Jaw officially dropped. Melanie’s playing in THE BIRDS? I’d buy multiple copies of your book for that fact alone! Thanks for another beautifully written (and dramatic) piece.
This is the period I’ve always been most curious about because it’s presumably where he first started learning many film music idioms, which are often a lot different than concert music and jazz. Thank goodness you’ve been out there grinding away and even personally financing the research Tim! It might have been lost forever. I’m curious, did he ever work on any Leith Stevens scores? I know they were both at Revue at the same time but maybe the relationship started earlier?
He played on multiple Leith Stevens scores: The Careless Years, The James Dean Story (directed by Robert Altman!), Eighteen and Anxious, The Gun Runners, and The Gene Krupa Story.
Another great entry on your ongoing chronicles... Thank you, Tim.
Some of the mith busted I was already suspicious of (Tiffany's, Pink Panther, Mockingbird) but was really shocked about Herrmann and Twilight Zone. Great find regarding The Birds, though.
I had honestly forgotten I asked JW about Herrmann and that he definitively said he never played for him. But so much of this project was about comparing faulty memories (of things that happened 60 years ago) with actual documentation. In this case, both aligned.
Indeed. I always accepted that some of those recollections might have been somewhat corrupted by the passage of time. Those Mancini scores where of no surprise, as I have the CD release and in the credits list, Williams wasn't included. I also knew he didn't play on the Mockingbird album recording, but wasn't sure about the film. As for Carrousel, the earliest reference I recall of him working on the score (namely the opening heaven sequence) was on the notes of the 1990 Hollywood Bowl Orchestra/John Mauceri album "Hollywood Dreams", which includes a modern recording of that particular cue.
Posterity will be indebted to you, Tim, for this detailed and exhaustive profile of one of the great composers of our era. Looking forward to more of these posts!
Thank you Tim for presenting another fantastic and enlightening episode in an area where I have also done a bit of research.
It is really hard to believe that he did not play piano for ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Not only did he confirm this in the Classic FM interview with Tommy Pearson in 2012, but he also stated it in the podcast interview with Josephine Reed for the National Endowment for the Arts one year before in March 2011. And the rumors may even be older. I found a newspaper article from February 2005 in which staff writer Jim Kershner already pointed out that JW played for the film score.
The discovery that JW played the piano solo in Hitchcock's ‘The Byrds’ is fantastic, especially since there is no musical soundtrack but only sound effects. Without your effort, no one would have probably figured it out!
I also find it interesting to learn that JW was the session pianist for ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ on the same day as ‘Funny Face’. In case of the Tiomkin soundtrack he was probably the rehearsal pianist, as the original film score credits Harry Sukman and Natalie Limonick as session pianists.
It's also cool to know that JW was the pianist for both the film score and the Decca soundtrack of ‘Sweet Smell of Success’, which was recorded just 4 days later.
I'm going to continue digging on Mockingbird, because these multiple assertions by John himself add more fuel for doubt (or at least confusion) about my findings. All I know for certain is that the only contracts the AFM has for the Mockingbird sessions list other pianists—so there is simply no proof that he played on it. But this feels like a cold case!
Aha—I remember now why I felt so confident about this. While there was a chance that any report crediting John on a Mockingbird session could have gone missing, the AFM sent me the list of all the musicians who received TV residuals for playing on this film, and John's name is not on that list. (Pianists Caesar Giovannini and Raymond Turner are.) So this seems to be the clearest proof. I just can't account for where the rumor started or why John himself helped spread it!
Thank you for the double-check. I am convinced that these OMR lists from AFM are correct and accept that JW did not play piano for 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in the fall of 1962.
It is important for JW’s legacy to have clarity even if it is sometimes disappointing. How much I would have wished that he had actually been a co-orchestrator or a pianist for 'Carousel'. But the truth is not always what we imagine.
I think that, similar to film and TV sessions, one day we will also need such certainty for his pop and jazz recordings;-) I would definitely donate money for an investigation.
Wow . What a load of trivial information that debunks a lot of the rumours and myths. Very interesting. The most shocking being Williams did not work on any Herrmann project except THE BIRDS which is ironic. A lot of the people will be shocked that the piano solo on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD isn’t Williams either. Or Maybe he did perform on the re-recording? I want to know the genesis of this rumour now debunked. Ie. How did that rumour even start? Whew!
Oh, the TKAM myth is going to be a hard one to let go of. In 2012 on the Classic FM interview, Tommy Pearson asked JW point blank whether he played on that score said "that's correct." (Interview is on the last disc of the 2015 Star Wars Boxed Set; relevant bit is in Part I, 7:52...)
I continually doubt myself on this because the force behind it is so strong! (And like Fox Mulder, I want to believe.) Thanks for pointing me to that interview. But the AFM receipts don't lie, and when I asked JW myself point blank (after the documentary came out), he accepted that he must not have played on it.
Jaw officially dropped. Melanie’s playing in THE BIRDS? I’d buy multiple copies of your book for that fact alone! Thanks for another beautifully written (and dramatic) piece.
I knew you'd like that discovery!
This is the period I’ve always been most curious about because it’s presumably where he first started learning many film music idioms, which are often a lot different than concert music and jazz. Thank goodness you’ve been out there grinding away and even personally financing the research Tim! It might have been lost forever. I’m curious, did he ever work on any Leith Stevens scores? I know they were both at Revue at the same time but maybe the relationship started earlier?
He played on multiple Leith Stevens scores: The Careless Years, The James Dean Story (directed by Robert Altman!), Eighteen and Anxious, The Gun Runners, and The Gene Krupa Story.
Amazing! Thank you! I have to dig these up now.
Another great entry on your ongoing chronicles... Thank you, Tim.
Some of the mith busted I was already suspicious of (Tiffany's, Pink Panther, Mockingbird) but was really shocked about Herrmann and Twilight Zone. Great find regarding The Birds, though.
I had honestly forgotten I asked JW about Herrmann and that he definitively said he never played for him. But so much of this project was about comparing faulty memories (of things that happened 60 years ago) with actual documentation. In this case, both aligned.
Indeed. I always accepted that some of those recollections might have been somewhat corrupted by the passage of time. Those Mancini scores where of no surprise, as I have the CD release and in the credits list, Williams wasn't included. I also knew he didn't play on the Mockingbird album recording, but wasn't sure about the film. As for Carrousel, the earliest reference I recall of him working on the score (namely the opening heaven sequence) was on the notes of the 1990 Hollywood Bowl Orchestra/John Mauceri album "Hollywood Dreams", which includes a modern recording of that particular cue.
That first photo is perfect.
Posterity will be indebted to you, Tim, for this detailed and exhaustive profile of one of the great composers of our era. Looking forward to more of these posts!
Thank you Tim for presenting another fantastic and enlightening episode in an area where I have also done a bit of research.
It is really hard to believe that he did not play piano for ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Not only did he confirm this in the Classic FM interview with Tommy Pearson in 2012, but he also stated it in the podcast interview with Josephine Reed for the National Endowment for the Arts one year before in March 2011. And the rumors may even be older. I found a newspaper article from February 2005 in which staff writer Jim Kershner already pointed out that JW played for the film score.
The discovery that JW played the piano solo in Hitchcock's ‘The Byrds’ is fantastic, especially since there is no musical soundtrack but only sound effects. Without your effort, no one would have probably figured it out!
I also find it interesting to learn that JW was the session pianist for ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ on the same day as ‘Funny Face’. In case of the Tiomkin soundtrack he was probably the rehearsal pianist, as the original film score credits Harry Sukman and Natalie Limonick as session pianists.
It's also cool to know that JW was the pianist for both the film score and the Decca soundtrack of ‘Sweet Smell of Success’, which was recorded just 4 days later.
Thank you for so many treasures!
I'm going to continue digging on Mockingbird, because these multiple assertions by John himself add more fuel for doubt (or at least confusion) about my findings. All I know for certain is that the only contracts the AFM has for the Mockingbird sessions list other pianists—so there is simply no proof that he played on it. But this feels like a cold case!
Aha—I remember now why I felt so confident about this. While there was a chance that any report crediting John on a Mockingbird session could have gone missing, the AFM sent me the list of all the musicians who received TV residuals for playing on this film, and John's name is not on that list. (Pianists Caesar Giovannini and Raymond Turner are.) So this seems to be the clearest proof. I just can't account for where the rumor started or why John himself helped spread it!
Thank you for the double-check. I am convinced that these OMR lists from AFM are correct and accept that JW did not play piano for 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in the fall of 1962.
It is important for JW’s legacy to have clarity even if it is sometimes disappointing. How much I would have wished that he had actually been a co-orchestrator or a pianist for 'Carousel'. But the truth is not always what we imagine.
I think that, similar to film and TV sessions, one day we will also need such certainty for his pop and jazz recordings;-) I would definitely donate money for an investigation.
I do think that is an important and worthy project!
Wow! Debussy's Arabesque happens to be one of my favorite pieces by this composer. I like listening to the jazz version by Jacques Loussier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7SX24KnJ8A
Wow . What a load of trivial information that debunks a lot of the rumours and myths. Very interesting. The most shocking being Williams did not work on any Herrmann project except THE BIRDS which is ironic. A lot of the people will be shocked that the piano solo on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD isn’t Williams either. Or Maybe he did perform on the re-recording? I want to know the genesis of this rumour now debunked. Ie. How did that rumour even start? Whew!
I truly have no idea how it started. I'm quite sure he didn't perform on the re-recording either!
Pianists on the re-recording were Raymond Turner and Caesar Giovannini.
Oh, the TKAM myth is going to be a hard one to let go of. In 2012 on the Classic FM interview, Tommy Pearson asked JW point blank whether he played on that score said "that's correct." (Interview is on the last disc of the 2015 Star Wars Boxed Set; relevant bit is in Part I, 7:52...)
I continually doubt myself on this because the force behind it is so strong! (And like Fox Mulder, I want to believe.) Thanks for pointing me to that interview. But the AFM receipts don't lie, and when I asked JW myself point blank (after the documentary came out), he accepted that he must not have played on it.
Just re-listened to that section of the interview. I don't know what to believe! He seems so sure there.
I think that some of those came from interviews with Williams himself, but most likely, he was just misquoted or misinterpreted.