[78-L] FREE DESIGN LPS (WAS passing of rusty dedrick)

[Jeff Sultanof]

Waring was touring with many of the singers on this album, and yes, he was
doing contemporary pop-rock in addition to his usual programming for these
live shows. Waring was also trying to launch his son as a bandleader. One
side of the album is Waring, the other side Waring Jr.

One funny story that was passed on to me by the arranger on the album,
George Andrews. The Waring Jr. side has a sixties rock version of
"Anniversary Waltz," and someone at a "beautiful music" radio station played
it without hearing it beforehand, figuring that since it was Waring, it was
fairly safe to play. He was fired.

Re: Kites are Fun - Most choral arrangements even today have to be heavily
adapted to work for school groups. The Free Design was one of those few pop
groups whose arrangements sounded exactly as on the recording, a real treat
for school choral directors and members. The only other group that came
close was the Fifth Dimension. I was in a couple of choirs that ended their
shows with "Aquarius - Let the Sunshine In."

Jeff Sultanof

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 9:25 PM, Randy Watts <rew1014 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> "Kites Are Fun" was on what I believe was Waring's last album for Decca,
> recorded in 1968, which strives very hard to be more up-to-date by applying
> the Waring sound to contemporary songs like "Ode to Billie Joe," "It's Not
> Unusual" and "Walk on By."
>
> Randy
>
> --- On Mon, 1/18/10, Dan Van Landingham <danvanlandingham at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> > It's funny you should mention "Kites
> > are Fun".When I was in college,I was a music major at
> > Southwestern Oregon Community College in Coos Bay,Oregon,I
> > remember playing the pie-
> > ce.I played trumpet,then tenor and baritone saxes.This was
> > between 1970 and '72. We did
> > not care for it as I recall.The professor I had was very
> > commercially oriented; a lot of so cal-
> > led jazz-rock charts.It sounds strange to me that Fred
> > Waring actually recorded the piece
> > for Decca.
>
>
>
>
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