Pyramid Of The Sun - Music

Pyramid Of The Sun by Les Baxter And His Orchestra

Les Baxter And His Orchestra

Artist Biography For Les Baxter And His Orchestra

Les Baxter March 14 1922 – January 15 1996 Was An American Musician And Composer. Baxter Studied Piano At The Detroit Conservatory Before Moving To Los Angeles For Further Studies At Pepperdine College. Abandoning A Concert Career As A Pianist He Turned To Popular Music As A Singer. At The Age Of 23 He Joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones Singing On Artie Shaw Records Such As "What Is This Thing Called Love?". Baxter Then Turned To Arranging And Conducting For Capitol Records In 1950 And Was Credited With The Early Nat King Cole Hits "Mona Lisa" And "Too Young" But Both Were Actually Orchestrated By Nelson Riddle. 1 In Later Releases Of The Recordings The Credit Was Corrected To Riddle. Citation Needed Not A Uncommon Practice These Days Baxter Himself Had Arranged Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" In 1947 For A Recording Conducted By Frank De Vol. In 1953 He Scored His First Film The Sailing Travelogue Tanga Tika. With His Own Orchestra He Released A Number Of Hits Including "Ruby" 1953 "Unchained Melody" 1955 And "The Poor People Of Paris" 1956 . The Latter Recording Sold Over One Million Copies And Was Awarded A Gold Disc. 2 He Also Achieved Success With Concept Albums Of His Own Orchestral Suites Le Sacre Du Sauvage Festival Of The Gnomes Ports Of Pleasure And Brazil Now The First Three For Capitol And The Fourth On Gene Norman's Crescendo Label. The List Of Musicians On These Recordings Includes Plas Johnson And Clare Fischer. Baxter Also Wrote The "Whistle" Theme From The TV Show Lassie. Baxter Did Not Restrict His Activities To Recording. As He Once Told Soundtrack! Magazine "I Never Turn Anything Down". In The 1960s He Formed The Balladeers A Besuited And Conservative Folk Group That At One Time Featured A Young David Crosby. Citation Needed He Operated In Radio As Musical Director Of The Halls Of Ivy And The Bob Hope And Abbott And Costello Shows. Like His Counterparts Henry Mancini Lalo Schifrin And James Horner Baxter Later Worked For The Film Industries From 1960s To 70s. He Worked On Movie Soundtracks For American International Pictures Where He Composed And Conducted Scores For Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe Films And Other Horror Stories And Teenage Musicals Including The Pit And The Pendulum Panic In Year Zero! Beach Party The Comedy Of Terrors The Dunwich Horror And Frogs. Howard W. Koch Recalled That Baxter Composed Orchestrated And Recorded The Entire Score Of The Yellow Tomahawk 1954 In A Total Of Three Hours For $5 000. 3 With Less Soundtrack Work In The 1980s He Scored Music For Theme Parks And SeaWorlds. In The 1990s Baxter Was Widely Celebrated Alongside Martin Denny And The Arthur Lyman Group As One Of The Progenitors Of What Had Become Known As The "exotica" Movement. In His 1996 Appreciation For Wired Magazine Writer David Toop Remembered Baxter Thus "Baxter Offered Package Tours In Sound Selling Tickets To Sedentary Tourists Who Wanted To Stroll Around Some Taboo Emotions Before Lunch View A Pagan Ceremony Go Wild In The Sun Or Conjure A Demon All Without Leaving Home Hi-Fi Comforts In The White Suburbs".
Baxter Has A Motion Picture Star On The Hollywood Walk Of Fame At 6314 Hollywood Blvd.