In lieu of CD Liner Notes for our new album, we'd like to offer some in-depth info and commentary from the Barbies which we'll post periodically here on the blog! Here's our first installment:
Our Valentine's Day gift to you: a sneak peak preview of our opening track from Genghis Baby:Songs for Noa!
Please click the link to enjoy God Only Knows, by the Beach Boys!
Track 1:
God Only Knows
Written by Brian Wilson
Arranged by Evan Kuhlmann
This arrangement that opens Genghis Baby: Songs for Noa is one of GB's very favorites! It was released in 1966 on the famous Beach Boys album Pet Sounds and remains a classic. We love the original, because it opens with a Horn solo! We'd like to think that some of the song's popularity is because of that lovely sound.
Alan Robinson was the horn player on the recording, and he said this about his experience: "I remember the session. The reason I was on the date is that I was one of the few French horn players who could play without music. I have always preferred unstructured sessions. Brian came up to me and sang me the line. [Alan demonstrates by humming it.] He seemed to come up with it on the spot; whatever came into his brain was great. Absolutely a wonderful line, and I played it. Then, he suggested that I play it glissando. Otherwise, I could have made a clean slur. You can do a sweep on the French Horn, and get all the harmonic notes in between, maybe eight or nine tones between the five notes. I wish there was more of me on it."
Here's a bit about Alan that we found on the internet. It looks like he's still out there recording and composing, so if anyone knows him- pass this along! :)
Alan Robinson, who played the memorable French horn part on "God Only Knows," received what he called a wonderful musical education "from a German refugee [Morris Luger] who was a fantastic teacher. I also learned a lot from my brother who was first horn in the Pittsburgh Symphony for many years."
His first professional job was at Slapsy Maxie's nightclub in L.A., where he played with the likes of Ethel Waters and Mel Torme. By the time he was 21, he had played 3 years with the Utah Symphony, on many of Republic's "Tarzan" films and the score for "High Noon." At 21, he became the youngest contract member of the 20th Century Fox orchestra under the direction of Alfred Newman, where he played on such classic films as "The King & I," "Carousel" and "The Sound Of Music."
On loan to other studios, he was on the score of "Spartacus," "North by Northwest" and played the horn calls in "The Ten Commandments" using an ancient instrument, the cor de chase [the French hunting horn]. In the mid-1960s, after a number of years with the Pittsburgh and L.A. symphonies, Alan explains that "being a busy session player was more lucrative than symphonic work" which is how he came to be on Pet Sounds. Among his other pop credits are sessions and/or live shows with Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Elton John, Paul McCartney & Wings, the Carpenters and conductors such as Bernard Hermann, Elmer Bernstein, Henry Mancini and John Williams.)
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