Alessandro Simonetto - The Original Laurel & Hardy Piano Music '2017

Tracks list

Tracklist

01. All Together / The Moon and You / Gangway Charlie (From Looser Than Loose)
02. Bassooning / Riding Along / Beer Barons / Good Old Days / Excitement (From
Pardon Us)
03. Ah Tis Love, Dear with Me (From Doctors Orders)
04. On to the Snow / In My Canoe / Going Places / Confusion (From Be Big!)
05. Gardein Gaieties / Winding Path / Miss Crabtree / By Rote (From Teachers
Pet)
06. Beautiful Lady / Intermezzo / Cops / Fliver Flops (From Another Fine Mess)
07. Bells / Drunk / Rocking Chair (From Scram)
08. Untitled Effect / Candy Candy / Little Dancing Girl (From Bargain Day)
09. Here Are the Pets / Nothing at All / You Are the One I Love (From Chickens
Come Home)
10. If It Were Only True / The One I Love Best / Little Dancing Girl (From Girl
Shock)
11. Why the Old Flirt / Untitled Effect / Untitled Piece (From Helping Grandma)
12. Snowing, Pt. 1 / Dog Song / Snowing, Pt. 2 / Funeral March (From Laughing
Gravy)
13. Tango / Just a Melody Sweet / Therell Always...
14. Seasons / Beyond the Rainbow / Love Is Everything to Me
15. Mys-tee-ree / Colonial Gaieties
16. We Are Just an Happy Family / Valse / On a Sunny Afternoon (From Our
Relations)

This album recreates the atmosphere and feeling of the 1930s comedies from the
Hal Roach Studios, the Lot of Fun where Laurel & Hardy, Our Gang, Charley Chase,
The Boy Friends and Thelma Todd created their biggest successes. These short
films were usually enlivened by the catchy background tunes composed by LeRoy
Shield (1893-1962). Although the titles of these tunes remained known only to
insiders, the music is all too familiar to anyone who ever saw Stan and Ollie
embark on one of their doomed journeys.

Trained as a classical pianist, Shield eased into the new medium of film music
with apparent ease and knocked off dozens of short, catchy background tunes in
record time. It is not funny comedy music in itself; rather, it ranges from
slow, sentimental ballads to uptempo dance numbers. Sometimes, there are echoes
of Stravinsky, Satie and Casella!

Tracking down original sheet music took years of detective work. For the first
time in history, this cd contains renditions of original piano music and
original piano transcriptions made by Shield himself - written before the
orchestral versions were recorded - of tunes such as All Together, Little
Dancing Girl, Gangway Charlie, Riding Along, and The Moon and You. It also
contains piano transcriptions of Shields background tunes from 1930-31 as
originally published as loose-leaf sheet music: Bells, You Are The One I Love,
In My Canoe, On to the Show, Riding Along and Good Old Days.

Originally published in 1931 but impossible to find today, the LeRoy Shield Song
Album is a collection of ten popular film background tunes transcribed for
piano: Prelude, Brides Song, Here We Go, Look at Him Now, Cascadia, Dash and
Dot, Lets Go, Antics, Give Us a Hand and It Is to Laugh.

The album also contains in first world release the reconstruction of the piece
Snowing, written appositely for the film Laughing Gravy; and the complete set of
effects and short melodies named as Goofs, including some unheard and not known
pieces.

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