THE WORLD IS WAITING
FOR THE SUNRISE
LES PAUL & MARY FORD
FOR THE SUNRISE
LES PAUL & MARY FORD
Written by: Seitz/Lockhart
Recorded by: Les Paul & Mary Ford (1949)
Recorded by: Les Paul & Mary Ford (1949)
THIS OPTIMISTIC SONG, WRITTEN at the
end of WW1, found its greatest chart
success as a 1949 Capitol recording
by Les Paul and Mary Ford. Virtuoso Les Paul
not only gave his name to a legendary guitar, he
pioneered multi-track recording techniques and
proved himself as brilliant an electronics innovator
as he was a guitarist. He played jazz, country and
pop and to each genre he brought quite dazzling
techniques, often enhanced by half-speed recording
and overlaid multiple tracks each of which, in the
early days, had to be performed perfectly because
each immediately became an inseparable part of
the master track. His wife and singing partner
Mary Ford had previously been a country backing
vocalist with Gene Autry and sang, pitch-perfect,
using an effortless, close mike singing style. Her
vocals too were usually multi-tracked to create
dense harmonies that gave the couple’s recordings
a unique and complex vocal and instrumental
texture belying the fact that they often recorded
them in their living room or kitchen. ‘The World
Is Waiting For The Sunrise’ – the first of their
many hits in the 1950s – lent itself particularly
well to improvisation, making it a favourite with
jazz players. It also attracted musical satirist Stan
Freberg who made a parody version in 1952 where
the recording tricks finally overwhelm the whole
recording. Eventually it attracted The Beatles – or
at least John Lennon and Paul McCartney – who
end of WW1, found its greatest chart
success as a 1949 Capitol recording
by Les Paul and Mary Ford. Virtuoso Les Paul
not only gave his name to a legendary guitar, he
pioneered multi-track recording techniques and
proved himself as brilliant an electronics innovator
as he was a guitarist. He played jazz, country and
pop and to each genre he brought quite dazzling
techniques, often enhanced by half-speed recording
and overlaid multiple tracks each of which, in the
early days, had to be performed perfectly because
each immediately became an inseparable part of
the master track. His wife and singing partner
Mary Ford had previously been a country backing
vocalist with Gene Autry and sang, pitch-perfect,
using an effortless, close mike singing style. Her
vocals too were usually multi-tracked to create
dense harmonies that gave the couple’s recordings
a unique and complex vocal and instrumental
texture belying the fact that they often recorded
them in their living room or kitchen. ‘The World
Is Waiting For The Sunrise’ – the first of their
many hits in the 1950s – lent itself particularly
well to improvisation, making it a favourite with
jazz players. It also attracted musical satirist Stan
Freberg who made a parody version in 1952 where
the recording tricks finally overwhelm the whole
recording. Eventually it attracted The Beatles – or
at least John Lennon and Paul McCartney – who
performed it two nights running in a Berkshire pub
in the spring of 1960. They had hitch-hiked to see
Paul’s cousin Bett Robbins (who ran The Fox &
Hounds pub in Caversham) and while they were
there Bett’s husband Mike advised them to open
any set with a non-rock ’n’ roll song, preferably an
instrumental. Mike and Bett had both previously
worked as entertainment staff at a holiday camp
and felt they knew how to please a crowd. Lennon
and McCartney (informally self-christened The
Nerk Twins for the occasion), played and sang at
the pub’s tap room on April 23 and 24 and dutifully
started with a non-rock ’n’ roll song: ‘The World
Is Waiting For The Sunrise’. At some point in
the same year they committed the song to a home
tape recorder along with several other favourites
they wanted to rehearse. Part of the attraction
was no doubt Les Paul’s dazzling guitar breaks
(George Harrison attempts them on the home
tape) but equally Les Paul and Mary Ford were
big stars in the decade when the future Beatles
were growing up; such sophisticated recording
techniques must have suggested to the tentative
young musicians just what could be achieved if
you ever became famous enough to gain access
to a professional recording studio. Imagine…
in the spring of 1960. They had hitch-hiked to see
Paul’s cousin Bett Robbins (who ran The Fox &
Hounds pub in Caversham) and while they were
there Bett’s husband Mike advised them to open
any set with a non-rock ’n’ roll song, preferably an
instrumental. Mike and Bett had both previously
worked as entertainment staff at a holiday camp
and felt they knew how to please a crowd. Lennon
and McCartney (informally self-christened The
Nerk Twins for the occasion), played and sang at
the pub’s tap room on April 23 and 24 and dutifully
started with a non-rock ’n’ roll song: ‘The World
Is Waiting For The Sunrise’. At some point in
the same year they committed the song to a home
tape recorder along with several other favourites
they wanted to rehearse. Part of the attraction
was no doubt Les Paul’s dazzling guitar breaks
(George Harrison attempts them on the home
tape) but equally Les Paul and Mary Ford were
big stars in the decade when the future Beatles
were growing up; such sophisticated recording
techniques must have suggested to the tentative
young musicians just what could be achieved if
you ever became famous enough to gain access
to a professional recording studio. Imagine…
They called him The Wizard from Waukesha,but they just called his wife Mary Ford.
Forever in the shadow of her husband, Ford
(real name Iris Colleen Summers) still had one
of the loveliest voices in popular music. She
and Paul were married from 1949 until 1962.