Current Expected Release Date: November 13, 2026

[PRE-ORDER] Harmony In My Head: Music That Inspired The Genius - Harmony In My Head: Music That Inspired The Genius [CD]

Out of stock
Barcode: 5013929338531
Pre-order $29.99
Description

Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys was one of the greatest songwriters and arrangers of all time. He was inspired in his art by the music of The Four Freshmen, George Gershwin and Johann Sebastian Bach. Wilson deployed these forces to create one of the most significant albums of the 60s, 'Pet Sounds'. By the mid-1960s, the more adventurous pop groups on both sides of the Atlantic were gravitating from singles to albums as the natural format of expression; the LP offering the ideal medium for pushing commercial and creative limits. The key release of 1966 was The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds', a lush homage to Californian adolescence, consciously created by leader Brian Wilson as a riposte to The Beatles' 'Rubber Soul'. The Beatles were deeply impressed. Declaring 'Pet Sounds' to be "the album of all time", Paul McCartney conceded that they would need to surpass anything they had previously done to equal it artistically. Late in 1964, Wilson had announced a retreat from public performance. He remained at home in order to craft a more poetic, ambitious style of songwriting and production, determined as he was to advance to (and surpass) 'Rubber Soul's deeper, more eclectic sound world. Wilson saw 'Pet Sounds' not as a collection of tracks, but as a song cycle, an entity in itself. It's creation would necessarily be influenced by the music with which Brian had become enthralled; the innovative vocal harmonies of the Four Freshmen that he had studied intently in his early teens; the panoramic style of George Gershwin, who in the 1920s had embodied the new sophistication of American popular song; and the musical universe of Johann Sebastian Bach, master of counterpoint, whose vast body of work contained the technical prowess and emotional depth which Brian aspired to. The art of The Four Freshmen, Gershwin and Bach that captivated Brian is presented here, the first music he remembers hearing: 'Rhapsody In Blue' that epitomises New York City in the jazz age; his introduction to the Four Freshmen, 'Day By Day, heard on his mother's car radio, and, in it's entirety, Brian's first LP purchase 'The Four Freshmen And Five Trombones'; along with such Bach works as the cantata 'Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring', that inspired 'California Girls'.

Tracklist:

  1. Now You Know
  2. It's a Blue World
  3. Poinciana
  4. I'll Be Seeing You
  5. I Knew You When
  6. After You
  7. We'll Be Together Again
  8. Day By Day
  9. Angel Eyes
  10. Love Is Just Around the Corner
  11. Mam'selle
  12. Speak Low
  13. The Last Time I Saw Paris
  14. Somebody Loves Me
  15. You Stepped Out of a Dream
  16. I Remember You
  17. Love
  18. Our Love Is Here to Stay
  19. You Made Me Love You
  20. Guilty
  21. Graduation Day
  22. Indian Summer
  23. I'm Always Chasing Rainbows
  24. I'll Remember April
  25. Time Was
  26. Little Girl Blue
  27. Nancy (With the Laughing Face)
  28. Their Hearts Were Full of Spring
  29. Django Reinhardt - the Man I Love
  30. Leonard Bernstein - Rhapsody in Blue
  31. John Coltrane - Summertime
  32. Oscar Peterson Trio - I Wants to Stay Here
  33. Oscar Peterson Trio - It Ain't Necessarily So
  34. Oscar Peterson Trio - Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess?
  35. Miles Davis - Prayer (Oh Doctor Jesus)
  36. Miles Davis - Summertime
  37. Bill Evans Trio - My Man's Gone Now
  38. Mel Tormé - Our Love Is Here to Stay
  39. Earl Wild / the Boston Pops - Variations on 'I Got Rhythm'
  40. Ray Conniff Singers - S'wonderful
  41. Nat Adderley - I've Got a Crush on You
  42. Julie London - They Can't Take That Away from Me
  43. Oscar Peterson Trio - a Foggy Day (In London Town)
  44. The Choir of King's College, Cambridge / David Willcocks - Motet: Jesu, Priceless Treasure
  45. Helmut Walcha - the Art of Fugue in D Minor, BWV 1080: Contrapunctus 1
  46. Glenn Gould - Partita No. 5 in G Major, BWV 829: Preambulum
  47. Munich Bach Orchestra and Choir / Karl Richter - Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243: Chorus: Magnificat Anima Mea
  48. Munich Bach Orchestra and Choir / Karl Richter - Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243: Trio: Suscepit Israel
  49. Munich Bach Orchestra and Choir / Karl Richter - Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243: Chorus: Sicut Locutus Est
  50. Munich Bach Orchestra and Choir / Karl Richter - Magnificat in D Major, BWV 243: Chorus: Gloria Patri
  51. 8-22. Marcelle Meyer - Two-Part Inventions BWV 772-786
  52. 23-36. Glenn Gould - Sinfonias (Three-Part Inventions), Nos. 2-15 BWV
  53. 788-801
  54. Munich Bach Orchestra and Choir / Karl Richter - Mass in B Minor, BWV232: Credo: Crucifixus
  55. Munich Bach Orchestra and Choir / Karl Richter - Mass in B Minor, BWV232: Gloria: Gratias Agimus Tibi
  56. Yehudi Menuhin / the Bath Festival Orchestra - the Musical Offering, BWV 1079: Ricercar a 3 (A Three-Part Fugue)
  57. Yehudi Menuhin / the Bath Festival Orchestra - the Musical Offering, BWV 1079: Canon in Augmentation and Contrary Motion
  58. Radio Orchestra Beromünster / Hermann Scherchen - the Art of Fugue in D Minor, BWV 1080: 41 Contrapunctus 9, a 4. Alla Duodecim
  59. Leopold Stokowski Symphony Orchestra - Cantata BWV147 'Herz Und Mund Und Tat Und Leben': 42 Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
  60. Samuil Feinberg - the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2 43 Prelude No. 12 in F Minor, BWV 881

UPC: 5013929338531
Label: El Records
Release Date: 11.13.26
Format: CD