John Russell Mann (August 30, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an
American arranger, composer, conductor, entertainer, and recording artist. He
is amongst the giants of easy listening music.
John was born in Baltimore, where his father, Elsworth, was
a building superintendent. His mother, Lillian, his primary musical influence,
taught piano and voice. After high school, Mr. Mann served in the Army during
the Korean War, playing trombonein the Army Field Band.
After mustering out he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked
as an arranger and music director for movie studios. In 1956, he was choral
director for a short-lived variety show, “NBC Comedy Hour,” that led to the
creation of the Johnny Mann Singers and signed a recording contract with the
Liberty label They proceeded to dominate the airwaves with their trademark
stylish, skilfully realised and undemanding blend of smooth voices and gentle
melody. They were involved in several classic rock 'n' roll and rockabilly
recording sessions for Johnny Burnette (including "God, Country and My
Baby"), The Crickets and several 1957–1958 sessions with Eddie Cochran,
who was also signed to Liberty Records in Hollywood.
Mann was credited as "Johnnie Mann" in some of his
earlier works. The '60s saw the Mann Singers host the TV series Stand Up and
Cheer, which ran for a total of three years (the group was a clean-cut bunch,
wearing white pants and skirts, red V-neck sweaters, and white turtlenecks, the
complete opposite of the burgeoning hippie/psychedelic rock movement that was
sweeping the country). Handsome and exuberant and described as ‘looking like an
airline pilot and acting like he¹s flying just as high’, Johnny Mann worked as
musical director on The Danny Kaye Show and was the musical director for the
1967-69 ABC-TV late night talk show, The Joey Bishop Show.
The Johnny Mann Singers' instrumental "Cinnamint
Shuffle (Mexican Shuffle)" hit the US Pop chart in 1966. Their next
single, a cover version of "Up, Up and Away", became the hit version
of the song on the UK Singles Chart, over taking the US hit version by The 5th
Dimension. The version also won a Grammy Award in 1968 in the Best Performance
by a Choir of Seven or More Persons category. In total, Mann was nominated for
five Grammys, two of which he won.
During this time, Mann and his Singers began issuing albums,
such as Invisible Tears, We Can Fly! Up-Up and Away, and We Wish You a Merry
Christmas. In addition to the Johnny Mann Singers, the leader/singer
served as musical director for the original Alvin & the Chipmunks TV series,
supplying the voice of the character Theodore. As bandleader with the Johnny
Mann Singers, he and the group recorded approximately 40 albums.
He has composed, arranged, and produced an infinite number
of radio and TV commercials/jingles, the most famous being the "Sounds of
the City" jingle for KSFO in San Francisco, California. He hosted the TV
series titled Stand Up and Cheer (1971–1974), where his groups most notable
alumna was Vicki Lawrence. Mann and has worked with the likes of George Gobel,
Johnny Mathis, Nat "King" Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Julie
London, and Steve Allen, in addition to serving as Danny Kaye's conductor on an
extended tour.
Incredibly patriotic, Mann has been the recipient of
countless awards from Veterans groups, and performed at the White House two
times for then-president Richard Nixon. Mann also hosted celebrity golf
tournaments and often serves as a speaker for local charity fundraisers in his
hometown of Palm Springs.
In 2010, Mann was awarded an honorary doctor of humanities
degree from Anderson University in Anderson, SC. In April 2014 at the age of
85, he was a guest conductor of The South Carolina School of the Arts, at
Anderson University's spring gala where he led the university choir in
performing the Johnny Mann Singers arrangement of "Up, Up and Away".
At the song's conclusion, the audience of about 1,000 stood in Mann's honour.
On June 18, 2014, Johnny Mann died of heart failure at age
85 at his home in Anderson, South Carolina.
(Compiled from Wikipedia & All Music)
3 comments:
For “The Johnny Mann Singers – Heart Full of Song” go here:
http://www22.zippyshare.com/v/I7WEEaQX/file.html
01 - Mrs. Robinson
02 - Invisible Tears
03 - Born Free
04 - This Guy's In Love With You
05 - She's Just My Style
06 - Do You Know The Way to San Jose
07 - Up Up and Away
08 - Love Is Blue
09 - Never My Love
10 - A Man and a Woman
11 - This Magic Moment
12 - The Worst That Could Happen
13 - Heart Full of Soul
14 - Downtown
15 - Tell Me Why
16 - Close to You
17 - Stompin' at The Savoy
18 - Nancy
19 - The Whiffenpoof Song
20 - Love Me With All Your Heart
21 - Through a Long and Sleepless Night
22 - It's The Talk of The Town
23 - If I Only Had Time
24 - The Look of Love
25 - Didn't We
26 - Like to Get to Know You
27 - What a Wonderful World
28 - Love Is All Around
29 - Walk an Autumn Day With Me
30 - How Small We Are, How Little We Know
Here’s two full albums plus an edited third that will all fit nicely on a standard CD-R All from 1968/69
A big thank you to Chileno @ Luz Cámara Música Blog for original links.
any chance of a repu please?
hello Neil, Here's Johnny.........
https://krakenfiles.com/view/gA5ORk5ZAG/file.html
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