Anybody else remember LeRoy Holmes?
Before the internet and when CDs were still in their comparative infancy, I was still snapping up whatever LPs I could find of classic film scores. The Charles Gerhardt series with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, of course, was the gold standard. I also collected all of Bernard Herrmann’s recordings of his own music. Beyond that, it was mostly whatever original soundtrack albums I could lay my hands on: “The Ten Commandments,” “Ben-Hur,” “The Alamo,” “The Thief of Bagdad” (a rare find from “Elmer Bernstein’s Film Music Collection”).
During this period, while browsing the record bins in the back of The Book Trader in Philadelphia (at its old location at 5th & South), I stumbled across a series of recordings issued by United Artists featuring classic film scores with LeRoy Holmes conducting. It’s possible these were inspired by the unexpected success of the Gerhardt series.
Sadly, they in no way match Gerhardt’s exuberance and vitality. In fact, the performances were downright depressing. Threadbare orchestras in boxy acoustics sounding like they were captured on the first run-through. The orchestra for “Kong” was so insufficient that the percussion in the opening credits put me in the mind of those Meco covers of “Star Wars” and other popular ‘70s scores, reimagined as disco hits. (Yes, this was a thing.)
I don’t know what the deal was with the United Artist records. I do know that within a moment of the stylus touching the groove my heart sank. I had picked up several of these – I remember another one was Alfred Newman’s “The Prisoner of Zenda” – and they were all equally terrible. I hurried back to the store with them at my soonest possible convenience.
When I described the problem, the clerk didn’t want to take them back, denying responsibility for the quality of the actual recordings. But my vehemence must have been such that he was persuaded to put one of them on in the store. Right away, his face screwed up as if he were sucking on lemons. “Yeah, I see what you mean,” he said. “I wouldn’t want them either.” He walked over to the cash box and refunded my money.
These came bubbling back up into my consciousness like studiously repressed nightmares when discussing “Kong” recordings with a friend recently, who’d acquired the superior Fred Steiner recording (no relation to Max) on vinyl the last time we visited Princeton Record Exchange.
Now, with the internet at my disposal, I was able to look into LeRoy Holmes. And what do you know, he was no hack. Yeah, from his album listings and unfortunate record covers, it looks like he did a lot of easy listening and middle-brow arrangements of movie themes. But he was a Juilliard graduate, who also studied privately with Ernst Toch.
He learned his craft, then wrote, arranged, and/or conducted for Harry James, Judy Garland, Dinah Shore, and Nelson Eddy. For a time, he was house arranger and conductor at M-G-M. He composed and performed for Ernie Kovacs, for Kovacs’ own show and his appearances on “The Tonight Show.” He backed Connie Francis and Shirley Bassey. His recording of Dimitri Tiomkin’s theme for “The High and the Mighty” became a big hit. He also enjoyed success with his covers of Ennio Morricone spaghetti westerns. (Who didn’t?)
Obviously, he had the chops. Holmes scored films and recorded for United Artists and Everest Records. Why these classic film score records are so, so bad is a mystery I don’t mind recalling for a Facebook post, but do not wish to dwell on.
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Holmes’ hit record of “The High and the Mighty”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zLcFc0IXUQ
Monstrous “Kong”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7RjCp2dmpU&t=1s
Meco’s “Star Wars”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3w6j-jOOXU
Provocative LeRoy Holmes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpwLXkFWJOs
