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unusual facts about easy listening


Keith Levene

In 2003, Levene contributed to industrial rock supergroup Pigface's album Easy Listening..., and he has released several solo records, among which was the Killer in the Crowd EP in 2004.


Beautiful music

Mood music, easy listening, Muzak and elevator music are other common terms for the format and the style of music that it featured.

I Wanna Be Around

Tony Bennett's 1963 recording remains the best known version of the song, (#14 pop, #5 easy listening); however, it has been recorded by many other artists, including Dorothy Loudon (in her album "Saloon"), Patti Page, James Brown, Buddy Greco, Dinah Washington (for her final album Dinah '63), and John Cale (for the 2002 album Jools Holland's Big Band Rhythm & Blues).

Kula World

The game also featured an original, easy listening style soundtrack composed entirely by long-running Swedish electronica group Twice a Man.

KUMU-FM

The station, which signed on the air on September 1, 1967, was originally part of an AM-FM combo and had a successful easy listening format, which they broadcast from the Hilton Hawaiian Village on the beach at Waikiki during the 1970s and 1980s.

Tunde Baiyewu

Tunde Baiyewu (born Babatunde Emanuel Baiyewu, 25 November 1968) is a British singer of Nigerian descent and is a member of the easy listening duo, Lighthouse Family.

WSKZ

Before becoming KZ106 in 1978, the station was owned by Ted Turner, and played an easy listening format, under the call letters WYNQ, and was branded "Wink-FM".


see also

Adriano Rigoglioso

His nickname, given to him by his family, is Celi after the Italian easy-listening popstar Adriano Celentano, famous for his chart hit "Una Festa Sui Prati", in English, "A Party on the open area of grass".

Boissevain, Manitoba

CJRB (1220 AM) broadcasts an easy listening format from Boissevain.

Buratino

"Burattino telecomandato" ("Telecommanded wooden puppet") is an easy-listening song performed by Italian singer Pupo in 1982, but it does not speak about this topic.

E-Z Listening Disc

The album is a compilation of all but one of the tracks from Devo's two E-Z Listening Muzak Cassettes, which had been available only through Club Devo in 1981 and 1984, respectively, consisting of instrumental versions of classic Devo songs performed in the style of easy listening Muzak or New Age music.

EZ Communications

Stations which used the easy listening format to find profitability in emerging FM markets were WEZC (FM) 104.7 MHz in Charlotte, North Carolina, and WEZB (FM) 97.1 MHz in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Green Tambourine

Lawrence Welk covered the song and his version appeared on the Billboard Easy Listening chart.

Heckmann

Wilhelm Heckmann (1897–1995), German concert and easy listening musician

I'll Try Something New

Smaller hits like "What's So Good About Goodbye" and "I've Been Good To You" are included, plus three covers of the easy listening standards "I've Got You Under My Skin" written by Cole Porter, "On the Street Where You Live" from the Broadway musical My Fair Lady and "Speak Low" by Ogden Nash and Kurt Weill, on which both Smokey and Claudette Robinson sing lead.

I'm Stone in Love with You

British easy listening and jazz pianist Ronnie Aldrich covered the song on his 1979 album, Tomorrow's Yesterdays.

KFTK

The station originally signed on the air in the Mid 1970s, as KSCF – standing for St. Charles & Florissant, with a "Middle of the Road" Easy Listening format.

Living Strings

Ethel Gabriel created "The Living Strings" series of albums, which were easy-listening instrumental string versions of popular tunes, the type of music that came to be known pejoratively as elevator music.

The Living Strings was an easy listening studio orchestra, founded in 1959.

Michael Flowers

The Mike Flowers Pops, a British easy listening band fronted by Mike Flowers (real name Mike Roberts)

More FM

Many of the easy listening stations were rebranded as The Breeze and the other stations which typically played Adult Contemporary or Hot AC music were rebranded as MORE FM, the change saw MORE FM extended to more than 15 markets with all stations initially retaining their local announcers.

Popular music of Vietnam

The songwriters of the 1970s are now "easy listening" for the middle aged, while the modern TV scene is dominated by Korean- and Cantopop influenced V-pop shows like Vietnam Idol.

Richard Clayderman

Richard Clayderman (born Philippe Pagès, 28 December 1953) is a French pianist who has released numerous albums including the compositions of Paul de Senneville and Olivier Toussaint, instrumental renditions of popular music, rearrangements of movie soundtracks, ethnic music, and easy-listening arrangements of popular works of classical music.

Studio orchestra

Some famous easy listening studio orchestras are the 101 Strings, the Living Strings, and the Hollyridge Strings.

WHIO-FM

From 2000 until 2006, "The Point" aired classic hits from the late 1970s and 1980s and was briefly simulcast on WDTP, 95.3 in Xenia before reverting to the WZLR calls as classic rock-formatted "The Eagle." Before that it was WCLR at first as "Clear 95" airing easy listening music (as did its predecessor WPTW-FM for many years) when the transmitter was moved from its studios to its present location near the rural community of Houston just north of Piqua in 1986.

WSRS

By 1985, WSRS evolved into more of a vocal-based easy-listening format with the instrumentals eliminated, except for hits such as "Music Box Dancer," "Chariots of Fire," "Rise" and "Summer Place."