|
The
Beau Hunks
The Beau Hunks Play The Original Laurel & Hardy
Music of LeRoy Shield
 If
you're a fan of the classic movies of Hal Roach, who produced
the many of the Laurel & Hardy and The Little
Rascals films, then you're already familiar with the
music of composer LeRoy Shield. Back in the 1930s, Shield
wrote the scores for Roach's films (and money being tight,
he often used the same scores over and over again in different
shorts). For many years, the original music was only available
on the deteriorating celluloid prints. Enter The Beau
Hunks, a group of pre-big band music fans based in Amsterdam.
After years of research and transcribing the scores note
by note from these early films, The Beau Hunks released
a 72-track, two-CD collection of the LeRoy Shield scores,
entitled The Beau Hunks Play The Original Laurel &
Hardy Music (Basta Music).
The
soundtracks to Roach's classic flicks include songs like
the legendary "Bells" (the main background score
for the majority of The Little Rascals films),
"Colonial Gayeties", "On A Sunny Afternoon",
"Dash And Dot", "The Trail Of The Lonesome
Pine", and "Here We Go." The titles may
be totally unknown to you, but, the melodies have undoubtedly
been bouncing around in your head for years. Also in the
collection are a few famous lines from the Laurel &
Hardy films themselves, as well as a brief interview
with Marvin Hatley, who explains how he came up with the
Laurel & Hardy theme, "Ku-Ku."
The
Beau Hunks are master craftsmen and should be presented
with a ton of gratitude for completing such a vast undertaking.
This fall, the band will release another exciting compilation,
entitled Kodachrome: The Music of Raymond Scott
(Basta Music). Learn more about the band and their endeavors
online at www.bastamusic.com.
—Smilin'
Buddha Joe
|
