Number of Weeks? 1
What else was going on? Ionian Islands 1953 earthquake
Download Theme (Moulin Rouge)
from amazon.com
from amazon.com
11 number 1s in and here we have our first instrumental hit to top the charts. Immediately I feel out of my depth with this one. As a child of modern pop music, encountering music without lyrics is always a little difficult. I find it very difficult to make any kind of insightful comment about classical music, for example. I guess it's a little bit like Wittgenstein's Language Games, really. To be able to comment on an instrumental piece or a classical piece, you have to know at least some of the principles and techniques behind those compositions. I'll gladly admit, I'm at my happiest when, if nothing else, at least I can comment about the lyrics. All this is basically a preface to say that if anyone reading this feels better place to comment on the musical worth/contribution of this song, then I would gladly invite them to leave a comment as I fully admit I'm perhaps a little out of my depth.
I'm surprised how much I love this piece of music. It certainly does a brilliant job of evoking the Parisian feel with the accordian and the strings. It's also a very relaxing piece of music. Originally, the song had accompanying lyrics (which, I have to say, is equally beautiful) when it appeared in the movie of the same name in 1952. Mantovani's instrumental version, however, strips the lyrics away and lets the music speak for itself. For my money, it's very effective and is an interesting contrast with the song whose reign its ascension to number 1 interrupted. It's a very pleasant diversion from the number ones which have kicked off this journey, and certainly instrumental number 1s were a much more common feature of the chart than they are today (the last number 1 which was even close to being an instrumental was Doop's "Doop" back in 1993, and even that had the eponymous lyrics looping throughout the song).
What happened next? In his own right, this is Mantovani's only trip to the number one spot, but he supports David Whitfield with a huge number 1 smash in 1954. All in all, Mantovani and his Orchestra notched up 5 top 20 hits in their chart careers. Mantovani died in 1980 aged 74.
No comments:
Post a Comment