Frank Chacksfield (Francis Charles Chacksfield) was born in Battle, East Sussex, and as a child
learned to play piano and organ. He appeared at Hastings Music Festivals by the
time he was 14, and then became deputy church organist at Salehurst After
working for a short period in a solicitor's office he decided on a career in
music, and by the late 1930s, led a small band at Tonbridge in Kent.
At the beginning of World War II,
he joined the Royal Corps of Signals, and, following a radio broadcast as a
pianist, was posted to ENSA at Salisbury where he became the arranger for Stars
in Battledress, an armed forces entertainment troupe, and shared an office
with comedian Charlie ?Chester.
After the
war, he worked with Chester and on BBC Radio as an arranger and conductor. He
also worked as musical director for both Henry
Hall and Geraldo, and began recording under his own name in 1951 as "Frank
Chacksfield's Tunesmiths".
In early 1953, he had his first top ten hit, "Little Red Monkey",
on the Parlophone label. This was a novelty recording
featuring Jack Jordan on the clavioline, and reportedly the first record
featuring an electronic instrument to
feature on the UK pop chart.
He signed a recording contract with Decca Records in 1953, and formed a
40-piece orchestra with a large string section, the "Singing
Strings". His first record release for Decca, Charlie Chaplin's theme for
his film Limelight, won him a gold
disc in the United States, and in the United Kingdom, where it reached No. 2 in
the UK Singles Chart, and won him the NME award as 'Record of the Year'.
It spent eight weeks at No. 2 (an
all-time UK chart record), and in all thirteen weeks in the top five chart
positions, without dislodging Frankie Laine's,
"I Believe". His next 78 single, "Ebb Tide", became the
first British instrumental recording to reach No. 1 in some American charts, providing a second gold
disc, and he was voted the most promising new orchestra of the year in the US.
He became one
of Britain's best known orchestra leaders internationally, and is estimated to
have sold more than 20 million albums worldwide. His material was "mood music", similar to
that of Mantovani, including ballads, waltzes, and
film themes.
In 1954, he began presenting a
series on BBC TV, which continued
occasionally until the early 1960s. Chacksfield was responsible for the musical arrangement of the first UK entry into the Eurovision Song Contest 1957; "All"
by Patricia Bredin. He continued to write music, release singles and albums
through the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared regularly on BBC radio.
He continued
to record occasionally until the 1990s, from the 1970s primarily on the Phase 4 label. He also developed business interests in publishing and
recorded for Starborne Productions, a company supplying "canned music"
for use by easy listening radio stations and others. Many of these recordings
were made commercially available in 2007.
His last album was Thanks for the Memories (Academy
Award Winners 1934–55), released in 1991. Chacksfield died in Kent in 1995,
after having suffered for several years from Parkinson's
disease.
The main
theme from his Latin-American style track "Cuban Boy" was used
as the theme music for some broadcast versions of the BBC Scotland sitcom Still Game.
His song
"Après Ski" was featured in the 2006 video game Saints Row, for the Xbox 360.
From the
album All Time Top T.V. Themes (Decca
PFS 4087,1966; also as The Great TV
Themes on London SP 44077), several tracks were used by Dutch offshore
pirate radio station Radio Veronica in the 1960s. "Rawhide" and
"Dragnet" were used in the news jingles; "The Alfred Hitchcock
Theme" was also used.
Fonte: Wikipedia,
19/09/2014
In this post we present the album "Franck
Chacksfied Plays The Beatles' Songbook," released in 1970 on Decca
Records, London Phase 4 Stereo label . The songs on the album are as follows:
01.
Get Back [03:06]
02.
Michelle [03:14]
03.
Got To Get You Into My Life [02:38]
04.
Yesterday [02:38]
05.
Something [02:41]
06.
Hey Jude [03:27]
07. A
Hard Days Night [02:59]
08.
Norwegian Wood [02:03]
09.
Ticket To Ride [03:16]
10.
Fool On The Hill [02:57]
11.
Come Together [03:26]
12. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da [02:55].
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