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James Last — Happy Music
(Written by James Last)
℗ 1967 Polydor Germany

JAMES LAST, BANDLEADER, DIES 86
The Telegraph | 10 Jun 2015

By Martin Chilton, Culture Editor

James Last, one of the most popular band leaders of the post-war period, has died in Florida

Big band leader James Last has died aged 86 at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. The final one of his remarkable 90 performances at London's Royal Albert Hall came in April 2015 as part of a farewell tour he announced after becoming seriously ill last year. The German-born musician sold millions of records and was a regular fixture on UK television for many years with his James Last Orchestra. He pioneered what became known as "Happy Sound".

In a statement, his manager said: "Mr Last passed away yesterday [June 9 2015] in Florida, peacefully and in the presence of his family."

Born Hans Last on April 17 1929, the man always known to friends as Hansi became highly adept at adapting pop hits to big band arrangements and in his lifetime he sold more than 80 million albums worldwide. He performed about 2,500 live concerts during a career spanning five decades, after clinching his first record deal in 1964.

Non-Stop Dancing, released in 1965, was a sensation, and included short performances of popular songs, tied together by dance beats and crowd noises. He worked with many popular musicians, including Cliff Richard, Freddy Quinn, Richard Clayderman and René Kollo. In the UK alone, he had 52 hit albums between 1967 and 1986, cementing him in the record books as the second-best selling artist of all time, behind Elvis Presley. Last said he was proud that Presley recorded his own composition Fool.

Last had a Top 10 hit in America in 1980 with The Seduction, the theme song from American Gigolo, and the bandleader modestly explained his musical ability in his 2009 autobiography, stating: "I am simply lucky enough to be one of the few people in the world who can hear one kind of music and immediately be able to translate it into another without having to think too much about it."

He released albums devoted to the music of Abba, Motown, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Bach and Vivaldi, and also interpreted the music of Bob Marley.

Last had learned how to play the tuba and the piano as child, before switching to bass as a teenager and learning his trade with the Hans-Gunther Oesterreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra. He was voted as the best bassist in the country by a German jazz poll for three consecutive years, from 1950-1952.

He recently went on a farewell tour, called Non-Stop Music, which took in London and ended in April in Cologne. A public memorial service will take place in Hamburg in the coming weeks.

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2016

James Last — Happy Music

Born in Marseilles August 11, 1913
His father, a musician in the navy in Marseilles, starts teaching him music at 6 years old
He learns violin at the Conservatoire in Marseilles but alsos drums because he loves jazz. Then he spends a year in Paris at the Conservatoire.
1931: he works as a violonist at the Théâtre des Variétés in marseilles
June 10, 1939 he marries Odette.
At that period he becomes the musical director of some singers, among them Yves Montand, and Lucienne Boyer, with whom he is going to tour the world.
1946: he has a baby- girl named Françoise.
1952: he emigrates to US, and get the Green card and the musician  Union card, because he wants to produce a big band orchestra.
1953, a french producer Maurice Tézé, calls him back in France to record his first record Blue Tango and the follow up Limelight
He gets his first success with this record, and from now, all french singers want to hire Franck, called ‘The American » to be their musical director.
1954 he records his first LP under the label Pathé-Marconi- he will record 9 LPs in 3 years. and will create the serie Amour Danse et Violons which will include 54 LPs
1956, he records his version of  Only You, the success created by yhe Platters ; he will sell over 3 millions copies in the US
Between 1956 and 1972 he is the regular conductor for France at the Eurovision song contest.
1958 he starts recording classical music ; with his serie Pages Célèbres he will record popular classical pieces with 80 musicians, so leading his « Varieties » public to the discovery and appreciation of classical music.
His Pages Célèbres give him the chance to direct famous classical orchestras like :

The London Symphony orchestra
The Society of Concerts for the Conservatoirte
The BBC orchestra ar the Royal Festival Hall
The Lamoureux Orchestra at the Salle Pleyel

His records are distributed in over 50 countries
1962: he composes together with Paul Mauriat and Raymond Lefèvre the famous hit « Chariot » created by Petula Clark and followed up by Little Peggy March as « I will follow Him ».
In 1992 the song will become the main theme of the motion picture Sister Act 1 & 2.

He will record until 1995 with EMI

He achieves, among many other distinctions:

1956: The Grand prix du disque Français
1957: The Grand prix du disque in Brazil
1963: The Golden disc in Venezuela
1965: Amsterdam: The Edison Price (The equivalent of the film Oscars) for his orchestrations of Pop music
1965: Award of the “DISQUE POPULAIRE”
1967: Back to the USA for an important promotion journey. He conducts in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Hollywood…
1968: Golden disc in Colombia for his popularity in this country-Disco Mundo
1969: Grand Prix du disque of the Charles Cros Academy in Paris
1970: Gold record in Japan, for the album “FOR YOUR LOVELY BABY”
1976:Gold record in Japan for “ADORO”

Franck has broken all the selling records of the European orchestras

He dies on November 12, 2000 in Neuilly-France, from Parkinson desease.

Active years: 50s,60s,70s,80s,90s.


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