Percy Faith

Canadian bandleader and composer Percy Faith was a pillar of live music broadcasting in the years leading up to World War 2. In 1940 he settled in Chicago and became an orchestra leader on the CBS radio network. After becoming a US citizen he made many recordings for Voice of America, and from there went on to work for Mitch Miller at Columbia Records. At Columbia, Faith's talents were used to help produce dozens of albums writing and arranging for artists such as Tony Bennett, Doris Day and Johnny Mathis and he dominated the easy listening market with numerous hits and best-selling records. Guy Mitchell's million-selling 1950 hit 'My Heart Cries for You' was a Faith composition which he co-wrote with Carl Sigman adapting the song from a traditional French melody. Occasionally Faith would be commissioned to write film scores and he received an Academy Award nomination for the musical 'Love Me Or Leave Me' which starred Doris Day. He also wrote the theme music for popular US TV series 'The Virginian'. With rock & roll taking over the charts, Faith's style of arrangements and writing fell out of favour with the American public. Towards the end of his career he experimented with brief forays into the country and disco markets but the once ubiquitous Faith found his talents were no longer in demand and in 1997 he passed away from cancer aged 67.

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