The Styrous® Viewfinder: 20,000 vinyl LPs 401: Duke Ellington & And His Orchestra

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra ~ Anatomy Of A Murder

vinyl LP front cover

cover design by Saul Bass

photo of album cover by Styrous®

Today is the birthday of Austrian-American film and theater director, film producer and actor, Otto Preminger who was born on December 5, 1905, in Wischnitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary (present-day Vyzhnytsia, Ukraine), into a Jewish family. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theater, and was one of the most influential directors in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s.

After achieving theatrical prominence in Vienna, Preminger emigrated to the United States in the mid-1930s, working as a director for 20th Century Fox. He first gained attention for film noir mysteries such as Laura (1944) and Fallen Angel (1945). Several of his later films pushed the boundaries of censorship by dealing with themes which were then taboo in Hollywood, such as premarital sexuality The Moon Is Blue (1953), drug addiction The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) (link below), rape Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and homosexuality Advise & Consent (1962).

The screenplay for Anatomy of a Murder by Wendell Mayes was based on the 1958 novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name of Robert Traver. Voelker based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney.

The Duke Ellington score won three Grammy Awards in 1959, for Best Performance by a Dance Band, Best Musical Composition First Recorded and Released in 1959 and Best Sound Track Album.

There are two cuts from the album I particularly like; one is Midnight Indigo, a dreamy tune with a great chime intro and end. The second is Flirtibird, a song with a classic strip beat that I used with one of the girls I worked with at the Hungry i on Broadway in San Francisco (link below).

The film stars James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara, Eve Arden, George C. Scott, Arthur O'Connell, Kathryn Grant, Brooks West (Arden's husband), Orson Bean, and Murray Hamilton. The judge was played by Joseph N. Welch, a real-life lawyer famous for dressing down Joseph McCarthy during the Army–McCarthy hearings. It has a musical score by Duke Ellington, who also appears in the film. It has been described by Michael Asimow, UCLA law professor and co-author of Reel Justice: The Courtroom Goes to the Movies (2006), as "probably the finest pure trial movie ever made".

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra ~ Anatomy Of A Murder

vinyl LP back cover

cover design by Saul Bass

photo of album cover by Styrous®

In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra ~ Anatomy Of A Murder

vinyl LP labels side 1 & side 2

photo of album cover by Styrous®

Tracklist:

Side 1:

A1 - Main Title And Anatomy Of A Murder, Featuring – Jimmy Hamilton, Ray Nance
A2 - Flirtibird, Featuring – Johnny Hodges
A3 - Way Early Subtone, Featuring – Russell Procope
A4 - Hero To Zero, Featuring – Harry Carney, Paul Gonzalves*
A5 - Low Key Lightly, Featuring – Ray Nance
A6 - Happy Anatomy, Featuring – Clark Terry, Paul Gonzalves*

Side 2:

B1 - Midnight Indigo, B2 - Almost Cried
Featuring – Shorty Baker*, B3 - Sunswept Sunday
Featuring – Jimmy Hamilton, B4 - Grace Valse
B5 - Happy Anatomy, Featuring – The P. I. Five
B6 - Haupé, Featuring – Johnny Hodges
B7 - Upper And Cutest, Featuring – Cat Anderson

Companies, etc.

Pressed By – Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Terre Haute
Printed By – Imperial Packing Co., Inc.

Credits:

Composed By, Music By – Duke Ellington
Design – Saul Bass
Written By D. Ellington*

Notes:

"T" stamped in runouts denotes Columbia Records Pressing Plant, Terre Haute, pressing. Remainder of runouts stamped, plating hashes etched.

On front cover:
Music By Duke Ellington • From The Sound Track Of The Motion Picture
Otto Preminger's Anatomy Of A Murder

On back cover:
Music By Duke Ellington
From The Sound Track Of The Motion Picture
Anatomy Of A Murder
An Otto Preminger Film

On spine:
Anatomy Of A Murder | Music By Duke Ellington From The Sound Track Of The Motion Picture

On labels:
Recorded directly from the Sound Track of Otto Preminger's
Anatomy Of A Murder
(A Columbia Pictures Release)
Duke Ellington and his Orchestra

Barcode and Other Identifiers

Other (Jacket back bottom right): 6
Pressing Plant ID (In runouts): T
Matrix / Runout (Side A label): x"Lp" 47374
Matrix / Runout (Side B label): x"Lp" 47375
Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 1): XLP47374-1F T E IIII IIII
Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 1): XLP47375-1E T A IIIII IIIII
Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, variant 2): XLP47374-1F T A IIIIII/
Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, variant 2): XLP47375-1AB T C /

Duke Ellington And His Orchestra – Otto Preminger's Anatomy Of A Murder (From The Sound Track Of The Motion Picture)
Label: Columbia – CL 1360
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Mono, Terre Haute Pressing
Country: US
Released: Jun 1959
Genre: Jazz, Stage & Screen
Style: Soundtrack, Big Band, Swing

Viewfinder links:

Eve Arden

Ben Gazzara

Johnny Hodges

Hungry i

The Man With The Golden Arm

Otto Preminger

George C. Scott

James Stewart

Clark Terry

Joseph N. Welch

Net links: