Midnight string quartet

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Rhapsodies for Young Lovers (1966)
Rhapsodies for Young Lovers (1966)

Contents

[edit] The Midnight String Quartet

The Midnight String Quartet were an easy listening "Chamber," style quartet, applying lush etherial sounds to covers and standards over several albums from 1966 to the early seventies.

[edit] History

Christmas Rhapsodies for Young Lovers(1967)reached number 18 in the billboard chartd at Christmas 1967.
Christmas Rhapsodies for Young Lovers(1967)reached number 18 in the billboard chartd at Christmas 1967.[1]


The Midnight String Quartet made a series of instrumental exotica recordings produced by "Tommy 'Snuff' Garrett," on Viva Records (U.S.), a subsidiary of Snuff Garrett Records. Their First album, Rhapsodies for Young Lovers (1966) was arranged by Leon Russell and spent 59 weeks in the Billboard charts peaking at number 17 in November 1966.
More chart success followed in the U.S. with Spanish Rhapsodies for Young Lovers, reaching number 76 in May 1967 and Rhapsodies for Young Lovers, Volume Two, reaching number 67 in July 1967.Christmas Rhapsodies for Young Lovers reached number 18 at Christmas 1967 while Love Rhapsodies only making number 129 in March 1968.The Look of Love and Other Rhapsodies for Young Lovers reached number 194 in August 1968.
Midnight String Quartet contued releasing albums with a double album Best of the Midnight String Quartet being released in 1971.[2][3]
Interest resurfaced during the Lounge Revival of the mid nineties and has seen among others, the re- release on cd of Rhapsodies for Young Lovers on the Varese Sarabande[4] label with extra tracks and additional liner notes by ‘Elevator music’[5] and‘The Coctail’[6] author Joseph Lanza.[7][8]

[edit] Personnel

The quartet on Rhapsodies For Young Lovers consisted of:
Leon Russell- Piano, arrangements & conductor. Jim W. Gordon-Drums. Michel Rubini- Harpsichord. Lyle Workman- Bass[9]

[edit] Discography

Original LPs

  • Rhapsodies for Young Lovers (1966)

Blue Star (The Medic Theme)/Lara's Theme/Lover's Concerto/Moonlight Sonata/My Heart's Symphony/Shadow Of Your Smile (Love Theme From The Sandpipers)/Strangers In The Night/Tonight's Dream/What Now My Love/Yesterday/You Don't Have To Say You Love Me/Young Lovers' Rhapsody

  • Spanish Rhapsodies for Young Lovers (1967)

Cuando Calienta El Sol (Love Me With All Your Heart)/El Relicario/Girl From Ipanema/Guantanamera/La Paloma/Lonely Bull/Maria Elena/Meditation/Our Day Will Come/Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars/Spanish Eyes/Summer Samba

  • Christmas Rhapsodies for Young Lovers (1967)
  • The Look of Love and Other Rhapsodies for Young Lovers (1968)

Apologize/By The Time I Get To Phoenix/Classical Gas/Good, Bad And The Ugly/Kiss Me Goodbye/Love Is Blue/Love Sonata/MacArthur Park/Midnight Memories/The Look Of Love/Theme From Valley Of The Dolls/Young Girl

  • Love Rhapsodies (1968)

Can't Take My Eyes Off You/Fascination/Goin' Out Of My Head/Impossible Dream/Look Of Her/Misty Night/My Prayer/Never My Love/Please Love Me Forever/Softly/Tara's Theme/Twilight Sonata

CD reissues

  • Rhapsodies for Young Lovers (2007) Varese Sarabande 066852

[edit] References

  1. ^ allmusic ((( Midnight String Quartet > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))
  2. ^ Viva Album Discography
  3. ^ allmusic ((( Midnight String Quartet > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))
  4. ^ Varese Sarabande Product Details
  5. ^ Joseph Lanza: Elevator Music, University of Michigan Press
  6. ^ BOOKS OF THE TIMES;Bottoms Up: The Cocktail, Shaken and Stirred - New York Times
  7. ^ Joseph Lanza: Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong. Publisher: Quartet Books (1995) ISBN-10: 0704302268, ISBN-13: 978-0704302266
  8. ^ Joseph Lanza: The Coctail. St. Martin's Press (1995) ISBN 0-312-13450-9
  9. ^ allmusic ((( Rhapsodies for Young Lovers > Credits )))

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

Easy listening
Elevator music
Lounge music

Exotica is a musical genre, named for the 1957 Martin Denny record album of the same title, popular during the late 1950s to mid 1960s, typically with the middle-aged suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism exotica means very precisely tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo-experience of Oceana (Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Southeast Asia).

The main article for this category is Midnight string quartet.