"Henry Mancini PURE GOLD" CD from 1987. 24 minutes of heaven?

Steve, if you get to work on a Mancini comp, I'll buy your lunch!

 

I'm sure many of us here wish you would....

Well....maybe 400? It's the optimist in me...

 

no more two dolla bargains around...

do we have another ugly pink?

 

And John Norman and Dick Bogert.

 

I bought this a while back on your recommendation Steve and have enjoyed it very much, thanks again.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=70378&highlight=Henry+Mancini

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Veech View Post
"Baby Elephant Walk" warms my heart every time I hear it. I remember hearing it on the radio and on juke boxes many times over back in 1962, I've loved that song ever since. Brilliant, and the "good evening friends" coda shows that Mr. Mancini had a wonderful sense of humor and humility as well. I have one of the later comps but I may need to grab this one based on Steve's recs.

In my neighborhood that year, I remember hearing both versions on our radio stations, so I knew I wanted the soundtrack, like I had to have the Mr. Lucky albums a few years before.

I just read Mancini's autobiography, and he credits a forties song by Will Bradley/Ray McKinley for his idea behind "Baby Elephant Walk".

Thanks for the tip about this CD.

 

I posted almost three years ago about how good this disc sounded. At that price everyone - regardless of what they claim to be their musical taste - would do well to get a copy. I can't imagine anybody not liking Mancini, and this disc is the perfect one to get acquainted with him.

 

The Best Of Nelson Riddle - Capitol 1989

Here's a disc that goes well with the Mancini one. It even seems to have the same remastering. The Theme From Route 66 is one of those 'cool' tracks for the ages, much in the same way Peter Gunn is.

 

There was a 3-disc box for Mancini about 5 years ago, OOP. There seems to be a few of his catalogue available from Spain. I picked up the Mancini '67 big band album from that series, didn't think much of it soundwise.

Yeah, here's an artist that's not going to gt a decent catalogue treatment from the label (BMG/Sony, originally RCA). Target audience is wayyy out of the demographic. And I'm sick of single-disc comps which pull all the same titles.

 

I just bought it from Half.com for a little more than 2 bucks, though from Steve's pitch, I'm sure it'll be worth it. I enjoy Mancini's music as well.

 

For a long time I thought "Theme to Route 66" was Mancini, it had that cool swing. Such a beautiful piece by Nelson Riddle.

 

The power of the Steve Hoffman forum:

Henry Mancini Pure Gold CD

Amazon: Best Price $7.98
Half.com: $9.49

The cassette is still $2.00 though. Guess I'll have to wait until the market cools down.

 

I have a few Mancini discs and some vinyl too but after reading this thread I had to of course order a copy of the Pure Gold CD too. Sounds like a real treat to the ears is on the way. The Mancini disc in my colllection now I like to listen to most often is the Time Life Instrumental Favorites Henry Mancini disc. Sounds pretty nice and mastered by Dennis Drake. I think I have 16 discs from that series I bought as a package deal on ebay several years ago. Lots of good stuff though to include, Gleason, L Welk, Percy Faith, Vaughn Williams, Ray Conniff, etc. There were a few compilation ones in the batch too. They all sound top notch though and were mastered well by Mr Drake.

 

Just bought it used for $7.98 and saw the new sealed copies are suddenly more than $100.00.

 

What?

 

Nice to see a Henry Mancini appreciation thread. I have always been a huge fan of his, even when I was a teen in the mid 60s when his music wasn't what most teens were listening to in the 60s. Love Theme to Romeo and Juliet is one of my favorites of his.

 

A Philly TV station would play repeats of "Peter Gunn" at 1AM,so during the summer of 1967,while able to stay up late,this high schooler got to see many episodes after watching the "Tonight Show" and really enjoy Hank's incidental music. "Peter Gunn"would have made a great drinking game if you waited till Pete got hit over the head-an easy gulp.
I enjoyed the music so much,a wrote a fan letter to Mr. Mancini. Weeks passed-possibly a coupe of months. Then,first an advance letter from his managment apologizing for the delay in answering the letter,as Mr. Mancini was involved in so many duties. And a few days later came an autographed picture. I truly suspect that because of the delay,it is the real thing,and if it isn't ,I don't want to know. A gerished keepsake. A class act. And loads of great sounds buried in those soundtrack albums.
And yes,those bean counters at Sony/BMG will probably let Hank's material rot,but,just think,four years ago they put together "The Ultimate Pink Panther",a greatest hits collection culled from the six Panther movies.

 

Snagged it. Whew! One good copy left for ~10 bucks, then it goes up to $88 and $108

 

There's only one song more beautiful than Theme From Romeo And Juliet. It's Moon River.

 

I have a very early Mancini compilation that was a remix, but otherwise sounds good--it was a collection of about 20 songs from four of his film scores (Hatari, Pink Panther, Charade, Breakfast at Tiffany's). I'm thinking it was released somewhere in 1984 to 1986 (it's in storage--can't look it up right now). Sounded good IMHO.

The album reissue CDs circa 1988 never sounded all that good--sort of flat and steely IMHO. The 3-CD "Wine & Roses" box set has a good assortment of songs, and I didn't think the sonics were all that bad on it.

Mancini '67 mentioned above--I agree on the sonics. For some reason around that time, the sound of the recordings changed drastically, and not for the better. Others from that era are similar. They sound distant, the highs are rolled off, etc., and haven't heard any format (LP, CD) sound good on these recordings.

 

I have been a big fan of Mancini's music for a long time ... I have numerous ( I have lost count) mono and stereo copies of his The Music From Peter Gunn and More Music From Peter Gunn LPs ... TMFPG LP sold over a million copies and is pretty easy to find at a reasonable price ... MMFPG LP is a little harder to find ... what's not easy to find is TMFPG cover below (I "borrowed" the pic ... originally post by Ed Bishop in this thread ... I have 2 copies but can't find either one at the moment).

Tim Neely refers to this cover in his LP Price Guide as the original cover ... I'm not so sure (I would love to hear from Tim on this subject) ... I think it's a cover RCA created (and used for a short period) when they ran out of the regular covers ... the reason I think this was the case is because I ran across an earlier RCA LP (by only a few numbers) that uses that same background (I can't find that LP either at the moment).

 

what is everyones opinion on the box set Days of Wine and Roses ?