“Shangri-La “composed in 1946 by Carl Sigman(lyrics), Matt Malneck, and Robert Maxwell was popularized in 1957 by The Four Coins (went to #11) and in 1969 by The Lettermen. Robert Maxwell’s version came in the middle of these two. It is the instrumental version, that I heard growing up on the “Jackie Gleason” show as the intro to his millionaire character Reginald van Gleason III, that I fell in love with. In fact this use of the song sent it to the Top 40 in 1964 – 18 years after Maxwell composed the song! I wasn’t all that fond of the Letterman’s vocal cover version: it always sounded a bit “corny” to me, while the instrumental version was “exciting.”

In addition to penning the stunning music for “Shangri-La,” Maxwell’s many compositions also include the classic “Ebb Tide” and “Solfeggio: The Song of the Nairobi Trio” from the”The Ernie Kovacs Show.” Those monkeys were too cool!

Robert Maxwell has fascinating career bios found both here and here.
So please read up on the talented Maxwell, pictured right.

Thanks for stopping by.

NOTE: This post went missing the end of March. I was able to restore it when I found it in the Google Cache today (4/16/08).