From Amazon.co.uk
Pitched at the lucrative (in 1969), easy listening orchestral "pops" market and featuring contributions from the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, Gary Usher's instrumental
Add Some Music To Your Day is a real curio for insatiable Beach Boys aficionados. As a songwriter, producer and doyen of the surf and hot rod scene, Usher was very much at the epicentre of West Coast pop in the 1960s. Striking up a successful partnership with the little known
Brian Wilson (who'd only just picked up his first royalty cheque for a measly $1000) he co-wrote six songs for the Beach Boys' debut album
Surfin' Safari, as well as such classic candy-striped hits as "Fun, Fun, Fun" and "In My Room", before moving on to produce three critically-adored albums for
the Byrds. In 1969, in tandem with Curt Boettcher and Keith Olsen, he formed his own label: Together Records. Alas, due to financial difficulties, the project was short-lived and
Add Some Music To Your Day--a symphonic tribute to the music of Brian Wilson--never saw the light of day until 2001. The album is an hours' worth of seductive candlelit-dinner kitsch courtesy of soothing strings, tinkling harpsichords and sexy flutes. Even so, there's a solemn resonance to "The Warmth of the Sun" (entirely fitting, given the circumstances of the song's original conception) and it's a perverse pleasure to hear "Friends" performed on an oboe or a "Smile" medley (including a Gershwin-ised "Heroes and Villains") in such a setting. This is an album to be enjoyed as much in the foreground as in the background.
--Kevin Maidment
Album Details
Subtitled 'A 1970 Symphonic Tribute To Brian Wilson'. Recorded by Gary to cheer up Beach Boy Brian Wilson after his breakdown following the 'Smile' sessions. He aimed to prove he was not just a pop writer but a classical composer as well. Featuring versions of Beach Boys songs. Poptones. 2001 release.
