Original released on LP Dunhill DS 50012
(US, September 1966)
Less than
four months after releasing the Brass Ring's debut album, "Love Theme from the
Flight of the Phoenix" (1966), Phil Bodner's New York-based instrumental
ensemble issued their follow-up, this "Lara's Theme". As their first long player
merely bubbled beneath the Top 100, the question as to why they were so eager
to issue a second volume can be traced back to Dunhill Records' desire to
create a catalog of product as efficiently as possible. As was the occasional
custom of the day, producers chose to recycle the title track from "Lara's Theme" directly off of their first LP - not even going so far as to re-record it. Unlike
anything that was attempted on their previous effort, Bodner and company make
an initial venture into the concurrent pop charts for inspiration. Not
surprisingly, the Mamas & the Papas' - who just happened to also be on
Dunhill Records - Top Five smash "California Dreamin'" is among the
project's hipper entries. Similarly, Pete Seeger's translation of
"Guantanamera" would have been another melody familiar to listeners
as the Sandpipers had a hit with it just a few months earlier. The sassy
interpretation of Pérez Prado's "Patricia" and the Dick Hyman-penned
"Uncle Jose" lean heavily on the Brass Ring's West Coast
contemporaries, the Herb Alpert-led Tijuana Brass. The style has an obvious
effect on Bodner's own "Bahama Shuffle," which also recalls the
bandleaders days as a mainstay in Enoch Light's late-'50s Provocative
Percussion-era recordings. In 2007, Collectors' Choice Music compiled "Lara's
Theme" with its long-playing predecessor "Love Theme from the Flight of the 
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