Sounds Orchestral - Soul coaxing

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Sounds Orchestral was a British easy listening studio group, assembled by John Schroeder and Johnny Pearson in 1964.

John Schroeder worked at Oriole Records when he produced Johnny Pearson’s first solo album, “Piano Sweet - Piano Wild” in 1962, and after moving to PYE he assembled a line-up of musicians which would become Sounds Orchestral, intended to be competition for EMI's Sounds Incorporated. The core musicians were Johnny Pearson (piano), Kenny Clare (drums and percussion) and Tony Reeves (bassist), backed in studio by other instruments that were led by Tony Gilbert, who would also play violin on many of the tracks.

Sounds Orchestral's version of Vince Guaraldi's 1962 instrumental track "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" made #1 on the US Adult Contemporary charts in 1965 and #10 on the Hot 100. The song sold over one million copies and achieved gold disc status. In the UK it peaked at #5 in the singles chart, while the follow-up, "Moonglow", reached #43 in the same year.

Sounds Orchestral released 16 albums between 1964 and 1977, with their last featuring 20 of the most popular television and movie themes. Johnny Pearson is featured as pianist on all of the albums, and after their demise in 1977 he continued with a successful solo career which had started in 1962. He also became a music arranger on the BBC television programme, Top of the Pops.

From 1988 onward many of the Sound Orchestral tracks, and even some complete albums, were rereleased on CD.

This song was released on 7" single in 1968. It reached #5 on the South African Top 20 in 1968, charting for 9 weeks.