During the 60’s heyday of pop string orchestras, it was common for record labels to have their own in-house orchestra. Capitol had The Hollyridge Strings, Epic The Golden Gate Strings, RCA The Living Strings and so on. Not to be outdone, Warner Bros. Records developed The Londonderry Strings with two talented arrangers, Ernie Freeman and Rene Hall, at the helm.
Ernie Freeman (1922-1981) was a keyboardist, bandleader and arranger who is best known for his piano work on The Platters’, “The Great Pretender.” Freeman, who received a Masters in music composition at USC, had performed with a number of groups and artists including Dinah Washington and Dorothy Dandridge. He was also one of the arrangers for \"The Monkees Songbook\" album by the Golden Gate Strings. Rene Hall (1912-1988) was a guitarist and arranger whose work can be heard on albums by Sam Cooke, Quincy Jones and Marvin Gaye. This album was recorded in 1964 at Warner Bros. in Burbank, CA and released the following year. Bones Howe was the engineer. Although a single of the song, “Dansero,\" was later recorded by the Londonderry Strings and released in 1965, The Liverpool Songbook is the only complete album by the orchestra.
The audio source used for this video is a Warner Bros. Records reel-to-reel tape so you will hear no surface noise. Also, the pre-recorded tape reflects a little more accurately the EQ of the master recording when compared to the LP. The music on this album sounds just as fresh today as it did 58 years ago.
(Note: Too many songs on this album have copyright claims. However, several listeners have expressed great affection for the album so I am leaving it intact and not removing the disputed songs. Enjoy!)
The music is being made available strictly for cultural and artistic purposes.
