Alan Stokes

I am in contact with someone who is involved with audio restoration work on elderly ‘light music’ reissues on CD. One particular interest is the music of Percy Faith and his Orchestra.

In 1964 there was a series on BBC 2 called “Best of Both Worlds” which featured big orchestras from both sides of the Atlantic. One of these was Percy Faith, with guest Peter Nero.

                  (Click on the picture below to see a larger or clearer version of this picture:
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We know that three shows were recorded, featuring Percy Faith. However, there is a suggestion that actually there were four. Was there a fourth?

There is, in existence, a telerecording of one of these shows (the others are missing believed wiped!). I have see a VHS of it and the original VT has a huge number of drop-outs on it. These days it would probably not be accepted for transmission but my guess is that the 2″ machine playing it back for this film recording had a dirty head but as it was only for archive use they carried on rather than stop the telerecording machine with all the cost implications.

Alec Bray

I worked on a number of the “Best of Both Worlds” shows – usually as a tracker on the crane on the left side of the orchestra.

Geoff Fletcher

from my 1964 diary:-

Sunday 16th August

TC5: Practical Production Exercise

TC1: Best Of Both Worlds    0930 – 2315     On loan from Crew 12

Cable bashing in TC1 blast it!!

 

 

Clifford White

My 1964 diary shows that quite a few of the programmes were worked by Crew 10, with Pete ‘Squire’ Hills, Tony Abbey, Peter Valentine and yours truly, and that they were on the following dates:

21 April 1964
28 April 1964
04 May 1964
23 June 1964
11 July 1964
19 July 1964
09 August 1964
15 September 1964
20 September 1964.

Dave Mundy

I worked on several of these fantastic shows as either boom op., gram op., radio mic op., PA op., and even mixed a couple of  numbers. My diary entries for “Best of Both Worlds” start when I joined Crew 11 on June 22. It was the Stanley Black orchestra for 4 shows, then July 4 onwards for Nelson Riddle, July 26 for Frank Chacksfield for 4, August 16, 23/24 for Henry Mancini. The producer was Yvonne Littlewood (with Janet, of course!) who sometimes turn up for the Telobians Christmas party. I seem to remember the Peter Nero appearance because I blagged a 1/4 inch copy of it! Mantovani also had some shows but they must have been before I started on them, as did David Rose. The Henry Mancini series was especially trying as Hugh Barker used umpteen powered mics. which meant finding lots mains outlets (as it was long before phantom power) and TC1 only had a couple of multi-mic ‘spider points’ as well.

See this web-site:
http://soundtracksfan.com/ezvid/videos2/nero/nero-tv-best-both-worlds.htm

– the first Peter Nero track was ‘Scratch my Bach’ not ‘back’!

Tony Grant

I have found my old diaries. Sadly, they’re not nearly as detailed as Geoff’s, but after TO19, I came back from Evesham onto crew 11 (it says here) and started on “Best of Both…..” The first I worked on was 26 July 1964, Frank Chacksfield in TC1, 625 lines. I didn’t always note the orchestra, but I have a note of working on Henry Mancini 23rd and 24th August 1964.

I transfered to crew 15 in September, and immediately worked on “Best of Both……”  (when we referred to it, the word “Worlds” always seemed to be dropped) but no mention of the orchestras. However, the last “Best of Both  ” that crew 15 did was on October 26th, so I’m unsure who might have taken over from then on. (As an aside, I worked on Winston Churchill’s birthday celebration programme in TC1 on 5th and 6th November, and on one of the days the great man himself visited the studio).

Dave Munday

Here is one of the Peter Nero items from  “Best of Both.Worlds.”, note-for-note identical  with his performance on the show.

 

 

Summary

1964
	Date	Orchestra	Crew
	21-Apr-64		10
	28-Apr-64		10
	04-May-64		10
	22-Jun-64	Stanley Black	11
	23-Jun-64		10
	Jun	Stanley Black	11
	Jun	Stanley Black	11
	Jun	Stanley Black	11
	04-Jul-64	Nelson Riddle	11
	11-Jul-64		10
	19-Jul-64		10
	26-Jul-64	Frank Chacksfield	11
	Jul	Frank Chacksfield	11
	Jul	Frank Chacksfield	11
	Jul	Frank Chacksfield	11
	09-Aug-64		10
	16-Aug-64	Henry Mancini	11
	23-Aug-64	Henry Mancini	11
	24-Aug-64	Henry Mancini	11
	Sep		15
	15-Sep-64		10
	20-Sep-64		10
	26-Oct-64		15