CoronaVinyl Day 313 (M): Music of Hawaii by Henry Mancini

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "M," and we're keeping it on the lighter side from the '60s with Henry Mancini's 1966 album Music of Hawaii.

For those who don't know, Mancini was one of the most accomplished film and TV score composers of all-time.  After studying at Juilliard, Mancini enlisted in the Army Air Forces (the precursor to the Air Force), and served in WWII, where he helped liberate the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.  

After the war, he was a member and the arranger of Glenn Miller's orchestra, and then in the early '50s, he got into film and TV scoring.  His compositions include "Theme From Pink Panther," the Peter Gunn theme, and "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's.  His list of award nominations and wins is ridiculous:
-Academy Awards:  nominated for 18, won 4
-Grammy Awards:  nominated for 72, won 20
-Golden Globes:  won one
-Emmy:  nominated twice
-Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

Music of Hawaii is, as the album title indicates, Mancini's take on various Hawaiian songs.  I was hoping it would be a little more tropical, but it's very orchestral and most of the songs sound like they should be part of a '50s or '60s movie score.

Over the course of his career, he released over 90 albums and scored hundreds of films and TV shows.  Six of his songs reached the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, including one #1, "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet" in 1969.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Hawaii (Main Theme)"
The album starts off with it's only "hit," as this song went to #6 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart.  It's ethereal and makes you want to be lying on a beach.  In Hawaii.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Hawaiian War Chant"
This one is foreboding at the beginning and then takes nice Hawaiian turn.