)
Standing Room Only (1947 single)
Bug Dance (1948 single)
I Know When I'm Blue (1948 single)
Dizzy Strings (1948 single)
I'm Pickin' the Blues (1948 single)
Money, Marbles and Chalk (1949 single)
Barber Shop Rag (1949 single)
Telling My Troubles to My Old Guitar (1949 single)
Centipede Boogie (1949 single)
Galloping Guitar (1949 single)
One More Chance (1950 single)
Main Street Breakdown (1950 single)
Boogie Man Boogie (1950 single)
Confusin' (1950 single)
Indian Love Call (1951 single)
Mountain Melody (1951 single)
My Crazy Heart (1951 single)
Crazy Rhythm (1951 single)
In the Mood (1951 single)
Rainbow (1952 single)
Spanish Fandango (1952 single)
Meet Mr. Callaghan (1952 single)
Tennessee Rag (1952 single)
Galloping on the Guitar (1952 single)
St. Louis Blues (1952 single)
Black Mountain Rag (1952 single)
Imagination (1952 single)
Chet Atkins' Gallopin' Guitar
Midnight (1952 single)
It Goes Like This (That Funny Melody) (1952 single)
Guitar Polka (1952 single)

"I'm Pickin' the blues" by Chet Atkins


"Wildwood Flower" by Chet Atkins


Pass the Headphones!!

The Everly Brothers - The Everly Brothers (1958)

"Wake Up Little Susie" by The Everly Brothers


When Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel started out singing as a folk duo, they were heavily influenced by Phil and Don Everly whose brotherly harmonies laid the creative and popular foundation for all folk and rock and roll-tinged vocal harmonizers that followed.  The two brothers were born into a musical family that had them perform at a young age and granted them early exposure to the music business.  These industry connections would prove fruitful when the duo sought a career of their own.  Their harmonies eventually caught the attention of music publishers Acuff-Rose and the lyric pens of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant.  This early collaboration would lead to The Everlys's most iconic tunes that built off of the brothers' harmonies, country twang, and early rock and roll sound.  These included "Bye Bye Love" and chart-topper "Wake Up Little Susie" both released in 1957.  A packaging debut album The Everly Brothers was released in early 2008 to capitalize on the duo's quick rise to fame.

Here is the discography surrounding The Everly Brothers's debut album:

Keep a' Lovin' Me (1956 single)
Bye Bye Love (1957 single)
Wake Up Little Susie (1957 single)
The Everly Brothers
This Little Girl of Mine (1958 single)

"Bye Bye Love" by The Everly Brothers


Pass the Headphones!!

Simon & Garfunkel - Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m. (1964)

"Wednesday Morning 3 a.m." by Simon & Garfunkel


One of the temporary drummers for Girls at Our Best! was journey-musician Paul Simon.  Known as the "other" Paul Simon, he is not to be confused with another Paul Simon from the famous folk vocal duo Tom & Jerry.  That is to say not famous at all.  Their first single "Hey, Schoolgirl" peaked at #49 on the pop charts when the duo of Tom Garff and Jerry Landis were still in high school.  The follow-ups didn't do nearly so well.  The two went to university and graduated with degrees in Mathematics and English respectively.  Landis continued in his prospects for the life of the itinerant musician and wrote songs and recorded them under other assumed names.  He wouldn't find success until getting back together with Tom for an audition with Columbia Records.  They garnered enough attention that the two were signed and encouraged to perform under their actual names Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, the first time something so ethnic would find itself on the pop charts.  The album they released from their contract with Columbia was a the soft, folk Wednesday Morning 3 a.m. in late 1964 only to see it flop and the duo break up.

Here is the discography surrounding Simon & Garfunkel's debut album:

Hey, Schoolgirl (1957 single)
Our Song (1958 single)
That's My Story (1958 single)
Surrender, Please Surrender (1962 single)
I'm Lonesome (1963 single)
The Complete Tom & Jerry (1964 compilation album)
Home Recordings (1964 home demos)
Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.

"The Sound of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel


"Peggy-O" by Simon & Garfunkel


Pass the Headphones!!

Girls at Our Best! - Pleasure (1981)

"Fast Boyfriends" by Girls at Our Best!


Before Wolfenden played with Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, he was a member of the short-lived band Expelaires.  Another surviving member of Expelaires was drummer (Darren) Carl Harper who found refuge with post-punks Girls at Our Best!  The band formed in 1979 around the musical collaboration of lead singer Judy "Jo" Evans and guitarist James "Jez" Alan.  Together, Jo and Jez wrote songs (in fact, just about every song) centering on Jo's fascination with sex and consumerism and the social expectations of women.  The punk outfit leveled off with bassist Gerard "Terry" Swift and eventually Harper.

Despite just looking for a musical outlet, the band's debut single "Going Nowhere Fast" was a surprise indie hit that demanded a series of follow-ups that culminated with the band's only album Pleasure released in 1981.  Girls at Our Best! toured England, other parts of Europe, and the United States but tensions grew within the band as the tour wore on that culminated with both Swift and Harper quitting the band.  Although Girls maintained a growing and devoted cult following, Evans felt a void of creativity and forward progress as far as the band was concerned and took that as a cue to end it.

Here is the complete discography for Girls at Our Best!:

Getting Nowhere Fast (1980 single)
Politics (1980 single)
Go for Gold (1981 single)
The Peel Sessions (1981 Peel sessions)
The Richard Skinner Sessions (1981 Skinner sessions)
Pleasure
Fast Boyfriends (1981 single)
Heaven (1982 single)

"Getting Nowhere Fast" by Girls at Our Best!


"Warm Girls" by Girls at Our Best!


Pass the Headphones!!

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Talk about the Weather (1985)

"Beating My Head" by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry


Red Rhino Records distributed Inspiral Carpets's first recordings for Playtime before it went bust, but during a good part of the eighties it had solid success publishing and distributing some of the highest charting indie acts, in particular, the early output of post-punk band Red Lorry Yellow Lorry.  Vocalist and guitarist Chris Reed formed The Lorries in 1981 with the first solid line-up including guitarist Dave Wolfenden (of the short lived Expelaires), bassist Paul Southern, and drummer Mick Brown.  (Steve Smith and Martin Fagan recorded on the band's early singles).  The group's thunderous bass lines, dissonant chords, and Reed's cavernous voice conditioned critics to group them with the burgeoning goth rock movement of the early eighties, but the band saw themselves in the honest punk traditions of Wire.  Red Lorry Yellow Lorry were critical darlings and a constant presence on the UK indie charts with their 1985 debut album Talk about the Weather peaking at #3.

Here is the discography surrounding Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's debut album:

To See You (1979 single by Expelaires)
John Peel Sessions (1979 John Peel Sessions by Expelaires)
Sympathy (1980 single by Expelaires)
Beating My Head (1982 single)
John Peel Sessions January 1983 (1983 John Peel Sessions)
Take It All (1983 single)
He's Read (1983 single)
John Peel Sessions November 1983 (1983 John Peel Sessions)
Janice Long Sessions (1984 BBC Sessions)
This Today (1984 EP)
Monkeys on Juice (1984 single)
Hollow Eyes (1984 single)
Live at Leeds Warehouse (1984 bootleg)
1984 Demos (1984 demos)
Talking about the Weather
Chance (1985 single)
Spinning Round (1985 single)

"Talk about the Weather" by Red Lorry Yellow Lorry


Pass the Headphones!!

Inspiral Carpets - Life (1990)

"Butterfly" by Inspiral Carpets

When I said Noel Gallagher was a guitar tech, it was an obfuscating way of calling him a roadie for the Madchester (see Blur's Leisure) band Inspiral Carpets.  Of course when the band formed around school friends Stephen Holt (vocals), Graham Lambert (guitars), and recruit Craig Gill (drums), Madchester was yet to be a music scene.  It took a while for the rest of the Carpets to come into form but the recruitment of Dave Swift on bass and Clint Boon on keyboards driving the band's formative garage psychedlia helped them garner local popularity and indie label interest.

Playtime Records were the first to court Inspiral Carpets with a record deal.  Early singles and EPs caught regular radio play and the attention of music journals, zines, and disc jockey (and young band herald) John Peel.  Peel, as he was famous for doing, gave the young men a chance at greater exposure through his popular radio recording sessions.  A debut album was in the works, half written, when it was temporarily and unexpectedly derailed by the bust of Playtime's distributor Red Rhino Records and the departure of Holt and Swift from the band.  The Carpets took control of their own fate by setting up their own record label Cow Records to release the last two records with this early lineup:  the Trainsurfing EP and the demo cassette album Dung 4.  They would follow that up within the year with their 1990 debut album Life.

Here is the discography surrounding Inspiral Carpets's debut album:

Horse (1982 single by Doctor Filth)

Prayer (1984 single by Lavolta Lakota)

Nightmare (1984 compilation song by Lavolta Lakota)

Fixed Link (1986 single by Too Much Texas)
Waiting for Ours (1986 demo)
Songs of Shallow Intensity (1986 demo)
Garage Full of Flowers (1987 flexi single)
Cow (1987 cassette demo)

Hurry On Down (1988 EP by Too Much Texas)
Planecrash (1988 EP)
Keep the Circle Around (1988 single)
Butterfly (1988 single)
The John Peel Show 1988 (1988 Peel Session)
Trainsurfing (1989 EP)

Two Cows (1989 compilation song)
Dung 4 (1989 demo)
Joe (1989 EP)

Move (1989 single)

Smart (1989 EP by Too Much Texas)

John Peel Session (1989 Peel Session)

The Peel Sessions (1989 Peel Session EP)

Cool as Fuck (1990 EP)

Find Out Why (1990 EP)

Commercial Rain (1990 single)

She Comes in the Fall (1990 single)

Life

Juvenilia (2006 compilation album by Too Much Texas)

"Greek Wedding Song" by Inspiral Carpets


Inspiral Carpets on Granada Reports with Bob Greaves


Pass the Headphones!!

Oasis - Definitely Maybe (1994)

"Supersonic" by Oasis


One of the then unknown bands that opened for The Verve at the onset of their success was the like-minded, Britpop agitators Oasis.  The band started as The Rain (either named for rain or the Beatles song) with neither of the Gallagher brothers.  If you believe the exiled, original singer of the group, The Rain were already locally successful and built the blueprint for the Oasis sound the brothers would eventually take credit for, but the other three founding members were dissatisfied with his singing and sought a replacement.  Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan (bass), Tony McCarrol (drums), and Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs recruited acquaintance Liam Gallagher who very quickly took leadership of the band and had the band's name change to Oasis, a name he got from a poster on his wall.  His brother, Noel, was a guitar tech and aspiring songwriter and rock and roller.  He attended Oasis's first concert in support of Liam in August 1991.  The band was unspectacular but adept and gave Noel the notion that he could make them spectacular.

Noel Gallagher joined the band under the conditions that he would play lead guitar, would write the songs, and be the effective leader of the outfit.  Noel's energy and creativity were such that all involved invited him to be just that.  All of a sudden there were songs, there was attitude, and there was simplicity: basic British rock and roll.  Oasis got there first break in 1993 on a happenstance meeting with talent scout and Creation Records co-owner Alan McGee.  McGee was so impressed with Oasis's live performance that the band were signed to an unlikely six record deal four days later.

Oasis built up a buzz around them.  Their live shows were electric and music journals heralded the young as a band to watch.  By the time they released their third single in the middle of 1994, Oasis had broken into the Top 10; all in preparation, of course, for the release of their debut Definitely Maybe which went straight to the top.  The album was immediately a landmark.  It noted the change in the music scene setting aside the British indie movement of the late eighties in favor of the return to form of positive, reckless, and classic rock and roll.  They'd eventually be grouped into the Britpop scene when they were much more universal, garnering a prominent worldwide popularity.  The Gallagher boys led Oasis through this new wave with their heavy partygoing and tabloid-ready antics.  They were violent, reckless and often plastered (particularly Liam) but they were Rock 'n Roll Stars.

Here is the discography surrounding Oasis's debut album:

Unreleased Boardwalk Basement / Real People Demos (1992 demo)
Live at Club 57 (1992 live bootleg)
Live Demonstration Tape (1993 demo)
Live at The Tramway, Glasgow (1994 live bootleg)
Supersonic (1994 single)
Live on The Mark Lemarr Show (1994 radio spot)
Live on Radio 1 Evening Session (1994 radio spot)
Shakermaker (1994 single)
Live at Glastonbury Festival (1994 live bootleg)
Live Forever (1994 single)
Secret Gig at The Borderline Club (1994 live bootleg)
Definitely Maybe
Live in London (1994 live bootleg)
Live at Club Quattro, Nagoya (1994 live bootleg)
Cigarettes & Alcohol (1994 single)
Live at The Wetlands, New York (1994 live bootleg)
Whatever (1994 single)
Interview (1994 interview)

"Cigarettes & Alcohol" by Oasis


1994 Oasis Interview


Pass the Headphones!!