I have long been a fan of Ray Conniff, who “pioneered” an upbeat, whitebread style of muzak for nearly 5 decades. There is no song Conniff and his Singers wouldn’t cover, lacing it with cheesy trumpet solos and wordless “do do do” vocals. The above version of “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” represents well what I find so entertaining about him. The excellent Space Age Pop sums Ray Conniff up best
His willingness to take on just about any material is impressive—or frightening, depending on your perspective. He loves to tinker with the classics, and has released at least three albums of adaptations of classical pieces. He’ll cover whatever’s popular at the moment, which creates some striking contrasts as we move into the 1970s: On You Are the Sunshine of My Life, we find his interpretation of “Dueling Banjos” opposite a bubbling take on Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” titled “Bah Bah Conniff Sprach.” He can ingest musical styles and content ranging from “I Write the Songs” to the “Theme from ‘Shaft’” and produce a consistency of output rivaling an industrial shredder. Being able to achieve essentially the same musical effect whether the source is Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” or “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” is something else. I leave it to you to decide just what that something is.
