March from the River Kwai
March from the River Kwai is a march composed by Malcolm Arnold in 1957 for the film The Bridge on the River Kwai (German title: Die Brücke am Kwai ), which was played by the Mitch Miller Orchestra and which became a million seller .
History of origin
Mitch Miller was not only orchestra leader of the house band of Columbia Records , but also producer and influential manager of the label since February 1950. As orchestra leader, he was able to show some high-turnover LPs and the single The Yellow Rose of Texas as a million seller from June 1950 .
"Le Pont de la Riviere Kwai" was the title of a war novel written in 1952 by the French author Pierre Boulle . In September 1956 it was decided to build up a British film production on this basis, the script of which, however, differed considerably from the novel. The film, which began shooting in October 1956 and ended in Sri Lanka in May 1957, showed the construction of a prison-of-war bridge over a branch of the Kwae River (pronounced like "Kwai") as part of a railway line. During the filming, Malcolm Arnold worked on the film scores. Director David Lean was not satisfied with the disorderly opening scene of ragged British prisoners of war when they entered a prison camp in a rather undisciplined manner. Lean whistled the Colonel Bogey March , which all soldiers then whistled along, so that the soldiers moved at a marching pace and thus left an orderly impression.
Malcolm Arnold then delivered his composition of the River Kwai March , which Mitch Miller and Colonel Bogey March arranged for a medley that can be heard at the end of the film. Malcolm Arnold created the River Kwai March especially for the film as an orchestral counter-melody to the soldiers' whistled bogey march as they enter the prison camp . Arnold's march appears in several places in the film and can also be heard at the end. The better-known opening melody, however, is Colonel Bogey March, composed in 1914 by Lieutenant Frank Joseph Ricketts under the pseudonym Kenneth J. Alford . The medley consists of the melody of Colonel Bogey March laid over the orchestrated River Kwai March . Both are independent, copyrighted works.
Music recording
The recording date was November 11, 1957, on which Mitch Miller assembled his orchestra in the legendary Columbia 207 East 30th Street Studios in New York. The studios were not the usual recording studios, but a no longer used and then rebuilt Greek Orthodox church with a ceiling over 30 meters high. Here it was possible to record with a voluminous natural echo. This echo, amplified by high-hanging microphones, was also used for recording from the River Kwai March . The main part of the sound in the medley is made up of several drums and the whistling amplified by the natural echo. For this purpose, Mitch Miller specifically commissioned the curtains not to be touched and the cleaners not to polish the wooden floor in order to avoid possible harmful effects on the acoustics.
success
The seven-Oscar-winning film The Bridge on the River Kwai was released in British cinemas on October 2, 1957, in the United States (New York) on December 18, 1957, and premiered in Germany on March 7, 1958 (Die Brücke am Kwai ) . The film grossed $ 28 million on a $ 3.2 million film budget. Arnold received an Academy Award ("Oscar") for film music.
Against this cinematic background, Columbia Records first released the LP The Bridge on the River Kwai on December 23, 1957, parallel to the film. This was then released as the single March from the River Kwai - Colonel Bogey (the full title in Columbia Records catalog # 41066) with the back of Hey Little Baby in January 1958 in the USA. It came on January 13, 1958 in the pop hit parade, where it began in the "Hot 100" at rank 60 and in the "Most Played By Jockeys" on February 3, 1958 rose to rank 20. Spurred on by the great cinema success, the record was released a million times in the USA alone. Billboard listed the song as one of the songs with a large audience on the radio. The well-known melody is now identified worldwide under the title March from the River Kwai as music from the famous war film.
In Germany, the title was published in March 1958 (Philips # 322 205 BF) and from April 12, 1958, it remained at the top of the charts for 13 weeks. Within six weeks, 600,000 copies were sold in Germany, after six months the million mark had already been exceeded. A total of four million copies were sold in Germany alone. Miller was awarded a gold record for his success in Germany by his music label .
Marching music was nothing new for Mitch Miller, as he recorded a total of 13 marches for Columbia, including the million seller The Yellow Rose of Texas . The Kwai song registered with ASCAP is only "March". A total of 299 compositions are entered for Malcolm Arnold.
Cover versions
On February 27, 1958, a vocal version by Annie Cordy was released in France, which became a bestseller there. Polydor hurried to get Helmut Zacharias to march, while Electrola brought out a version with the English orchestra by Ron Goodwin . The German Decca offered a version by Ernst Mosch . All missed the German charts, so the success of the original could not be diminished.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Whistles on the golf course. In: Der Spiegel. April 30, 1958, p. 62 ff.
- ↑ Jim Cogan, William Clark: Temples of Sound. 2002, p. 183 ff.
- ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records. 1985, p. 109.
- ↑ Billboard Magazine, December 30, 1957, p. 36.
- ^ Joseph Murrells: Million Selling Records. 1985, p. 109.
- ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit balance sheet - German chart singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 445 .
- ↑ ASCAP entry for the River Kwai March