Customer Reviews

Assembled Multitude

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really love this CD. I used to play the 45rpm single of "Overture From Tommy" when I was a kid over and over until I saw the "Woodstock" film. That's when I discovered that the original "Tommy" by The Who was much more serious business, and forgot all about The Assembled Multitude.

Now I'm an old fart looking for old records I used to enjoy and found this great LP on CD and purchased it immediately. I think the whole album is great. Good for fans of instrumental rock music - it's not quite Morricone quality, but the Assembled Multitude's arranger Tom Sellers is actually quite decent. In fact, he composed two of the album's best tracks "Where The Woodbine Twineth" and "Mr. Peppercorn".

Fans of Mark Wirtz, David Axelrod, Andrew Loog Oldham, Sean O'Hagan - this one's for you!

This came out in 1970, and is basically orchestrated covers of pop songs popular that year; "Ohio," "Singalong Junk," by McCarteny, the theme from Tommy, and others.

Though orchestral, this is not supermarket music. All the selections have a nice rock beat. The band is excellent. You can easily get into a nice little groove when listening.

The album is a strange little time warp, and the sounds on here make this a nice little oddity to check out.

In 1970 in Philadelphia, music producer Tom Sellers cobbled together a band of studio musicians who, primarily, worked for a living at Sigma Sound Studios as backing musicians for the likes of The O'Jays, Stylistics, Howard Melvin & The Blue Notes and Billy Paul, to form an instrumental group he called The Assembled Multitude. To the ears of executives at Atlantic Records, they sounded good enough to warrant an album - this one which was recorded at those same studios and came out as Atlantic SD 4262 that year, now brought to you in CD format by Wounded Bird Records, a re-issue label headquartered in Guilderland, New York since its 1998 launching. The sound quality is excellent.

The 11 tracks features the compositions of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Jimmy Webb, George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Pete Townshend, Neil Young, and Tony Hazzard. Culled from that album were three singles, with the first, Townshend's Overture From Tommy (A Rock Opera), reaching # 8 Adult Contemporary (AC) and 16 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in July on Atlantic 2737 b/w Mud (which did not appear in the album and so is omitted here). A solid hit that also clocked in at # 131 for the Top 500 for 1970.

Joni Mitchell's Woodstock, dealing with the 1969 now-legendary Rock festival, didn't fare nearly as well in October, hitting only # 79 on the lucrative Hot 100, although it did reach # 23 AC on Atlantic 2764 b/w Seller's own Mr. Peppercorn. The following February, the third single from the album featured Where The Woodbine Twineth, but it was the flipside, Andrew Lloyd Weber's Medley From "Superstar" (A Rock Opera) - not in the album - that charted at # 17 AC and # 95 Hot 100 on Atlantic 2780 (it later re-entered the charts at # 100 Hot 100 in December).

Nice arrangements of some classic tunes sure to please anyone who lived through that period as well as younger music lovers just wishing to sample some of the music of their parents or grandparents.

I love the song Overture from Tommy. I remember this song from 1969. I use to think it would be a wonderful "Air Force" song. So glad I found it on a DVD. I still have the old 45 record. Thank you so much, I love it.