Tuesday, August 30, 2022

August 30 - Johnny Mann (The Musical Birthday Series, 4th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for August 30th are found here: Regina Resnik (2019), George Frederick Root (2020), and Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke (2021)

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Johnny Mann (30 August 1928 – 18 June 2014) was an American arranger. composer, conductor, and singer, best known as the leader of the highly successful Johnny Mann Singers. 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mann Handled

Along with Lawrence Welk, Mitch Miller, Ray Conniff and other bandleaders who offered popular melodies in palatable choral arrangements, Mr. Mann helped define a musical genre that was potently counter-countercultural.   – Bruce Weber, “Johnny Mann, Leader of Easy-Listening Singers, Dies at 85, New York Times (24 June 2014).


If you think back

  Perhaps you can

Recall a track

   By Johnny Mann,


Whose cheerful clutch

   Of smiling singers

Had just the touch

   For cautious swingers


Who thought that rock

  Might be OK,

But shouldn’t shock

   Such folks as they.

 

 

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