Uncredited Artist (Longines Symphonette) - Hawaii...Melodies from Paradise

No matter what you might think of the product put out by those mail order record companies like Reader's Digest and Longines Symphonette in the 1960s and '70s, there's no denying they usually took extreme care with the technical quality of their LPs.

Happily this five-record box set, probably from the early to mid-1970s, is no exception. Hawaii...Melodies from Paradise is, at least for me, an enjoyable experience from both technical and musical standpoints. Granted this isn't authentic Hawaiian music and probably was recorded in the mainland U.S. or perhaps in the United Kingdom, where much of the Longines product originated. (For some background on Longines Symphonette, read this post and this one as well.)

A melodic steel guitar lead is framed by muted brass on many of the selections -- to excellent effect. Here's a sample.

Blue Hawaii



Most people associate Blue Hawaii as the title tune for the 1961 Elvis Presley film, but it was actually written for a 1937 movie, Waikiki Wedding, starring Bing Crosby, who sang it backed by Lani McIntyre and His Hawaiians, a genuine Hawaiian musical group. Here's how it sounded.

And if you're interested in the Hawaii...Melodies from Paradise set watch your local thrift stores. It seems to turn up in playable condition fairly often.

Uncredited (Longines Symphonette Society) - The American Composers Musical Hall of Fame

The Longines Symphonette Society was a division of the "Century Old Longines-Wittnauer Watch Co., makers of 'The World's Most Honored Watch'," according to an advertising blurb of the period. In any case the society issued some very fine quality LP box sets during the 1960s and '70s. There were a number of single LP releases as well.

The Longines Symphonette recordings were sold via a mail-order subscription service and featured both well-known artists (eg., Mills Brothers, Benny Goodman) and an uncredited orchestral group that played lush instrumental versions of standards and pop hits. In other words, the company was mining the same territory as Reader's Digest and Time-Life Records.

This anonymous aggregation, which at least one source says was led by Robert Farnon at recording sessions in Britain, is aboard for the box set The American Composers Musical Hall of Fame, a tribute to Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael and Jerome Kern. Below you can listen to Porter's True Love, from the film High Society.

True Love



Longines Symphonette also issued a single LP with selections from this set. It's difficult to say whether any of this material has been released on CD or is being sold as downloads (legal ones, that is). That's because Longines sold its record business to the Warner Music Group and the Longines recordings since the 1990s have been credited to merely the Symphonette Society (and other equally bland names) without any reference to the watch company. But Longines Symphonette vinyl recordings still turn up with surprising regularity in thrift stores and online, usually at reasonable prices.

Here's a selection from a 1974 Longines Dixieland-themed set entitled The Roaring '20s.