CoronaVinyl Day 187 (V): Billy Vaughn Plays the Million Sellers by Billy Vaughn

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "V," and I don't have all that many albums by "V" artists, but three of them are by Billy Vaughn, so I might as well get the first out of the way.

I'm not sure how or when I acquired my three Billy Vaughn albums, but presumably it was part of a larger lot of records I bought at some point.  Vaughn was an orchestra conductor, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist, who mainly thrived in the '50s and '60s.  His music is generally jazz, orchestral, and traditional pop.  Basically, it's the kind of music your rock-n-roll-hating grandparents would have listened to in the '50s and '60s, while telling your parents, aunts, and uncles "this is how music should sound."

Today's selection is his 1960 album called Billy Vaughn Plays the Million Sellers.  It's a collection of "million selling" songs by other recording artists, played by Vaughn and his orchestra.  It reached #15 on the Billboard album chart, and it's all string-heavy orchestral music, very much what you would hear in the score of an old movie -- or that would have been played at the Overlook Hotel's grand ball in July 1921.

All in all, Vaughan had a good bit of success.  He charted 15 albums in the Top 20 of the Billboard album charts, including one #1 (1960's Theme From a Summer Place).  He also had 14 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 or its predecessor, including four Top 10 songs.

Spotify doesn't have the album, but there is a YouTube "video" with the entire album, so I embedded that below.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Holiday for Strings"

Given that it's Festivus, this song seemed like an appropriate selection.  It's also a little bit more peppy than the generally sappy and syrupy feel to the rest of the songs on the album.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "In the Mood"
Glenn Miller's classic big band standard "In the Mood" is always a good time, and Vaughn and his orchestra give it a good whirl.