Jim,

A little trivia:

All of the recordings featuring a chorus made by Percy Faith up to mid-1954 featured The Ray Charles Singers; although, they were never given formal billing anywhere on the album jacket or record label. More than likely, they were also used after 1954 as well, but unfortunately, the Columbia Records archives only refers to the singers as a "chorus" -- so there's really no way to know for sure.

Now, in March of 1960, recording operations for all of Percy Faith's music moved to Hollywood, California. As a result, it is more than likely that different singers were used on his albums after that date; however, during this time and up to the mid-1960s, virtually all of Mr. Faith's albums were pretty much all-instrumental anyway, so there was very few occasions when a chorus was needed. That is until Columbia mandated that he begin to record the majority of his music with a chorus, and the deal was struck in his new contract that for every three albums he made their way, he could make one his way (meaning all-instrumental).

By the way, some of Percy's early Christmas singles featured a chorus as well. Including the 1950 single, Christmas In Killarney. The Ray Charles Singers were the chorus on this song as well; however, they were billed as The Shillelagh Singers. This was the only time The Ray Charles Singers were ever billed under that name.

Thanks, Chip.  Fear not, O mighty Guru, for I indeed have Themes For Young Lovers.  I should have been more specific above in Reply #5.

At the present time, my Percy Faith collection also consists of his compilation in the widely available 16 Most Requested Songs series which, I'm sure, everyone has seen, as well as this 3-CD import The Ultimate Collection...

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Collection-Percy-Faith/dp/B00005YDI0/ref=sr_1_44?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1303560081&sr=1-44

I acquired The Ultimate Collection years ago along with the editions by Ray Conniff and Andre Kostelanetz to more or less have an overview of beautiful music which had all but disappeared from the radio.  And, if Susan (Christmas Always) reads this, this is my Percy Faith entry in the Time-Life Instrumental Favorites series which we discussed in another thread...

http://www.amazon.com/Instrumental-Favorites-Percy-Time-Life-Collection/dp/B000CL8ZH2/ref=sr_1_26?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1303560034&sr=1-26

By the way, Chip, thanks for the chart history above.  I always enjoy reading and learning from your insight here.

By the way, probably because you are so musically inclined, you inadvertently said John "Maynard G. Krebs" Denver in your post, when you actually meant to say Bob "Maynard G. Krebs" Denver. No worries buddy, it happens to the best of us!

As for that Theme From A Summer Place album jacket that you were trying to recall, that was the Dot Records LP release of Billy Vaughn's rendition of the song. While good, Mr. Vaughn's version did not come close to Percy Faith's original version. Besides all the remarkable statistics that I gave in my prior post about Mr. Faith's original version, another one is that Percy's rendition of the song is ranked at #18 on Billboard's Top 100 songs during the first 50 years of the Hot 100 chart.

I posted below the picture sleeve artwork for Percy Faith's original Columbia Records 45-rpm single release of the song, as well as the later Billy Vaughn Dot Records LP release you referred to.

Just for the record I thought I would post the original album cover artwork for the LP that Mr. Faith's 1960 smash hit single, Theme From A Summer Place, was later released on. The LP was entitled Tara's Theme From Gone With The Wind and it was released in 1961.

Re: The album cover above...  I think it's interesting to note how the title was Tara's Theme From Gone With The Wind.  Back in the '60s it was rather common to see albums named after a hit single (and sometimes two).  Of course, when an album is released first, it's hard to say how any singles released from it will fare.  But here's a case where the hit Theme From A Summer Place had long been established, yet they chose another name for the album.  (Just a little trivial tidbit I noticed -- very trivial, I know).

Also, two thoughts on the song listing on the cover... the Theme From designation was omitted from the full title and shown simply as A Summer Place.  (Instead, a small "Plus The Themes From" caption is shown in the upper right).  First, I wonder if the full title is listed on the back cover and the label on the album itself.  Secondly, I wonder if that was a good marketing tool or not.  If someone were looking for Theme From A Summer Place, as the single was entitled, the way it's shown here, it wouldn't exactly catch your eye, if you know what I mean.

The Columbia Records Art Department eliminated the "Theme From" designation on the front cover of this LP for the song Theme From A Summer Place and two other songs because of space considerations. The other two songs they also did this for was Theme From The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs and Theme From The Apartment. The art department later did the same thing on the front cover of the subsequent reissue LP as well (which is posted below). However, on the back cover of both the original LP and the reissue, the songs were properly listed with their "Theme From" designations in front of the main song title.

*[Edited to add image of song listing on back cover]

Ah, so it is.  Thanks for digging that out, Chip.

By the way, the updated Joel Whitburn book came out (Singles 1955-2010) and this edition includes the songs that "Bubbled Under the Hot 100."  It looks like two other songs from this album also charted: "Sons and Lovers" at No. 111, and "Theme from The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs" at No. 101.

That's correct, Jim. In fact, Sons And Lovers bubbled under the Hot 100 for 1 week in August 1960 (peaking at #111), and Theme From The Dark At The Top Of The Stairs bubbled under the Hot 100 for a total of 5 weeks in October 1960 (peaking at #101).

Hello friends I’m Giampiero from Rome (Italy)

Exuse me for my bad and incorrect English but I hope that you will understand me.

The Maestro had also a great intuition to discover new and beautiful songs.

In 1953 he released album “Plays Continental” with three italian songs “Vola Colomba” and “Sympatico” (both lovely) but the third song was “Non Dimenticar” a wonderful tune, 

And so thanks to the Maestro in 1958 (with a superb arrangement of Nelson Riddle) Nat King Cole will make a historic top hit in all the world.

The song was from “Anna” a 1951 movie by Alberto Lattuada (one of the most important italian directors) with a magnificent Silvana Mangano and two very young Sophia Loren and Vittorio Gassman (score: Nino Rota). Voice of Mangano was dubbed by Flo Sandon’s wife of Natalino Otto great italian jazz singer of the ’40.

Here’s the original song as well as the Maestro listened for the first time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WamWU7RKoGM