Contemporaries of the Beatles, along with other Liverpudlian rockers like Gerry & the Pacemakers and Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, the Remo Four were lost to the darkest corners of Merseybeat history, with only See for Miles' 1992 compilation The Best of Tommy Quickly, Johnny Sandon, Gregory Phillips & the Remo Four – a disc featuring singers the group backed, along with a handful of their tracks – being the only reissue to surface until Bear Family's 2010 Smile!, Peter Gunn…And More. Only one of the songs on that 1992 disc – a cover of “Peter Gunn” – is on this 2010 CD, which contains the entirety of their 1967 LP Smile!, released only in Germany, and singles surrounding the album.
Henry Mancini's writing for Peter Gunn was quite significant, for it was the first regular television series to utilize jazz as an integral part of its score. Half a year after the show debuted, drummer Shelly Manne, the members of his quintet (trumpeter Conte Candoli, altoist Herb Geller, pianist Russ Freeman, and bassist Monty Budwig), and guest vibraphonist Victor Feldman (doubling on marimba) interpreted the Peter Gunn theme and nine selections from the show, including "Dreamsville."
Henry Mancini was so successful with his Music from Peter Gunn album that RCA-Victor brought him back into the studio for a second LP's worth of music from the Blake Edwards-produced program. The second Peter Gunn album didn't do as well as the first, but it is almost as strong musically. Notables on the sessions included drummer Shelly Manne, trumpet virtuoso Pete Candoli, and pianist (and future film music giant) John Williams. More Music from Peter Gun is about as strong as anything on Music from Peter Gunn: "Timothy" may have its weak moments of comic effect, but even it includes some diverting trumpet passages, and none of the rest needs any apology or explanation…
Mancini's jazz influences are front an center here, walking a fine line between the hard-driving r&b-flavored hard bop and the unsentimental, laid-back cool jazz movements that were still very edgy in the late 1950s.
Another archival album, this time from two of Anthony Phillips' long standing friends, David Thomas and Ronnie Gunn. Many Genesis fans may be familiar with David, he was, after all, the guy whose flat Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel shared for almost five years, as well as assisting on their first album, "From Genesis To Revelation". The album draws on material which the two main protagonists wrote in the period between 1969 and 1978, and as such is very much a product of its time as well as being an intriguing snapshot into an ear of music that has been undeservedly maligned by the smart set who sadly dominate our music industry these days.
Don't let the Genesis tag fool you, however. This album is not a "Collection of Antiques & Curios" to paraphrase another well known album of the period…