Charles Rosenay, a fellow Nutmegger and a great Beatles and Monkee fan, recently suggested to me that an interesting blog post would be about Stu Phillips who conducted the Hollyridge Strings covering instrumental versions of Beatles songs on multiple LPs released on Capitol Records over the years. Stu Phillips, who is now 95 years old, signed some album covers for Charles. Charles is aware of my interest in collecting signatures of people that played some type of role in the Beatles story, and alerted me of the autographed albums. Stu Phillips has quite the musical resume’ as is witnessed at this Wikipedia link: (You will be amazed at what he has accomplished during his illustrious career).
Stu Phillips (composer) – Wikipedia
It was obvious that Capitol was aware that there was a marketplace for instrumental versions of the wonderful Beatles musical catalog as is evidenced by the 6 volumes that they issued of this series though not all six of the volumes were conducted and arranged by Stu Phillips. In his time away from Capitol Records, he was heavily involved with Colgems/Colpix and The Monkees.
One of Stu Phillips notable accomplishments was that he was nominated for a Grammy Award in the following category in 1964
Nominated: 1964 Best Instrumental Performance – Non Jazz, The Beatles Song Book (Hollyridge Strings).
My special thanks go out to Charles Rosenay, for providing the photos for this post!
Front Cover of Vol 1:
Back cover:
Vol 2 Front cover:
Vol2 Back Cover:
Vol 3 Front Cover:
Vol 3 Back Cover:
Stu not involved with this release: Vol 4 Front Cover
Vol 4 Back Cover:
Stu was not involved with this one as well: Vol 5 Front Cover
Vol 5 Back Cover:
Stu comes back to conduct and arrange the Beatles songs on Vol 6 (the front cover). This is the signed LP that I acquired from Charles:
Vol 6 Back Cover:
QUESTION:
What is your favorite instrumental that you have heard of any Beatles song? My personal favorite was the version of “This Boy” that George Martin conducted.
What is yours? Look forward to your comments!
RINGO’S THEME (This Boy) Instrumental – YouTube
BUZZ
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I agree with you, I also like the interpretations of Chet Atkins very much.
Thanks for spotlighting Buzz! You confirmed to me that I have all of Beatles- related Hollyridge Strings albums. It took a few years, but from the discount rack at my local record store to a Fest for Beatles Fans record dealer I was able to get them all. They are very enjoyable to listen to. Unlike Charles Rosnay (fab Beatles fan and tour guide I had the privilege of being with on a Magical History Tour in 2016) mine are not autographed. My fave instrumental from these albums is “She’s a Woman”.
I just found another Hollyridge Strings Capitol Records album at record store day today. It’s called “The Hollyridge Strings Oldies but Goldies” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is on there. Great original vinyl with an inner sleeve that has pictures of Beatle albums being released at that time. I got it all for the low price of zero! My record store was giving away five free bargain items today.
Congratulations Jennifer and I love the purchase price, especially!!!
Well done! Enjoy!
I have autographed copies of most of the Hollyridge Strings LPs. If anyone wants one of the albums signed by Stu Phillips (also worked on The Monkees), let me know. I know there are Beatles autograph completists out there like me. Email Info@LiverpoolProductions.com
What are the chances……..
I was looking through some LPs I purchased at the recent Fest for Beatles Fans in Jersey City, New Jersey. These included Apple pressings of “Something New” and “Beatles VI”, an “original” mono Revolver with the Capitol inner sleeve and the “A Hard Day’s Night” soundtrack on United Artists, still in the shrink, but with the wrong United Artists inner sleeve included.
The last album was a red label Capitol edition of “The George, John, Paul & Ringo Songbook” by Stu Phillips and the Hollyridge Strings. So, I inspect the vinyl, the jacket corners, and so on. I return to my email and as I check it, I find this email from the Beatles Book Store. The topic? THE HOLLYRIDGE STRINGS COVERING THE BEATLES!!!!!!!
Karma, my friend. May not always be Instant, but there are many coincidences like this that seem inexplicable.