Graingen Percy

The Percy Sledge volume of Warner U.K.'s Platinum Collection series is nearly identical to Rhino's It Tears Me Up: The Best of Percy Sledge, albeit with a different track order. All of the hits are here ("Take Time to Know Her," "Warm and Tender Love," "Sudden Stop," and, of course, "When a Man Loves a Woman"), as well as numerous album cuts and less popular singles, making it the perfect entry point for new listeners and a great anthology for longtime fans.

Le sort des dieux est entre les mains de Percy.
Toute l'année, Percy et son armée de demi-dieux se sont préparés à affronter les Titans. L'heure est venue. Les troupes de Cronos avancent vers Manhattan où l'Olympe est en danger. Tandis que Percy et ses amis luttent, ils savent que le temps est compté. La prophétie va s'accomplir : Percy prendra une décision qui condamnera ou sauvera le monde…

In 2000, reissue giant Collectables took Percy Faith's 1954 Kismet release on Columbia and combined it with the standard-laden Music From Hollywood on one convenient disc.
Percy Faith was one of the most popular easy listening recording artists of the 1950s and '60s. Not only did he have a number of hit albums and singles under his own name, but Faith was responsible for arranging hits by Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, and Burl Ives, among others, as the musical director for Columbia Records in the '50s.

Le sort des dieux est entre les mains de Percy.
Toute l’année, Percy et son armée de demi-dieux se sont préparés à affronter les Titans. L’heure est venue. Les troupes de Cronos avancent vers Manhattan où l’Olympe est en danger. Tandis que Percy et ses amis luttent, ils savent que le temps est compté. La prophétie va s’accomplir : Percy prendra une décision qui condamnera ou sauvera le monde…

This two-fer from Collectables features a pair of out-of-print Percy Faith LPs, Subways Are for Sleeping and Do I Hear a Waltz, originally issued in 1961 and 1965, respectively. The flowing combination of these Broadway scores, by Jule Styne and Rodgers/Sondheim, provide a continuity that can sometimes be jarring when combined on two-fers. Highlights of the 24 tracks include "Who Knows What Might Have Been?," "I Said It and I'm Glad," "Someone Like You," and "A Perfectly Lovely Couple." This is an enjoyable and recommended reissue from the massive Percy Faith catalog originally released on Columbia Records.

There is no doubting that Percy Faith was one of the great arrangers in contemporary American music, but the nice side of the two-fer Bon Voyage/Carefree is that it not only explores Faith's delightful arrangements, but also showcases his clever compositions. Of the two records, combined here on one CD, it is Carefree where the too often overlooked Percy Faith as composer is explored. Every song in this section is a soundtrack for happy walking through the park on a beautiful snowy day. The first section of the disc, the album Bon Voyage, is a bit more serious, with Faith's renditions of several complex and challenging themes by a slew of composers, but no less cinematic. In fact, the whole 68 minutes serve as a magical aural theme park perfect for conducting imaginary orchestras while driving to and from the grocery store. Bon Voyage/Carefree is a fun listen.

Two albums from the end of Percy Faith's recording career are paired together on this release. The first, Chinatown Featuring the Entertainer, from 1974, contains Faith's arrangements of popular film themes. The cumbersome title comes from a sudden last-minute revision that replaced one track on the album with "Theme From Chinatown." The original track, "Bend Me, Shape Me," is included here as a bonus track. Summer Place, from 1975, was Faith's last album, released a few months before his passing.

Percy Grainger was a weird dude. This is most evident in his orchestrated choral music, here under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner leading his Monteverdi Choir and further aided by the English Country Gardiner Orchestra from 1996.