Archived News 2014

Click on Ray’s picture to listen to an unreleased take of “O Velhinho” (a Christmas song from Brazil, recorded for his 4th Christmas album, “’s Christmas” in 1999).

PAPER TIGER is a 1974 movie featuring The Ray Conniff Singers together with the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Roy Budd. Earlier this year, it was released on DVD in the USA. Here is a review by a customer on the British Amazon website: “This film takes me back to my childhood when first viewed, and even today stands out in the crowd as one of David Niven's finest performances... I was so happy to find that this film had been released on DVD, but as advertised it was region 1 NTSC, after reading the review from another Amazon customer stating that the actual disc is region 0 NTSC, so I ordered hoping it would play on my current DVD player, of which it did... after a long wait for many years I am so pleased I can now view this film on DVD... The picture quality is excellent and the extras are a fantastic addition to this lovely innocent little film... a little gem and a marvellous performance from "Ando" .... I trust you will enjoy!!!” Here are further details: The movie is presented in its original widescreen format, 99 minutes. Sound: English, mono, no subtitles. Extras: Interviews with actress Irene Tsu, and producer Euan Lloyd, original trailer. “My Little Friend” performed by the Ray Conniff Singers over the end credits. NEW SUBPAGE CREATED Dec. 12, 2014: A list of movies and TV series featuring the music of Ray Conniff can be found here.

I am very happy to inform you that also this year, Ray Conniff’s wonderful Christmas Show is being aired in the USA. For a detailed list of stations and times, please click on one of the screen shots or here.

Today my idol and friend Ray Conniff would have been 98 years old. He is sadly missed, and it is my goal to keep his memory and music alive. In 2016, we will celebrate “100 Years of Ray Conniff” in Hamburg, Germany, where the first Fan Club Convention took place. We intend to promote this festive event later on in 2015. The photo of Ray and me on the right was taken backstage at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami in 1996.

If you are interested in attending the 2015 Ray Conniff Fan Convention in Essen, Germany, please click here for details concerning accommodation.

Hitherto unknown photographs of Ray discovered! You probably have not seen the photographs taken during the recording session of the “We’ve Only Just Begun”-album like the one shown here. Just click on the picture to get to the Getty Images page, where you can also find portraits from 1967 and pictures taken during Ray’s “Happiness Is Music” tour in 1975 in the UK. These photographs have watermarks, because they are for sale. Perhaps you are interested in purchasing some of them, who knows? Thanks to Igor Karpov who drew my attention to this treasure trove.

part 1 (Note: The ending of the first segment was cut when upload was made, unfortunately. The last statement by Jay Meyer was "...he played with EVERYBODY".), part 2, part 3, part 4. The links to the second hour are as follows: part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8. And finally, these are the links to the last hour: part 9, part 10, part 11. If parts are blocked in your country, you should use the ProxTube add-on for Firefox or software for anonymous browsing, such as CyberGhost. Thanks, Jorge, you are incredibly talented!

Jim Stone’s three hour tribute to Ray Conniff (2002) with visual effects added by Jorge Carpes (2014) now on YouTube These excellent radio shows were originally broadcast on radio station WLNZ in November 2002. It featured interviews with Jay Meyer, Perry La Marca, Doug Mitchell, Ron Hicklin - and with the maestro himself, which turned out to be his last one. It was taped in Palm Springs on September 7, 2002. Thanks to my friend Jorge Carpes, all parts will become available on YouTube. Jorge had asked Jim Stone for his permission to do so. (Thanks, Jim, for your authorisation!) Well, Jorge added many wonderful rare photographs and video clips to the radio shows. The result is wonderful, marvelous and awful nice. Please note that each one hour radio show had to be cut down to four segments, each one lasting about a quarter of an hour. Here are the four links to the first hour of the tribute:

Gold Edition: Ray Conniff Live is the title both of a CD and a DVD, originally scheduled for release in Brazil last year. Their release date was postponed a couple of times, and eventually they became available in August 2014. This show was originally broadcast as "Ray Conniff live at Villa Lobos Park" on DirecTV in 1999. As for the list of tracks, click on the left scan, but beware: There are quite a few errors on the cover: "Too Young" turns out to be "La Mer", and "Meu Querido, Meu Velho, Meu Amigo" is "Amigo", a totally different song. "O Velhinho" is not mentioned, etc. Neither the CD nor the DVD list names of composers and lyricists. Therefore it seems evident that they are socalled “unofficial” releases and should be avoided. This recently released DVD is identical with “Ray Conniff in Concert”, “Ray Conniff Live in Brazil 2001 - São Paulo” and “Lives Country Brazil”. They all have a sign in the upper right corner concealing the logo of DirecTV, the station that originally broadcast the show on their pay-TV channel. None of these DVDs feature the complete show, and all of them have monaural sound only. (By the way, the CD is in mono, too!) It would be wonderful if the original copyright owners released the complete show with perfect picture and sound quality.

This spot uses some bars of Ray Conniff’s rendition of “I Concentrate on You” from his album “Rhapsody in Rhythm”. Click on the picture to watch it.

As for downloadable original albums with original artwork (a selection), please click here.

“Hit Album Collection” is the title of a 3 CD set which was to be released June 13, 2014. The release date was postponed to June 27. It features the following six albums: (Disc #1:) Concert in Rhythm & Concert in Rhythm, Vol. II (Disc #2:) Broadway in Rhythm & Hollywood in Rhythm (Disc #3:) So Much in Love & Rhapsody in Rhythm The overall sound quality is excellent - with the exception of “Hollywood in Rhythm”. They should not have used the version which e.g. was released in the UK, because on this one the chorus is hardly audible (unlike on the US compact disc). The set does not feature any liner notes but gives information concerning the albums’ top positions in the US pop album charts.

A recommendation: Crystal Radio If you are desperately looking for an internet radio station that plays “our” music, try Crystal Radio from Canada, Just click on the logo on the left to get to its home page. There are no commercials, and the music is meant for relaxation and enjoyment. The orchestras / singers featured include Ray Conniff, Percy Faith, Paul Mauriat, Mantovani, James Last, Leroy Anderson, Herb Alpert, Bert Kaempfert, Nelson Riddle, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Nancy WIlson, and many others whose music must not be forgotten.

Fan Club Convention News Every two years, Conniff fans from around the world get together to celebrate Ray’s music. The last convention took place in Brussels and Bruges in September 2013. A survey among its participants revealed that the 2015 convention was to take place in the German Ruhr area / Northrhine Westphalia. The organizers Irmi, Barbara, Bernd and Jürgen have just met and fixed a date for the meeting: It is to take place from Friday night, 4th September to Sunday, 6th September 2015. They also agreed that Friday night and all of Saturday will be spent in Essen. There is much to see and do. The choice ranges from first-rate art museums to coal mining industrial sites. (In order to get an idea of what Essen has to offer, click here or here.) The organizers would like to make hotel room reservations in Essen as soon as possible, so should YOU toy with the idea of joining other Conniff fans in 2015, please send me a note so that your name will be put on the list of potential participants. Also, if you intend to extend your stay before and/or after this convention, please send a respective note so that a reservation can be made for you. And finally, if there are people interested in a day trip to Düsseldorf, a day trip on Sunday, 6th September, can be arranged. Essen can be easily reached by train from the international airport in Düsseldorf. P.S.: The next Ray Conniff Fan Club Convention after this one will not follow the biannual rule, because in 2016 we will celebrate 100 Years of Ray Conniff where the first convention took place: in Hamburg, Germany.

“Eight Classic Albums, Vol. 2” is the title of a 4 CD set to be released on May 9, 2014 (UK: May 16). This set features the following albums: (Disc #1:) ’s Wonderful! & Swingin’ For Two (with singer Don Cherry) - both in original mono -, (Disc #2:) ’s Marvelous & ’s Awful Nice*, (Disc #3:) Hollywood in Rhythm & Broadway in Rhythm, and (Disc #4:) Conniff Meets Butterfield & Rhapsody in Rhythm). As for “Eight Classic Albums, Vol. 1”, click here. *I thought you would like to see cover variations of “’s Awful Nice” here. These are the covers of LPs from Spain, Brazil and the cover of the CD.

More than half of the tracks featured on these three CDs are included in “The Essence of Ray Conniff” (2 CD set, international version) and “The Best of Ray Conniff”. This is the CD set that Tamara mentioned during her dinner speech at the fan club convention in Brussels. She probably chose the nice photograph of Ray, which must have been taken in 1959. Another picture of the same photo session was used for the first release of the “Broadway in Rhythm” LP shown here on the right.

“The Real... RAY CONNIFF (The Ultimate Ray Conniff Collection)” is the title of a 3 CD set from Sony that was released on March 21, 2014 in Germany. It was released in the UK on April 28, 2014 UK. Tracks are as follows:

Disc 1: 1. Up, Up And Away / 2. Begin The Beguine (instrumental, mono) / 3. ’s Wonderful (mono) / 4. Brazil 5. Greensleeves (What Child Is This, from “Christmas with Conniff”) / 6. You Do Something To Me / 7. Blue Moon / 8. Tiny Bubbles / 9. Gentle On My Mind / 10. Moon River (instrumental) / 11. South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way) / 12. You Make Me Feel So Young / 13. Chanson D'Amour (Song Of Love) / 14. For All We Know (from “Love Affair”) / 15. Early Evening / 16. Moonlight Serenade / 17. Walkin' And Whistlin' (mono) / 18. Love Me Tender / 19. Memories Are Made Of This (instrumental) / 20. The Continental (You Kiss While You're Dancing) Disc: 2: 1. Hello, Dolly! / 2. (When Your Heart's On Fire) Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (from “’s Awful Nice”) / 3. Sweet Sue, Just You / 4. Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing (from “Love Affair”) / 5. Mack The Knife / 6. Cheek To Cheek / 7. Stranger In Paradise / 8. (Where Do I Begin) Love Story / 9. Speak Softly Love (Love Theme From "The Godfather") / 10. African Safari / 11. Stardust (mono) / 12. As Time Goes By / 13. It's Impossible / 14. The Way You Look Tonight / 15. It Had To Be You (from “’s Awful Nice”) / 16. Red Roses For A Blue Lady / 17. The Power Of Love / 18. Besame Mucho / 19. Seventeen / 20. Winds Of Change (Main Title, vocal version)) Disc: 3: 1. Music To Watch Girls By / 2. All By Myself (from “Send in the Clowns”) / 3. A Time For Us / 4. Somewhere, My Love (Lara's Theme from "Doctor Zhivago") / 5. Bridge Over Troubled Water / 6. Everybody's Talkin' / 7. I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony) / 8. A Banda (mono) / 9. Someone / 10. The Way We Were / 11. A Man Without Love / 12. The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) / 13. This Is My Song / 14. Midnight Lace, parts 1 & 2 / 15. Try To Remember / 16. Invisible Tears / 17. Unchained Melody / 18. Volare / 19. The Look Of Love / 20. With Every Beat Of My Heart (vocal solo by Ray Conniff)

Lyrics Page revised Jorge Iório and I have almost completed the revision of the Lyrics Website. However, as both of us are no native speakers, we are having difficulty understanding a couple of expressions and lines, still. Please see the question marks / gaps in the following: IT’S A SIN TO TELL A LIE, and MOONLIGHT BRINGS MEMORIES. If YOU can help (or find typos which slipped our attention), please let us know. Thanks, Jorge and Manfred (Thanks to Luiz Jatahy who helped us find the missing lyrics to the other songs I listed here a while ago.)

A very happy New Year to all the fans of Ray Conniff and his music around the world! Please note that I archived last year’s news and that of previous years. Please use the “Archived News” buttons above. As for 2013, you may as well click on the screen shot on the right.

January 1, 2014:

January 12 / March 16 / 27 / April 7, 2014:

Jan. 25 / Feb. 9 / 28, 2014:

March 4 / 27 / April 8 / 11, 2014:

May 19, 2014:

May 13 / June 12 / July 2, 2014:

June 12, 2014:

June 23 / July 1, 2014:

Digital music: Ray Conniff’s album “Music from Mary Poppins”, “The Sound of Music”, “My Fair Lady” and Other Great Movie Themes became available as mp3 download in the US on July 1, 2014 (Europe: July 11, 2014, UK: July 7, 2014).

July 1, 2014:

August 6/8/11/12, 2014:

August 7 / September 8, 2014:

October 1, 2014:

New subpage: A selection of multiple CD sets by Ray Conniff

October 11, 2014:

October 13, 2014:

November 6, 2014:

Click here for Christmas greetings from Ray Conniff (1962).

December 9, 2014:

Click on Ray’s picture to listen to an unreleased take of “O Velhinho” (a Christmas song from Brazil, recorded for his 4th Christmas album, “’s Christmas” in 1999).