Search - Boston Pops :: Runnin' Wild

Swing at its best!

Richard Arthur Collins | Plymouth, MA | 01/08/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'll tell you a little story about this CD from Keith Lockhart. I'm a baby-boomer brought up on swing and am constantly looking for quality big band recordings. I bought this album several years ago when it was first released and I loved it. Whenever I played it at home, my 18 y/o daughter gave me the business about my "old fogey" music. One day, however, I happened to come home unexpectedly and there she was in the family room with "String of Pearls" at nearly full volume. I bought her the album when she went to college and she says that she's since converted nearly half the dorm to swing. This is probably the best recording of big band sounds ever. Also look at "Pops Stoppers" which is half big band tunes and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)". Both are excellent as well."

"Runnin' Wild" will get you "In the Mood" for Big Band tunes

Alex Diaz-Granados | Miami, FL United States | 11/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When John Williams stepped down as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra after 14 successful seasons, the talented young Keith Lockhart was chosen as his replacement. Looking more like a college freshman than music director of one of America's most famous orchestras, Lockhart has proved to be just as adept and popular as Williams and the late Arthur Fiedler.1996's Runnin' Wild is a collection of songs made famous by Big Band era orchestra leader Glenn Miller, whose civilian and later Army Air Force bands provided audiences with music to dance to (and love to) before and during World War II. Before his mysterious death in December 1944, Miller's band and featured vocalists gave the world such beloved swing standards as "In The Mood," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," "A String of Pearls," and his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade."Listen to this album, close your eyes, and the Boston Pops Orchestra transports you back to the 1940s, with young men in uniform dancing with either their wives, sweethearts, or USO girls to the fast-paced "Runnin' Wild"...gently swaying the sweet "A String of Pearls" (featured in the film The Glenn Miller Story)...or sharing that last sweet bit of lovemaking to the slow beat of "Moonlight Serenade." Of the 16 selections, "Moonlight Serenade" is the one I am most familiar with, having heard it as incidental music or "source" material in so many World War II movies or documentaries. It's slow, gentle, romantic yet sensual, and it's the only "Glenn Miller" song actually written by the bandleader. Originally titled "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep," it was a big hit in 1939 and was the theme song for both Miller's and Tex Beneke's bands. The Pops' performance of it captures its air of nostalgia perfectly, and the clarinet solo by Thomas Martin is simply fabulous.Modern standards singer John Pizzarelli and The King's Singers show their stuff on several tracks, most vividly so in "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," which was another chart-topping hit for Miller in 1941, the year the U.S. entered World War II. Pizzarelli has a way of channeling the great vocalists of the era, with his easy-to-listen voice and flawless delivery. The King's Singers are wonderful backup in other songs, including "Serenade in Blue" and "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo."As a soloist, Pizzarelli shines in the more romantic (and slower) "The Nearness of You," a song that might have been on a serviceman's mind when reading a letter from his wife or girlfriend.Another sentimental favorite where Pizzarelli performs well is 1940's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," a song introduced in Britain and popularized not only by Glenn Miller but also Guy Lombardo and Sammy Kay. Several genres also get the Glenn Miller treatment, such as opera (Verdi's "The Anvil Chorus," from Il Trovatore), vaudeville ("My Blue Heaven") blues ("The St. Louis Blues March") and even Russian traditional songs ("Volga Boatmen").So if you want to get "In the Mood" and have a good time listening to a fun Boston Pops Orchestra album, Runnin' Wild is definitely worth getting."

A Great First Impression

Steph Olsen | 03/03/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Keith Lockhart is the newest conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra and here is his very first CD with the BPO, Runnin' Wild. If you like music by Glenn Miller and classical music, you'll love this mix of great Big Band tunes like In The Mood, The Anvil Chorus, St. Lousie Blues March and the title song Runnin' Wild played by a wonderful classical "pop" orchestra. Its a great CD, and I think that you would like to hear it. It won't be hard to remember thsi CD cover, just look for Keith Lockhart, in BPO shorts, a white t-shirt and tails running in mid air (hence the title Rinn'n Wild)."