For the past seven decades, Michel Legrand has been composing rich melodies for film, stage, television and records.  The three-time Academy Award winner and co-writer of such songs as "The Windmills of Your Mind," "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life" and "Happy (Love Theme from Lady Sings the Blues)" has been a prolific recording artist since the 1950s, and now Cherry Red's él label has recently reissued some of his earliest work on Bonjour Paris/Le Joli Mai/Rendez-vous a Paris.

The American Columbia Records label took an interest in the French composer-pianist-conductor early in his career.  Legrand was just 22 when his I Love Paris became a best-seller, and he soon followed up that 1954 Columbia LP with other international salutes such as Holiday in Rome, Vienna Holiday, Castles in Spain, and Legrand in Rio.  The first title on él's release, Bonjour Paris, returned Legrand to the familiar and beloved setting of the City of Light.  Legrand arranged and conducted the lush, welcoming music of Bonjour Paris (1956), released in the U.S. on Columbia and in France on Philips (with the cover artwork seen on this reissue).  He led his orchestra on a suite of Parisian-themed songs including some very familiar compositions like Charles Trenet's "La Mer" (better known as "Beyond the Sea"), Edith Piaf's "Hymne A L'Amour" ("If You Love Me, Really Love Me") and Offenbach's "Can Can."  Joseph Kosma (co-writer of "Autumn Leaves") penned the title track which bookends the LP.

The disc then jumps ahead to 1962 for Legrand's score to the documentary film Le Joli Mai (The Lovely Month of May).  Director Chris Marker and cameraman Pierre Lhomme shot 55 hours of footage on the streets of Paris, interviewing passerby about their personal lives and their feelings on issues of social and political importance.  Their answers were juxtaposed with commentary provided in French by Simone SIgnoret and in English by Yves Montand.   (Montand sings the title song here.)  The film picked up awards at The Venice Film Festival and the Leipzig DOK Festival, and was screened in Cannes as part of the Cannes Classics series in 2013.  All four selections from the Philips soundtrack EP are included here.  The él program is rounded out by Rendez-vous a Paris, the 1962 album released in America and internationally on Philips.  By the time of its release, Legrand's listeners couldn't get enough of his inventive arrangements of French classics.  Rendez-vous featured more songs by Charles Trenet (including "I Wish You Love") and other familiar melodies like "C'est Si Bon" and "Clopin Clopant."  He also featured the work of Americans Sidney Bechet ("Padam  Padam") and Cole Porter ("C'est Magnifique" from his Montmartre-set musical Can-Can).  Note that only ten of the album's twelve tracks are included here, however.  The él three-for-one Legrand reissue features a booklet of liner notes and credits.

A new slipcased, 2-CD set from él celebrates The Golden Age of Greek Cinema.  This release spotlights four names most closely associated with the 1955-1962 period represented on the discs: vocalists Nana Mouskouri and Melina Mercouri, and composers Mikis Theodorakis and Manos Hadjidakis.   The first disc includes Hadjidakis' 1961 soundtrack to Hellas I Chora Ton Oniron (Greece, Land of Dreams) featuring Mouskouri, and Theodorakis' score to 1962's Elektra.  Mouskouri performed on five of the six tracks comprising the soundtrack to the full-length documentary Greece, Land of Dreams.  (Nikos Gatsos wrote lyrics and poetry to Hadjidakis' melodies, and Hadjidakis also penned some lyrics.)  As Mouskouri explained in the original liner notes reprinted here, the score was an ambitious one: "As he was so fond of doing, Manos composed those five songs with every imaginable sound, mixing all the instruments available to him from bouzouki to violin, from classical guitar to barrel-organ, not to mention the xylophone.  But this time he wanted a chorus as well, and while he was at it, why not the most prestigious one of all - the chorus of our national opera?"  Director Michael Cacoyannis' acclaimed, shot-on-location adaptation of Euripides' tragedy Elektra featured a score by Theodorakis,  who would go on to collaborate with the director on the famous Zorba the Greek in 1964.

The second disc of the él set opens with perhaps the most famous score from this period of Greek cinema: Hadjidakis' Never on Sunday.  Writer-director Jules Dassin's romantic comedy starring Melina Mercouri won the composer an Academy Award for his catchy title song; both the composer and the star went on to a Broadway musical adaptation of the film, Illya Darling.  This reissue has the 14-track LP of the score plus a bonus track of Mouskouri's "Never on Sunday."  Illustrating just how close-knit the Greek film community was at the time, the disc then flashes back to 1955 for Hadjidakis' Stella, directed by Cacoyannis and starring Mercouri in the title role.  Mercouri's recordings of "Love is Double-Edged" and "This is the 13th of the Month" are included here.  The final offering is Theodorakis' score to Jules Dassin's 1962 adaptation of another Greek tragedy, Phaedra, with Mercouri in the title part opposite co-star Anthony Perkins.  A booklet with credits for each soundtrack and liner notes is included within the slipcase, and each disc is housed in a paper-sleeve adorned by artwork from the film soundtracks.

Both titles from él are made available pursuant to current E.U. public domain laws.  You can order Michel Legrand's Bonjour Paris/Le Joli Mai/Rendez-vous a Paris and The Golden Age of Greek Cinema at the links below!

Michel Legrand, Bonjour Paris/Le Joli Mai/Rendez-vous a Paris (él  ACMEM304CD, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

1. Bonjour Paris
2. La Goulante du pauvre Jean
3. J'ai deux amours
4. Hymne a L'amour
5. A Paris dans cheque Faubourg
6. Les lavandieres du Portugal
7. Quadrille de la vie Parisienne
8. La Mer
9. C'est a Hambourg
10. Mon Homme
11. Parlez-moi d'amour
12. Le guinche
13. Bonjour Paris
14. Joli Mai - Yves Montand
15. Images de Paris
16. Visages
17. Theme Joli Mai
18. C'est Si Bon
19. Domino
20. Pigalle
21. Que reste-t-il de nos amours
22. Boum
23. C'est Magnifique
24. Maladie d'amour
25. Le gars de Rochechouart
26. Padam Padam
27. Clopin-Clopant

Tracks 1-13 from Bonjour Paris, Philips 77.304L (France), 1956
Tracks 14-17 from Le Joli Mai, Philips 432906, 1963
Tracks 18-27 from Rendez-vous a Paris, Philips PHM 200-045, 1962

Various Artists, The Golden Age of Greek Cinema (él ACMEMD303CD, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

Hellas I Chora Ton Oniron (1961) - Manos Hadjidakis/Nikos Gatsos

1. A Linden Branch
2. Two Small Cyclamens
3. Young Moon
4. A Plume of Blue Smoke
5. An Old Windmill
6. Across the Cut Reeds

Elektra (1962) - Mikis Theodorakis

7. Elektra Suites (Tracks 7-20)

CD 2

Never on Sunday (1960) - Manos Hadjidakis

1. Main Title (Never on Sunday)
2. Prologue
3. Bouzoukia
4. Dance Yorgo
5. Taki
6. The Charms of Ilya - Titos Vandis
7. Ilya
8. Ta Pedia Tou Pirea (The Children of Piraeus/Never on Sunday) - Melina Mercouri
9. Hasapico
10. The Lantern
11. Betrayed
12. Speak Softly
13. The Organ Grinder
14. End Title (Never on Sunday)
15. The Children of Piraeus (Never on Sunday) - Nana Mouskouri

Stella (1955) - Manos Hadjidakis

16. L'Amour Est A Double Tranchant (Love is Double-Edged) - Melina Mercouri
17. C'est Le 13 Du Mois (This is the 13th of the Month) - Melina Mercouri

Phaedra (1962) - Mikis Theodorakis

18. Love Theme from Phaedra
19. Rendezvous
20. Ship to Shore
21. London's Fog
22. One More Time
23. Agapi Mou
24. Only You
25. The Fling
26. Candlelight
27. Rodostamo - Melina Mercouri and Anthony Perkins
28. Love Theme from Phaedra - Melina Mercouri
29. Goodbye John Sebastian - Anthony Perkins