Ray Conniff, Among All-Time Top 10 Best Selling Album Artists, Releases Film Music Tribute, 'I Love Movies'

Releases Film Music Tribute, 'I Love Movies'

'It's My 92nd Album,' Says the Enduring Pop Pioneer

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Ray Conniff, the enduring pop music pioneer with a genuine, distinctive orchestral and choral sound, continues ... Newly signed to PolyGram, the trombone player-arranger, one of the Top 10 all-time album sellers, has a new CD, "I Love Movies," to be released September 23, as usual featuring his trademark "voices-and-instrument" sound that he pioneered in the 1950s.

Conniff observes: "It's my 92nd album." On the CD's release date, Conniff will have just returned from his annual concert tour of South America, in time to prepare for a Hollywood all-star charity concert in the works to launch the "I Love Movies" recording.

A collection of some of the best known film themes, contemporary and classic, performed Conniff-style, "I Love Movies" includes tile music of such composers as Andrew Lloyd Webber, Maurice Jarre, John Williams, Alan Menken ... and Bruce Springsteen (who was seven years old when Conniff earned his first gold record!).

Springsteen's Oscar-winning "Philadelphia" movie theme song is part of the new Conniff package, which also salutes, via soundtrack music, such movies as "Chariots of Fire," "Pretty Woman, "Star Wars," "Pocahontas," "Superman" and "Beauty And The Beast," among others.

"Movie music has always been a great constant over the years. Whether the prevailing style was the Beatles, or disco, or rap, you could always guarantee that somewhere along the line a great piece of melodic music from a soundtrack would come along," says Conniff. "And they become part of people's memories and people react to them in whatever form they are presented as long as they're done with taste and integrity." However, Conniff does admit that in today's musical climate, "good melodies and great romantic lyrics are becoming rare."

"I Love Movies" was recorded at the O'Henry Studio in Burbank, CA, with Conniff leading his usual complement of eight singers (four male and four female) and 18 musicians. (With today's technology, he is able to overdub and produce an even fuller, deeper sound.)

When the lead trombonist was a no-show for the first song, "La Bamba," Conniff returned to his playing roots by filling in for him. Conniff fans also have a chance to get reacquainted, 1990s-style, with two of his biggest hits: "Unchained Melody," which Conniff recorded before its appearance on the "Ghost" soundtrack, and "Somewhere My Love," the "Dr. Zhivago," Maurice Jarre theme that won Conniff a Grammy in 1967.

At 80, Conniff still plays concerts throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world, in particular Latin America where the man and his music are very much in demand. He has been touring South America, with full orchestra and chorus, for the last 25 years, attracting audiences in the 25,000 range.

His recording career is one that today's superstars would envy. Conniff albums have been released consistently throughout the decades -- one carefully crafted CD in each year of the 1990s, 32 albums in the 1970s, for example -- and their titles reflect the wide ranging appeal of the Conniff Sound: " ... Plays Broadway," "Musik Fur Millionem," "En Espanol," "Always In My Heart," "'S Always Conniff," "40th Anniversary Album," and, of course, albums that are "The Best of ..." and "Conniff's Most Requested."

Conniff's decades-long recording catalogue is also enjoying a new lease on life. His original vinyl albums are being transferred to CD in the U.S. and around the world. A five CD set has just been released in Japan, for example.

Conniff is also reaping the benefits of the current retro-interest in Lounge Music. Conniff's distinctive approach to melody and arrangement falls into this category. In fact, one critic noted that Conniff's recording of "Music To Watch Girls By" was "the ultimate in Lounge Music."

But Conniff remains active today with new recordings. "I Love Movies" is pure Conniff -- his distinctive mixture of voices and instruments had one music critic noting that it was a style so "singular and precious that no one else to this day has been able to copy it."

Today, Conniff is still busy keeping the Conniff Sound alive, well and saleable. The Conniff catalog has been selling some two million albums a year for the past 10 years -- one million in the U.S., and one million throughout the rest of the world. He has Mexican, Peruvian, Brazilian, British, Australian, German awards ... and more. He was the first pop artist from the West asked to record in the then-Soviet Union ("Ray Conniff In Moscow"). He has a Grammy, Grammy nominations and a Golden Globe Award, plus 10 Gold Records and 20 more foreign Gold Awards.

SOURCE PolyGram

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