Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Les Baxter
Leslie Thompson Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American composer, conductor, and musician. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica, and scored over 250 radio, television and motion pictures numbers.
Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. From 1943 on he played tenor and baritone saxophone for the Freddie Slack big band. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as "What Is This Thing Called Love?"
Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950 and conducted the orchestra in two early Nat King Cole hits, "Mona Lisa" and "Too Young". He also recorded Yma Sumac's first album: Voice of the Xtabay, which can be considered one of the first recordings of exotica. In 1951, he made the original recording of "Quiet Village", which years later became a hit for Martin Denny. In 1953, he scored his first movie, the sailing travelogue Tanga Tika.
With his own orchestra, he released a number of hits, including "Ruby" (1953), "Unchained Melody" (1955), and "The Poor People of Paris" (1956), and is remembered for a version of "Sinner Man" (1956), definitively setting the sound with varying tempos, orchestral flourishes, and wailing background vocals. "Unchained Melody" was the first million seller for Baxter and was awarded a gold disc. "The Poor People of Paris" also sold over one million copies. He also achieved success with concept albums of his own orchestral suites: Le Sacre Du Sauvage, Festival Of The Gnomes, Ports Of Pleasure, and Brazil Now, the first three for Capitol and the fourth on Gene Norman's Crescendo label. The list of musicians on these recordings includes Plas Johnson and Clare Fischer.[citation needed]
In the 1960s, he formed Les Baxter's Balladeers, a conservative folk group in suits that at one time featured a young David Crosby. Later, he used some of the same singers from that group for a studio project called The Forum. They had a minor hit in 1967 with their song "The River Is Wide", which implemented the Wall of Sound technique originally developed by Phil Spector. He worked in radio as musical director of The Halls of Ivy and the Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello shows.
Baxter worked in films in the 1960s and 1970s. He worked on movie scores for B-movie studio American International Pictures where he composed scores for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror and beach party films including House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, Muscle Beach Party and Beach Blanket Bingo. He also composed a new score for the theatrical release of the 1970 horror film Cry of the Banshee after AIP rejected Wilfred Josephs's original one. Howard W. Koch recalled that Baxter composed, orchestrated and recorded the entire score of The Yellow Tomahawk (1954) in a total of three hours for $5,000. When soundtrack work fell off in the 1980s, he scored music for theme parks such as SeaWorld.
Baxter died in Newport Beach, California at the age of 73. He was buried at Pacific View Memorial Park, in Corona del Mar, California.
According to Milt Bernhart, Nelson Riddle was a ghostwriter for Baxter when Baxter was working for Nat King Cole, although while Baxter was working and was credited as a conductor for Nat King Cole, he never was officially credited as a composer or arranger. Bernhart states that Riddle told him that Baxter did not write the material on his exotica albums. Bernhart states that, while working for Baxter on recording a score for a Roger Corman film, it was apparent that Baxter could not conduct competently and "couldn't read the scores." According to Bernhart, "Someone else had written [the music]." However, Baxter went on to write symphonies for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and guest conduct at the Hollywood Bowl.[citation needed]
Hub AI
Les Baxter AI simulator
(@Les Baxter_simulator)
Les Baxter
Leslie Thompson Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American composer, conductor, and musician. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica, and scored over 250 radio, television and motion pictures numbers.
Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory of Music before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. From 1943 on he played tenor and baritone saxophone for the Freddie Slack big band. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as "What Is This Thing Called Love?"
Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950 and conducted the orchestra in two early Nat King Cole hits, "Mona Lisa" and "Too Young". He also recorded Yma Sumac's first album: Voice of the Xtabay, which can be considered one of the first recordings of exotica. In 1951, he made the original recording of "Quiet Village", which years later became a hit for Martin Denny. In 1953, he scored his first movie, the sailing travelogue Tanga Tika.
With his own orchestra, he released a number of hits, including "Ruby" (1953), "Unchained Melody" (1955), and "The Poor People of Paris" (1956), and is remembered for a version of "Sinner Man" (1956), definitively setting the sound with varying tempos, orchestral flourishes, and wailing background vocals. "Unchained Melody" was the first million seller for Baxter and was awarded a gold disc. "The Poor People of Paris" also sold over one million copies. He also achieved success with concept albums of his own orchestral suites: Le Sacre Du Sauvage, Festival Of The Gnomes, Ports Of Pleasure, and Brazil Now, the first three for Capitol and the fourth on Gene Norman's Crescendo label. The list of musicians on these recordings includes Plas Johnson and Clare Fischer.[citation needed]
In the 1960s, he formed Les Baxter's Balladeers, a conservative folk group in suits that at one time featured a young David Crosby. Later, he used some of the same singers from that group for a studio project called The Forum. They had a minor hit in 1967 with their song "The River Is Wide", which implemented the Wall of Sound technique originally developed by Phil Spector. He worked in radio as musical director of The Halls of Ivy and the Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello shows.
Baxter worked in films in the 1960s and 1970s. He worked on movie scores for B-movie studio American International Pictures where he composed scores for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror and beach party films including House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, Muscle Beach Party and Beach Blanket Bingo. He also composed a new score for the theatrical release of the 1970 horror film Cry of the Banshee after AIP rejected Wilfred Josephs's original one. Howard W. Koch recalled that Baxter composed, orchestrated and recorded the entire score of The Yellow Tomahawk (1954) in a total of three hours for $5,000. When soundtrack work fell off in the 1980s, he scored music for theme parks such as SeaWorld.
Baxter died in Newport Beach, California at the age of 73. He was buried at Pacific View Memorial Park, in Corona del Mar, California.
According to Milt Bernhart, Nelson Riddle was a ghostwriter for Baxter when Baxter was working for Nat King Cole, although while Baxter was working and was credited as a conductor for Nat King Cole, he never was officially credited as a composer or arranger. Bernhart states that Riddle told him that Baxter did not write the material on his exotica albums. Bernhart states that, while working for Baxter on recording a score for a Roger Corman film, it was apparent that Baxter could not conduct competently and "couldn't read the scores." According to Bernhart, "Someone else had written [the music]." However, Baxter went on to write symphonies for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and guest conduct at the Hollywood Bowl.[citation needed]