Oldfield blocked off the erase head of the tape machine, which allowed him to record onto one track, bounce the recording onto the second, and record a new instrument onto the first track, thus overdubbing his playing one instrument at a time, and effectively making multitrack recordings. The Whole World broke up in mid-1971 and Ayers lent Oldfield a two-track Bang & Olufsen Beocord 1⁄ 4" tape recorder. When the group did not have a recording session booked in the morning, Oldfield would arrive early and experiment with the different instruments, including pianos, harpischords, a Mellotron and various orchestral percussion instruments, and learned to play each of them. The Whole World recorded their album Shooting at the Moon (1970) at Abbey Road Studios over several months in 1970, when Oldfield was 17. Oldfield learned to play the guitar at an early age, and as a teenager he became the bass player for the Whole World, a band put together by Kevin Ayers formerly of Soft Machine. In 2010, Tubular Bells was one of ten classic album covers from British artists commemorated on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail. Its contribution to British music was recognised when Oldfield played extracts during the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London. A remastered edition was released in 2009. It was followed by the albums Tubular Bells II (1992), Tubular Bells III (1998), The Millennium Bell (1999), and a re-recorded version, Tubular Bells 2003, for its 30th anniversary. It has sold more than 2.7 million copies in the UK and an estimated 15 million copies worldwide.Īn orchestral version produced by David Bedford was released in 1975 as The Orchestral Tubular Bells. It reached number three on the US Billboard 200, and number one in Canada and Australia. It stayed in the top ten of the UK Albums Chart for one year from March 1974, during which it reached number one for one week. This led to a surge in sales which increased Oldfield's profile and played an important part in the growth of the Virgin Group. Tubular Bells initially sold slowly, but gained worldwide attention in December 1973 when its opening theme was used for the soundtrack to the horror film The Exorcist. ![]() Oldfield, who was 19 years old when it was recorded, played almost all the instruments. ![]() It comprises two mostly instrumental tracks. It also has the non-soundtrack "Three Little Pigs" song, as featured on the B-side of the "See, Hear, Read" 7-inch 33rpm book and record set.Tubular Bells is the debut studio album by the British musician Mike Oldfield, released on as the first album on Virgin Records. ![]() That's how I grew up hearing them on the soundtrack albums. However, I do have the original soundtrack version of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidicoius" from a definite tape source, in excellent sound, on a mid-80s Japanese various artists comp called "The Best of Disney" (Buena Vista 30CC-1310.) That one also has songs from several other Disney films as issued in their 1960s/70s configurations, such as "Some Day My Prince Will Come" with the long instrumental intro, drenched in echo, and "Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo" with the long instrumental break after the main vocal, also drenched in echo. I'm sorry if I got anyone excited about it. I hear some minor crackle and apparent turntable rumble between the songs. Now that I'm home and listening on better headphones than the mini-headphones at work, I'm pretty sure this is a vinyl dub. That was a really happy find for me.Ĭlick to expand.Oh, boy. I found a sealed copy on Amazon Germany for around $10, and by golly, it's the original stereo mix of the soundtrack, complete with the instrumental intro for "Supercali." Don't see any company credit info on the CD other than Duchesse and "Copyright 1988," but it's definitely taken from a tape source, and it was in print for years, so I assume it's a legit CD. ![]() Recently I was perusing, and I ran across a listing for a 1988 European import CD on the Duchesse label, now out of print, that featured 17 tracks instead of the remixed CD's 18, omitting the bonus track, "The Sherman Brothers Reminisce." But one thing that always bothered me about it was that it omitted the vinyl soundtrack's instrumental intro to "Supercalifragilisticexpialdocious," favoring the film's a cappella start to the song. I had always thought that that first issue of "Mary Poppins" on CD was the 1989 pressing, which was remixed from the original soundtrack stems.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |