The Quadfather

Sharing the day with a whole raft of famous names including Keanu Reeves, Marge Champion, Salma Hayek, Lennox Lewis, Billy Preston, Moira Stuart, footballer Joey Barton, Daniel arap Moi, PM Sir Keir Starmer, Jimmy Connors, Victor Spinetti, Francis Matthews, Bill Shankly, Mark Harmon, the ill-fated astronaut Christa McAuliffe and - erm - Google Chrome, we have a centenary to celebrate - that of Mr Hugo Montenegro!

Who? I hear you ask...

Well, he got to #1 in the UK charts for three weeks in 1968 - holding off strong challengers including Eloise by Barry Ryan and This Old Heart of Mine by the Isley Brothers - with this:

Hugo Montenegro and His Orchestra - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly [Ennio Morricone]

Although he did score some films in his own right, he really made his name in the estimable company of the likes of Ron Goodwin, Henry Mancini, LeRoy Holmes, Stanley Black et al, whose orchestrated "easy listening" compilations of film music became extremely popular in the 60s and 70s. He was nicknamed "The Quadfather" in the early 1970s as a pioneering composer for quadrasonic recording, and was renowned as an early pioneer of musical arrangements using the Moog synthesizer.

There is one composition by Mr Montenegro, however, for which he really is best known - this!

I Dream of Jeannie

All hail, Hugo Mario Montenegro (2nd September 1925 – 6th February 1981)

Tell me now, how does it feel?

Happy 40th Birthday! New Order's Blue Monday first arrived in the charts on this weekend in March 1983:

• It reached #12 on 23rd April.
• Having not left the Top 100 all year, it re-entered the Top 40 on 17th September.
• It hit its highest chart position - #9 - on 15th October.
• However, it was actually a remix by none other than Quincy Jones that gave the song its highest chart place (#3) five years later, in May 1988.

An all-time classic, way back in 2009 I decided to post a "recipe" of the "ingredients" that contributed to its composition, based upon a Sky Arts documentary at the time - and lo and behold, Alex Petridis in The Guardian has done the same. Some of the ingredients he used were the same as mine, but there are some interesting differences...

Both he and I acknowledged that this slice of Italo disco brilliance (which Bernard Sumner has always cited as one of his favourite songs) was a key element:

Klein & MBO - Dirty Talk

It's undeniable that Giorgio Moroder's groundbreaking collaboration with Donna Summer was a big influence on the band, but I chose the obvious number...

Donna Summer - I Feel Love

...whereas Mr Petridis suggested this album track:

Donna Summer - Our Love

It's undeniable that this one had to be in the mix, and our lists coincided again:

Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

Although, inevitably, a soupçon of Kraftwerk had to be there, the "flavours" diverged - as Alex chose this:

Kraftwerk - Uranium

Whereas I specified one that was a tad more familiar:

Kraftwerk - The Robots

There was one more piece in the Guardian article that came as a bit of a "left-fielder", however. Apparently Peter Hook claimed the sparse riffs of Blue Monday were inspired by the twanging lead guitar in Ennio Morricone's score for For a Few Dollars More!

Ennio Morricone - For a Few Dollars More

Whatever the ingredients, the resulting "dish" is delicious, indeed:

New Order - Blue Monday [on Top of the Pops]

New Order official website

---

STOP PRESS:

The official lyric video...

New Order - Blue Monday

Whoops, Acropolis

The sun is shining out there again [for the third morning in a row - we're being spoiled!], but we home-workers can't get out there as much as we'd like to enjoy it.

Instead, let us wallow in the cavortings of impossibly glamorous people in exotic locations once more - this time, by way of a tribute to "The Maestro" Ennio Morricone, who died last week. This video brings more questions than it answers, of course, such as "How does she wear that much mascara in a hot country without it streaming down her face?", "Was she a stripper in that club when he met her?" and "Why is he chasing her round the Acropolis in her pyjamas?"...

Soft Tempo Lounge - Lo spirito di Morricone

Sigh.

[Music: Ennio Morricone - Belinda May]