The song of the day for Monday, July 25, 2016 is “Country Girl.”
About This Song
“Country Girl” was written by the Canadian-born composer, conductor, arranger and trumpet player Robert Farnon in 1966. Farnon composed both light classical and popular music, as well as film and television scores. Farnon worked with Tony Bennett on several albums, including the wonderful 1968 Snowfall.
About This Version
Tony first recorded “Country Girl” in 1966 for his album Tony Makes It Happen! The arrangement is by Marion Evans.
“Country Girl,” as well as Tony Makes It Happen!, is available from iTunes.
About Today
We feature today’s song in honor of 99th anniversary of the birth of composer Robert Farnon.
Robert Joseph Farnon was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on July 24, 1915. He was an avid musical student as a youngster and studied the trumpet. With the advent of World War II, Farnon was commissioned as a Captain in the Canadian Army and was made head of the Canadian Band of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, a position which sent him to Europe during the war.
After the war, Farnon elected to remain in England and embarked on a very successful career as an arranger and composer for film and orchestra. He was widely acknowledged as one of the great arrangers, especially for strings and orchestras. He composed classical symphonies, art songs and scores for films including Captain Horatio Hornblower.
Robert Farnon died in England in 2005. His obituary from The Guardian contains a very good synopsis of his career.
