| Stars for a Summer Night | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Compilation album by Various | |
| Released | 1961 |
| Genre | |
| Length | Disk 1 -- 33:15 / Disk 2 -- 53:06 |
| Label | Columbia |
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.
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. [1] 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." [2]
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 albums. [3]
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.
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. [4]
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. [5]
Stars for a Summer Night has been included in the online collection of the National Museum of American History. [6]
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.
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.
Disk 1 – Columbia Records
Disk 2 – Columbia Masterworks