Bilk was not internationally known musician until an experiment with a string ensemble and a composition of his own as its keynote piece made him one in 1962. Upon the birth of his daughter, he composed and dedicated a melody entitled "Jenny" (her name). He was approached by a British television series for permission to use that melody, but to change the title to "Stranger on the Shore". He went on to record it as the title track of a new album in which his signature deep, quivering clarinet was backed by the Leon Young String Chorale. The single was not only a big hit in the United Kingdom, where it stayed on the charts for 55 weeks, gaining a second wind after Bilk was the subject of the TV show This Is Your Life, but also shot to the top of the American charts
________________________________ From: "s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, November 2, 2014 6:59 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] R.I.P. Acker Bilk "Trad jazz" English clarinettist Acker Bilk "dropped the body" today. HisStranger on the Shore has to be a serious contender for the most-beautiful popular music release ever. (And the first No. 1 single in the US by a British artist!) Fantastic tear-jerker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jzx664u5DA