James Last - Around The World (1970)

James Last (born 1929) is a German big band leader with a large fan base in Europe, although he has never had a comparable following in the United States. Last's trademark is arranging pop hits in a big-band style; his series of "party albums" is equally well-known. Over the course of his career, he has sold well over 50 million albums.

Last learned how to play piano as child, switching to bass as a teenager. He joined Hans-Gunther Oesterreich's Radio Bremen Dance Orchestra in 1946, when he was 17 years old. In 1948, he became the leader of the Becker-Last Ensemble, which performed for seven years. During that time, he was voted as the best bassist in the country by a German jazz poll for three consecutive years, from 1950-1952. After the disbandment of the Becker-Last Ensemble, he became the in-house arranger for Polydor Records, as well as for a number of European radio stations. For the next decade, he helped arrange hits for artists like Helmut Zacharias and Caterina Valente.

Last released his first album, Non-Stop Dancing, in 1965. The record of brief renditions of popular songs, all tied together by an insistent dance beat and joyous crowd noises. It was a hit and helped make him a major European star. Over the next two decades, Last released over 50 records, including several more volumes of Non-Stop Dancing. On these records, he varied his formula by adding different songs from different countries and genres, as well as guest performers like Richard Clayderman and Astrud Gilberto.

Though his concerts and albums were consistently successful -- especially in England, where he had 52 hit albums between 1967-1986, which made him second to Elvis Presley in terms of number of charting records -- he only had one hit single with "The Seduction," the theme from American Gigolo (1980).

Every real friend of instrumental music should own this James-Last-Box, but it´s pretty rare and therefore very hard to find, especially in a good condition. It contains 3 LPs with one country on each side. That´s in fact 6 countries, Mr. Last has visited musically in 1970: Spain, Mexico, Russia, Italy, France and England. Is your home-country among them? Well, mine isn´t, but Hansi put out a few dozens of other LPs interpreting the music of Germany. This box set resides way up there with a handful of other outstanding records he made, like "Well Kept Secret", "Voodoo Party", "Happyning", his version of "Hair" and many others. Just wait ´til you´ve heard his "Sabre Dance", "Kosaken-Patrouille" or his about 7.5-minute-version(!) of "Greensleeves". And now, sit back in your armchair and take the tour around the world with Sir Hansi and his Orchestra...