Michel Legrand - Music from the Film 'Lost Continent'

The great composer, conductor and pianist Michel Legrand died in Paris earlier today. Here is a small remembrance of him from early in his career - a 1957 EP of music from the film Lost Continent.

Legrand was only 25 when the film and record were released in the US in early 1957, but he already was a well-known artist here because of his best selling LP I Love Paris, which Columbia had quickly followed with Castles in Spain. The series soon encompassed visits to Rome, Vienna and Rio, and eventually a jazz version and a stereo remake of the French excursion.

Lost Continent was an Italian documentary about Southeast Asia that came out in 1955 with music by Angelo Francesco Lavagnino, who scored a vast number of films during his career. The history of the soundtrack is unclear to me, but I do know that music from it was released in the US on M-G-M in 1957. There also was a French EP of Legrand's version. Both of these had far more, shall we say, exotic covers than the bland travelogue pic that fronts the Columbia EP. (Images are in the download.)

The young Legrand

The French critic Roland Barthes in fact complained that Lost Continent perpetuated a European sense of exoticism, while imposing Christian values onto the Buddhist traditions of Southeast Asia - or so Wikipedia tells us.

That exoticism comes through in Lavagnino's music and Legrand's arrangements, which, despite Barthes' protestations, are enjoyable period pieces.

This EP is a footnote to Legrand's remarkable career. I am sure I have a few dozen of his records in my collection alone, and I've always enjoyed his work, whether as composer, arranger or pianist. I had this EP transferred and ready to go a few years ago, but never posted it. It's too bad that Legrand's death was what impelled me into action.

The Lost Continent EP has not, to my knowledge, been reissued, although two cuts appeared on a Legrand compilation of movie music on a Columbia LP. The sound is excellent.

Carol Bruce and Martha Raye Keep 'Em Flying

In 1941, one of Hollywood's many contributions to a nation getting ready for war was to send the insufferable team of Abbott & Costello to a pilot-training camp to film the comedy with music Keep 'Em Flying. I can't imagine that setting those dimwits loose in a armed services camp would have provided any comfort to concerned Americans, but it must have had some beneficial effect. Keep 'Em Flying was actually their third such movie, following Buck Privates and In the Navy.

In the time-honored Hollywood tradition, Universal Studios commissioned songs from the talented team of composer Gene de Paul and lyricist Don Raye, then threw out the best number. It was "You Don't Know What Love Is," which was to be sung by Carol Bruce, appearing in her first feature film following her Broadway success in Louisiana Purchase. Fortunately for Bruce, she did get to present this superb torch song in 1942's Behind the Eight Ball, another farce, this time with the Ritz Brothers.

Even though the song was cut from Keep 'Em Flying, Universal put it out on a promotional record that is the subject of today's post. To keep things consistent, the studio backed Bruce's number with another number apparently deleted from the final print, "Together," which was sung by the film's other female lead, Martha Raye.

I've never seen the 78, so I was surprised to find a transfer during my recent traversal of Internet Archive's giant and gigantically confusing music collection. Following quite a lot of remastering, I've uploaded it for this blog's followers.

Raye's big number in the film was "Pig Foot Pete." You can see some of her performance and a clip of Bruce's singing in the extended trailer for Keep 'Em Flying below. It was as much an ad for the Army Air Corps as for the movie itself. If you watch, you'll have to put up with Abbott & Costello bits that are alternately witless and maudlin.



This is a companion to a post on my main blog covering the early career and recordings of Carol Bruce.

Note: blog follower Bryan Cooper has contributed what appears to be the complete Keep 'Em Flying pre-recordings, including additional Carol Bruce and Martha Raye songs. There is a new link to this package in the comments.