WAKE THE TOWN AND TELL THE PEOPLE, Les Baxter, Capital #3120 1955

Details

Description

WAKE THE TOWN AND TELL THE PEOPLE, Les Baxter, Capital #3120 1955
Flipside: I’LL NEVER STOP LOVING YOU – Here is another really great ballad from my music collection. “WAKE THE TOWN AND TELL THE PEOPLE” is a popular song published in 1955 with music by Jerry Livingston and lyrics by Sammy Gallop. The biggest-selling recordings of “WAKE THE TOWN AND TELL THE PEOPLE” were made by Les Baxter and Mindy Carson, both released in 1955.

Born Leslie Thompson Baxter March 14, 1922 in Mexia, Texas, Les Baxter was an American musician, singer and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music known as ‘Exotica’.

Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. From 1943 on, he played tenor and baritone saxophone for the Freddie Slack’s big band. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as “WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE”.

Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950 and conducted the orchestra on two early Nat King Cole hits, "MONA LISA" and "TOO YOUNG”. He also recorded Yma Sumac's first album, "Voice of the Xtabay", which can be considered one of the first recordings of Exotica. He then turned to scoring movies. Amazingly, Baxter composed, orchestrated and recorded the entire score of ‘The Yellow Tomahawk’ (1954) in a total of three hours for $5,000.

With his own orchestra, Les Baxter had 9 songs charted nationally on Billboard with 2 - #1 songs. His first “UNCHAINED MELODY” charted in May 1955 for 21 weeks and reached # 1 and stayed #1 for two weeks. His biggest song was “THE POOR PEOPLE OF PARIS" which charted in March 1956 for 24 weeks and reached #1. It stayed #1 for 6 weeks!

This upload of “WAKE THE TOWN AND TELL THE PEOPLE” charted in August 1955 for 18 weeks and reached #5, another giant hit!

Baxter also achieved success with concept albums of his own orchestral suites. He also wrote the "Whistle" theme from the TV show ‘Lassie’.

In the 1960s, he formed The Balladeers, a conservative folk group wearing suits that at one time featured a young David Crosby (CSNY). Later, he used some of the same singers from that group for a studio project called “The Forum”. They had a minor hit in 1967 with a rendition of "River is Wide" which implemented the Wall of Sound technique originally developed by Phil Spector.

He worked in radio as musical director of ‘The Halls of Ivy’, the ‘Bob Hope Show’ and the Abbott and Costello shows. Baxter also composed movie scores in the 1960s & 1970s for B-movie studio American International Pictures: for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films, The House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, and ‘beach party films’ such as Muscle Beach Party and Beach Blanket Bingo. In the 1980s, he scored music for theme parks such as SeaWorld.

Les Baxter died January 15, 1996 in Newport Beach, California. He was 73 years old!

Enjoy this really great ballad “WAKE THE TOWN AND TELL THE PEOPLE” by the late, great, amazing Les Baxter with background vocals by The Notables!