Frank Chacksfield

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles

Little Red Monkey (ft. Jack Jordan)
  UK 10 04/03/1953 (3 weeks)
Terry's Theme from 'Limelight'
  UK 2 05/22/1953 (24 weeks)
  US 6th 05/30/1953 (14 weeks)
Ebb tide
  UK 9 02/12/1954 (2 weeks)
  US 2 05.09.1953 (24 weeks)
In Old Lisbon
  UK 15th 02/24/1956 (4 weeks)
Port Au Prince (with Winifred Atwell )
  UK 18th 05/18/1956 (6 weeks)
Donkey cart
  UK 26th 08/31/1956 (2 weeks)
On the beach
  US 47 01/25/1960 (8 weeks)

Frank Chacksfield (born May 9, 1914 in Battle , England, † June 9, 1995 in Kent ) was a British pianist , organist , composer and conductor in the field of light music. With Mantovani he was one of the representatives of easy listening and had great success in Great Britain and internationally in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Life

Frank Chacksfield grew up in Battle, East Sussex , and learned the piano and organ as a child . At the age of 14 he made his first public appearance at the Hastings Music Festival .

After brief employment in a law firm, he chose the music profession, became assistant organist for the Church of Salehurst and in the 1930s led a small band at Tonbridge , Kent. At the beginning of the Second World War he joined the Royal Corps of Signals , worked as a pianist for radio and for ENSA in Salisbury .

After the war he worked as an arranger and conductor at the BBC with Henry Hall and Geraldo , among others . In 1951 he founded the orchestra "Frank Chacksfield's Tunesmiths". At the beginning of 1953 he had his first top ten hit “Little Red Monkey” with Parlophone , in which a claviolin , a forerunner of the synthesizer , was used as a novelty .

This was followed by a record deal with Decca Records and the establishment of a 40-person orchestra with a large set of strings. His first recording on Decca, Charlie Chaplin's theme tune for his film Limelight , won gold records in the US and UK , reached No. 2 in the UK Top 40 and earned it the NME Award for "Record of the Year".

Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra became one of the UK's most famous orchestras, selling more than 20 million albums worldwide. It mainly played light entertainment music, ballads, waltzes and film melodies. In 1954, Chacksfield also founded a BBC series that continued into the early 1960s. In 1957 he was responsible for the musical design of Great Britain's first participation in the Eurovision Song Contest with "All" by Patricia Bredin .

Until the 1990s he made recordings with his orchestra for the BBC, published records and also sold his recordings commercially as background music for department stores and elevators. His last album Thanks for the Memories (Academy Award Winners 1934-1955) was released in 1991.

Chacksfield died in Kent in 1995 after suffering from Parkinson's disease for several years .

Discography

Albums

  • Ebb Tide , London LL 1408
  • Velvet , London LL 1443
  • Evening in Paris , Decca LK 4081
  • Evening in Rome , Decca LK 4095
  • The Music of George Gershwin , Decca LK 4113
  • If I Had a Talking Picture of You , Decca LK 4135
  • South Sea Island Magic , Decca LK 4174
  • Opera's Golden Moments , London Phase 4 21092
  • The New Ebb Tide , London Phase 4 44053
  • Globe-Trotting , London Phase 4 SP 44059
  • The New Limelight , London Phase 4 SP 44066
  • Hawaii , London Phase 4 SP 44087
  • Foreign Film Festival , London Phase 4 SP 44112
  • New York , London Phase 4 SP 44141
  • Beatles Songbook , London Phase 4 44142
  • Simon & Garfunkel & Jimmy Webb , London Phase 4 44151
  • Plays Bacharach , London Phase 4 44158
  • Plays Ebb Tide And Other Million Sellers , London Phase 4 44168
  • Chacksfield Plays Rodgers & Hart , London Phase 4 SP 44223
  • The Glory That Was Gershwin , London Phase 4 44254
  • TV's Golden Hits , Compleat Records 671020-1

Singles

  • Little Red Monkey , Parlophone R3658, 1953
  • Terry's Theme from 'Limelight' " , Decca F10106, 1953
  • Ebb Tide , Decca F10122, 1954
  • In Old Lisbon , Decca F19689, 1956
  • Port Au Prince (with Winifred Atwell ), Decca F10727, 1956
  • Donkey Cart , Decca F10743, 1956
  • On The Beach , (US) London 1901, 1960

swell

  1. ↑ UK chart placements
  2. ↑ Hitguide US Chart Singles 1950-1963, Günter Ehnert (Ed.), Taurus Press 1992, ISBN 3-922542-47-6

literature

  • David Roberts: (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums, Guinness World Records Limited. p. 512. London 2006, ISBN 1-904994-10-5 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Chacksfield, Frank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chacksfield, Francis Charles (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British orchestra conductor
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Battle , England
DATE OF DEATH June 9, 1995
Place of death Kent , UK