Album credits, photos (in particular, Ray and his Bronco) and portions of the liner notes were omitted but have been reproduced in red below:
From We've Only Just Begun:
Produced by Jack Gold
Sound Supervision by Bob Ballard
Engineering: Jack Lattig, Bob Breault and Jerry Hochman
The real test of anything special is its ability to survive and flourish. Ray
Conniff and his music have endured over many years and his popularity is greater
than ever before. One of the reasons for this is the Conniff ability to grow
with the times. In this album we are treated to the marvelous Conniff singers
with their precisioned cadences, the imaginative and satisfying fills and swells
of the Conniff arrangements, and the percussion and rhythm track of today's
contemporary sounds. From Love Story:
Produced by Jack Gold In bursts of enthusiasm to capture the "now" sound, musicians sometimes
forget that basic musical beauty lies in the melodic line, not necessarily in
electronic magic. The artistry of Ray Conniff is the listening proof of this.
Sound Supervision by Bob Ballard
Arranged and Conducted by Ray Conniff
Engineering: Jack Lattig
Front cover photo: Guy Webster
Back cover photo: CBS Photo Studios
The view from the "live" side of the microphone as compared to the
"listening" side of the microphone at a Conniff recording session
is as different as Beethoven is to Bacharach. In the studio, each performer
faces that "live" mike and hears only his own sound and that of his
immediate neighbor. The "listening" side is the soundproof control
booth where everything is hear and balanced for the finished result.
While recording, Ray stands in front of the orchestra and chorus, a headset
on that enables him to receive this same complete sound. His practiced ear tells
him immediately if some one performer is "off-mike." Each number is
rehearsed until it meets with Ray's standards; then and only then does he call
for a "take." Several of these takes may be required before he feels
he has the one that echoes the perfection he demands on his albums.
As a member of the Conniff Singers for many years, our times together have been
what "Memories Are Made of...," particularly when we have been on
tour and have performed in front of a live audience. The stimulus of traveling
all day and performing all night may sound exhausting, but it's the adrenaline
that makes for excitement. The feel of a recording studio can never be compared
with the feel of an audience, yet in Studio A at Columbia Records in Hollywood,
Ray, like Merlin, re-creates the magic, and in so doing brings out the best
in us all.
Looking out at "Mr. C." from our raised platforms is looking at a
study in concentration, yet a man whose sense of humor shows itself repeatedly
when he laughs with all of us at a sour note in the chorus or a "clinker"
in the orchestra. His patience is much in evidence when trouble arises over
a difficult musical passage, as he is a man who makes each member feel important
to the entire arrangement.
There is no substitute for purity of sound. An audience may have varied musical
tastes, but the success of Ray's music proves that a majority of people the
world over prefer his straightforward arrangements. His instinct unfailingly
leads him in his selection of songs that never grow old in popularity, a trend
that has constantly grown ever since his first album, 'S Wonderful.
At that time he used only eight singers; four girls singing the same notes as
the trumpets and clarinets and four boys following the trombones and saxophones.
That was when the now famous "dah-d'dl-ee-yah-dat" was first heard
in place of words. The singers actually became instruments, singing orchestral
inflections instead of lyrics.
Through the years the chorus has grown to twenty-five singers, the "doo-doos"
and "wah-das" having been replaced by words, and the original eight-part
harmony expanding sometimes to sixteen separate vocal lines. Ray's creativity
never lies dormant. It is ever-changing to continually present his own brand
of distinctive listening pleasure.
Here is a man who creates a GOOD sound, a TRUE sound, a REAL sound, the Ray
Conniff sound. Rica Owen Moore