Film Albums: La Dolce Vita and Other Great Motion Picture Themes (1961)

In the early 1960s a plethora of great "motion picture theme" albums were released and honestly, it is hard to choose one over the other when comparing them. Ray Ellis and His Orchestra was not as popular as Ray Conniff or Ferrante and Teicher, but he had a large output and recorded equally stellar music. This album, La Dolce Vita and Other Great Motion Picture Themes, dating from 1961, was recorded in Living Stereo (LSP-2410) and features some sensational stereophonic sounds, especially on Theme from "The Misfits". As lovely as they sound on headphones, these Living Stereo sounds are even more impressive on a record player. Ray Ellis was a saxophonist but, unlike Billy Vaughn, he did not feature the saxophone in all of his recordings... in fact, most of these pieces are predominantly strings and piano. Oh, and how lush they are! Love is a Many Splendored Thing with its chorus, strings, and harps, will transport you straight to the hilltop above Hong Kong on that beautiful summer day…