CoronaVinyl Day 227 (N): Stars and Stripes Forever by Alfred Newman

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We're at Day 227 of CoronaVinyl, and if I had any vinyl that featured Jackée, you know I'd be playing it today, but alas, we're simply moving onto the next letter in the alphabet, which is "N."  I only have a couple albums by "N" artists left.  One of those is a 10-inch 33 1/3 RPM album of Alfred Newman's score for the 1952 John Philip Sousa biopic Stars and Stripes Forever.

Newman -- who is not to be confused with the Mad Magazine character of the same name -- was one of Hollywood's most prolific and accomplished film score composers.  Over his career, he scored over 200 films between the early '30s and late '60s  He was nominated for 45 Oscars, and won 9 times -- more than any other composer has won in the history of the Oscars.  In addition to film scores, he composed the famous 20th Century Fox introductory music, and his "Conquest march" from the 1947 movie Captain from Castile was adapted by USC as their now-famous fight song.

This is another album that I must have acquired as part of a larger lot of records, and it's one of the oldest records I own.  The record itself says that it's "unbreakable," which I highly doubt, but will not be challenging its claim.  The album's age showed, as the sound is definitely crackly, but fear not, the majesty of Sousa's marches and the other patriotic songs could not be tempered.

Interesting tidbit about Newman:  many of his relatives are or were also involved in film scoring and composing, and his nephew is famed singer-songwriter Randy Newman.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Stars and Stripes Forever"

This is the Sousa march, and it's hard to hear this song without thinking of the Fourth of July, parades, fireworks, and Old Glory.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Battle Hymn of the Republic"
This one is always inspiring, and it takes on particular meaning for me today, as my kids are finally physically back in school (at least a couple days a week) for the first time in nearly a year.  As I was walking home after dropping them off this morning, I was singing "Glory glory hallelujah!" in my head.