| Love Is a Game of Poker | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1962 | |||
| Recorded | 1962 | |||
| Genre | Pop music | |||
| Length | 34:01 [1] | |||
| Label | Capitol ST-1817 | |||
| Nelson Riddle chronology | ||||
| ||||
Love Is a Game of Poker is the fourteenth studio album by American composer and arranger Nelson Riddle, released in 1962. [1] [2]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| New Record Mirror | [3] |
William Ruhlmann reviewed the album for Allmusic and wrote that it seemed "...to have been influenced by Henry Mancini's similar success, leading to a more prominent rhythm section and a jazzier feel than one usually associates with Riddle's charts", and that Riddle's "feel for melody was not extinguished by any means but, probably due to his recent experience, his arrangements and (on three tracks) compositions had a far more cinematic flair, which gave them an early-'60s contemporaneity and brought him out of the '50s just as he was moving on to new challenges". [1]
DJ Spooky, in his 2008 book Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture described Riddle's arrangement of "Witchcraft" on this album as a "brain-tickling juxtaposition of reverberating strings, bells, and chimes." [4]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Playboy's Theme" | Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh | 2:54 |
| 2. | "Alone Too Long" | Dorothy Fields, Arthur Schwartz | 2:37 |
| 3. | "Queen of Hearts" | Nelson Riddle | 3:10 |
| 4. | "Red Silk Stockings and Green Perfume" | Bob Hilliard, Sammy Mysels, Dick Sanford | 3:01 |
| 5. | "Finesse" | Riddle | 3:30 |
| 6. | "A Game of Poker" | Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer | 2:16 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House" | Jack Elliott, Harold Spina | 2:23 |
| 2. | "Witchcraft" | Coleman, Leigh | 3:18 |
| 3. | "Two Hearts Wild" | Riddle | 2:12 |
| 4. | "You Fascinate Me So" | Coleman, Leigh | 3:13 |
| 5. | "Penny Ante" | Riddle | 3:00 |
| 6. | "Indiscreet" | Sammy Cahn, Jimmy Van Heusen | 2:27 |
In June 1965, Pickwick Records released seven of the twelve tracks from Love Is a Game of Poker in a ten-track album titled Witchcraft!. Additional tracks came from 1957’s Hey...Let Yourself Go!,* plus a tune from a 45 rpm single.** [5]
An album identical to the Pickwick record--even the liner notes--was released on the Sears label. [6]
In 1971 Alshire Records issued a budget re-release of ten of the twelve tracks from Love is a Game of Poker re-titled Spectacular Brass!!! Fantastic Reeds!!! and the Magnificent 101 Strings, and credited to "Nelson Riddle with America's Top Soloists." The disc lacked "A Game of Poker" and "You Fascinate Me So." [7]
Ella Swings Gently with Nelson is a 1962 studio album by the American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald, with an orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle. This album is one of a pair, the other being Ella Swings Brightly with Nelson, that were released in 1962.
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This Time I'm Swingin'! is an album recorded by Dean Martin for Capitol Records. The sessions yielding this album's songs were recorded in May 1960. While thirteen tracks were recorded during the three sessions, only twelve of them made it onto the album when it was released October 3, 1960. "Ain't That a Kick in the Head" was recorded during those sessions but not released. The backing orchestra was conducted and arranged by Nelson Riddle. The original album consisted of twelve songs, many with prominent brass arrangements.
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Blazing Ballads is a 1952 album by Dinah Washington, arranged by Jimmy Carroll, Nook Shrier and Ike Carpenter.
Jingle Bell Jazz is a collection of jazz versions of Christmas songs recorded between 1959 and 1962 by some of the most popular artists on the Columbia label. It was released on October 17, 1962.
Full Nelson is a jazz album by Oliver Nelson recorded in 1962 and 1963, and released on Verve Records. It is one of his first big band albums. Nelson has also arranged his Hoe Down, originally based on an Aaron Copland composition, which initially appeared in a septet version on The Blues and the Abstract Truth, in a driving big band arrangement that features Clark Terry.
Jazz Recital is an album by the trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, recorded in 1954 and 1955 and released on the Norgran label. It consists of quintet, sextet and jazz orchestra tracks.
White Gardenia is an album by jazz saxophonist Johnny Griffin with brass and strings which was recorded in 1961 and released on the Riverside label. Intended as a tribute album to jazz singer Billie Holiday, who had died two years earlier, she had sung all of the songs, except for the title track, which is the only original composition by Griffin on the album. The white gardenia was the flower Holiday often wore in her hair. The orchestral arrangements were written by Melba Liston and Norman Simmons.
The Orchestral Album is an album by American pianist Dave Grusin released in 1994, recorded for GRP Records. It contains both original recordings and new arrangements of previously released material. The arrangement of Three Cowboy Songs won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement.
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