Hyperion Records

The doyen of latter-day British light music composers is Robert Farnon (1917–2005). Born in Toronto, Canada, he learned a variety of instruments and became dance band trumpeter and arranger, besides having two symphonies performed. It was as the conductor of the Canadian Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces that in 1944 he came to England where he became a prolific arranger, composer and conductor, directing the backing orchestras for a range of front-rank recording artists. Many of his compositions have become international light-music classics, among them the jaunty Jumping Bean which is claimed to have been used as signature tune around the world more times than any other piece. Certainly it exemplifies as well as anything the charac­teristic of so many of these light-music classics that the title and composer may mean little but the piece itself is instantly and gratifyingly familiar.

from notes by Andrew Lamb © 1996