Stars for a Summer Night is a two-disk LP of previously recorded tracks, produced for release in the summer of 1961, which became one of the best-selling records of the year.
Concept In June 1961, to stimulate sales, Columbia Records released a two-disk compilation album titled Stars for a Summer Night. It was a promotional, low-priced sampler that showcased some of the label's most popular recording artists with tracks from their previously released LPs. RCA Victor pioneered the concept of a sampling of a label's artists with its 1949 release Theme Songs. Columbia had earlier experimented with samplers in its 1956 release Having Wonderful Time, Wish You Would Hear . . . .
On one disk, Stars for a Summer Night provided largely easy listening selections, accompanied by two jazz performances. The second record in the set was released as a Columbia Masterworks disk, with 13 tracks of classical compositions. The album's liner notes declared that the "summer" theme of the collection would provide listening pleasure "on the front porch or on picnics, at the beach or in the mountains."
Reception and chart history Stars for a Summer Night was an immediate success in the summer of 1961. In less than three months after its release, Columbia reported that the public had purchased more than a half million copies.
The album spent nine consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard stereo albums chart beginning the week of July 17, 1961. It spent four weeks at number one on the mono chart. The album was on the charts for 40 weeks.
Honors and recognition The National Association of Record Manufacturers named Stars for a Summer Night the Best Selling Economy Price LP at its annual awards banquet in April 1962.
Cash Box magazine ranked Stars for a Summer Night 27th of the top 50 stereo albums of 1961, and 32nd of the top 50 monaural albums.
Stars for a Summer Night has been included in the online collection of the National Museum of American History.
The success of Stars for a Summer Night prompted Columbia in 1963 to issue a follow-on set titled Songs for a Summer Night, a two-record set comprising tracks from a broader variety of musical genres.
Subsequent release In 2013, Sepia Recordings released an expanded version of Stars for a Summer Night in a two-CD collection, with an additional 20 tracks of popular and classical recordings.
Track listing Disk 1 – Columbia Records TrackTitleComposerArtistTime1"Summertime" George Gershwin, DuBose HeywardRay Conniff & His Orchestra& Chorus2:452"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair"Stephen FosterThe Dave Brubeck Quartet2:283"In the Evening by the Moonlight"”Listen to the Mocking Bird""While Strolling Through the Park One Day"James A. BlandAlice Hawthorne, Richard MilburnEd HaleyMusic by De Vol2:374"Lazy Afternoon”Jerome Moross, John La ToucheLes & Larry Elgartand Their Orchestra 2:455"Bouquet"Percy FaithThe Percy Faith Strings 3:226"By the Campfire”TraditionalAndre Kostelanez & His Orchestra2:337"Stairway to the Stars”Matty Malneck, Frank Signorelli,Mitchell ParishBobby Hackett3:178"Star Eyes"Gene de Paul, Don RayeThe Art Van Damme Quintet2:509"It's a Wonderful World"Harold Adamson, Jan Savitt, John K. WatsonLes Brown & His Band of Renown2:4110"Just Friends"John Klenner, Sam M. LewisBilly Butterfield2:1811"Like Love"Dorothy Langdon, André PrevinAndré Previn3:0512"Ramona"L. Wolfe Gilbert, Mabel WayneJerry Murad's Harmonicats2:34
Disk 2 – Columbia Masterworks TrackTitleComposerArtistTime1"March" from "The Love for Three Oranges" Sergei ProkofievThe Columbia Symphony Orchestra1:332 "Waltz of the Flowers" from "'Nutcracker Suite" Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyNew York Philharmonic6:283"Second Movement (Scherzando)" from "Symphonie espagnole" Édouard LaloNew York Philharmonic4:114"Russian Sailors' Dance" from "The Red Poppy” Reinhold GlièrePhiladelphia Orchestra 3:295"Waltz No. 7 In C-Sharp Minor, Op. 64, No. 2" Frédéric ChopinAlexander Brailowsky3:196"One Fine Day (Un Bel Di)" from "Madame Butterfly"Giacomo Puccini Eileen FarrellThe Columbia Symphony Orchestra4:467"Can-Can”Jacques OffenbachNew York Philharmonic4:138"Fantasia On Greensleeves" Ralph Vaughan WilliamsPhiladelphia Orchestra 5:009"Clair De Lune"Claude Debussy Philippe Entremont5:0710"Londonderry Air"Traditional Mormon Tabernacle ChoirPhiladelphia Orchestra4:0911"Liebestraum"Franz LisztIvan Davis4:4612"The Stars Were Shining" from "Tosca" Giacomo Puccini Richard TuckerThe Columbia Symphony Orchestra2:5213"Hoe-Down" from Rodeo"Aaron CoplandNew York Philharmonic3:13
References