|
This talented Devonshire born conductor became famous for the musical scores he produced for many well known movies and TV series of the 1950s and 1960s. He is alleged to have learned the piano at the age of five. Although he started out professionally in music as a trumpet player, he was a more expert arranger and composer. Ron learnt this craft while working with the big UK bands of the early 1950s, notably Stanley Black, Ted Heath and Geraldo before forming his own unit. His orchestra became frequently heard on BBC Radio and TV. His singles are reminiscent of some of his most familiar work, which- although popular- were not the material of hits- apart from some brief success in the 1950s. In 1953, He reached the UK #3 spot with 'Limelight' from the Charles Chaplin film and also scraped in at #20 with 'Blue Star' (78rpm) in 1955. The long list of singles attributed to Ron Goodwin's Orchestra include a high proportion written by the conductor himself. Indeed he wrote a lot more material recorded by other artists and was one of Britain's most prolific writers of themes for stage and screen. In addition to these many instrumentals, the orchestra was regularly used for backing singers of the period including Petula Clark. He worked extensively with George Martin at Parlophone on arrangements for the label, but went on in his own right to provide it with some of its best selling albums. |
|
 |
The EP pictured here is one of several that Ron Goodwin's concert orchestra had released on that format. This one comes with quite a decent set of biographical notes on the rear. According to these, Ron was the son of a police constable and his family moved from Devon to London when Ron was nine years old. It also points out that it is Ron's orchestra who provided the backing on Jimmy Young's "Too Young"- which led to the adoption of the band by Parlophone as the label's resident orchestra. |
| Sadly, Ron Goodwin died shortly before his 78th birthday, on January 8th, 2003. | |
