Enoch Light / Terry Snyder / Command All Stars / Charleston City All-Stars

  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - I Want To Be Happy Cha Chas [Grand Award Records GA 33-388] (1958)
  • Enoch Light / Terry Snyder & The All Stars - Persuasive Percussion [Command Records RS 800 SD] (1959)
  • Enoch Light And His Orchestra - The Million Dollar Sound Of The World's Most Precious Violins [Command Records RS 802 SD] (1959)
  • Enoch Light / The ''Million Dollar Sound'' Orchestra - The Million Dollar Sound Of The World's Most Precious Violins Volume Two [Command Records RS 804 SD] (1959)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Provocative Percussion [Command Records RS 806 SD] (1959)
  • Terry Snyder And The All Stars [Enoch Light] - Persuasive Percussion Volume 2 [Command Records RS 808 SD] (1959)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Provocative Percussion Vol 2 [Command Records RS 810 SD] (1960)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Pertinent Percussion Cha Cha's [Command Records RS 814 SD] (1960)
  • The Command All-Stars [Enoch Light] - Persuasive Percussion Vol 3 [Command Records RS 817 SD] (1960)
  • Enoch Light / The Grand Award All-Stars - Brass, Bongos, Flutes, And Guitars [Grand Award Records GA 258 SD] (1961)
  • Enoch Light / The Command All Stars - Reeds And Percussion [Command Records RS 820 SD] (1961)
  • Enoch Light And His Orchestra - Far Away Places [Command Records RS 822 SD / 298009] (1961)
  • Enoch Light And His Orchestra - Stereo 35/MM [Command Records RS 826 SD] (1961)
  • Enoch Light And The Command All Stars - Persuasive Percussion Volume 4 [Command Records RS 830 SD] (1961)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Provocative Percussion (Vol. 4) [Command Records RS 834 SD] (1962)
  • Enoch Light And His Orchestra - Great Themes From Hit Films [Command Records RS 835 SD] (1962)
  • Enoch Light and his Orchestra - At Carnegie Hall Play Irving Berlin [Command Records RS 840 SD] (1962)
  • Enoch Light - Big Band Bossa Nova [Command Records RS 844 SD] (1962)
  • Enoch Light And His Orchestra - My Musical Coloring Book [Command Records RS33-848] (1963)
  • Enoch Light and his Orchestra - Far Away Places Volume 2 [Command Records RS 850 SD] (1963)
  • Enoch Light and his Orchestra - 1963: The Year's Most Popular Themes [Command Records RS 854 SD] (1963)
  • Enoch Light And His Orchestra - Rome 35/MM [Command Records RS 863 SD] (1964)
  • Enoch Light and The Light Brigade - Dimension 3 [Command Records RS 867 SD] (1964)
  • Enoch Light - Command Performances [Command Records RS 868 SD] (1964)
  • Enoch Light And His Orchestra - Great Themes From Hit Films In Dimension -3- [Command Records RS 871 SD] (1964)
  • Enoch Light and His Orchestra - Discotheque Dance...Dance...Dance [Command Records RS 873 SD] (1964)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - A New Concept Of Great Cole Porter Songs [Command Records RS 879 SD] (1965)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Discotheque Vol. 2: Dance, Dance, Dance [Command Records RS 882 SD] (1965)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Spanish Strings [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5000 SD] (1966)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Film On Film [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5005 SD] (1966)
  • Enoch Light - Command Performances Volume 2 [Command Records RS 915 SD] (1967)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Enoch Light's Action - It's Happening... So Let's Dance! [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5004 SD] (1967)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Film Fame - Marvelous Movie Themes [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5013 SD] (1967)
  • Enoch Light and the Brass Menagerie - Enoch Light and the Brass Menagerie [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5036 QD] (1969)
  • Enoch Light - Enoch Light And The Brass Menagerie Volume 2 [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5042 SD] (1969)
  • Enoch Light - Spaced Out [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5043 SD] (1969)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Hit Movie Themes [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5051 QD] (1970)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Movie Hits! [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5063 SD-Z] (1972)
  • Enoch Light - 4 Channel (Quadraphonic) Dynamite [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5068QD] (1972)
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - The Brass Menagerie 1974 [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5060 QD-5] (1974 (?))
  • Enoch Light - Big Hits Of The Seventies Vol 2 [Project 3 Total Sound PR2-6015/16 SD] (1975)
  • Enoch Light And The Brass Menagerie - The Beauty Of Brass [Project 3 Total Sound PR2-6017/6018SD] (1976)
  • Enoch Light - The Big Band Sound Of The Thirties [Project 3 Total Sound S-303 SD] ([unknown])
  • Enoch Light And The Light Brigade - Let It Be [Project 3 Total Sound PR 5100] (1979)

Also Appears On

  • Various Artists - Stereophonic Spectacular Demonstration Record [Limited Edition] [Grand Award Records GA SD 400] (1958)
  • Various Artists - Command Classics Demonstration Disc [Command Records CCD-1] (1961)
  • Enoch Light / Various - Command Stereo Volume 10 [Command Records COM-10] (1962)
  • Various Artists - The Best Of Command [Command Records WH-1D] (1963)
  • Various Artists - Command Sampler Volume 12 [Command Records COM-12SD] (1964)
  • Enoch Light / Various Artists - 4 Channel Stereo [Project 3 Total Sound PR-M4C-900] (1971)

Biography

Brad Bigelow (bbigelow@netrail.net)

Enoch Light began as a light classical violinist, performing in the US and Europe. After a near-fatal car accident in 1940 and World War II interrupted his classical career, he organized his own dance band, ''The Light Brigade,'' and worked in clubs and hotels around the Northeast, including the Grill Room of the Hotel Taft. It was a conservative band, what was known as a ''sweet band,'' specializing in music for middle-aged dancers. He recorded with this band for RCA and Columbia.

He broke up the band toward the end of the 1940s and went into management, working for several record companies before becoming president of Waldorf Music Hall Records in 1954. He founded his own label, Grand Award, in 1956 and had several successes with Dixieland and honky-tonk piano albums by such anonymous groups as the ''Charleston City All-Stars'' and ''Knuckles O'Toole'' (aka Dick Hyman). Grand Award featured some of the ugliest covers and worst presentations ever put out--which was remarkable, considering Light's next venture: Command Records.

Light formed Command in 1959 with the specific aim of capitalizing on the emerging market of stereo fanatics. He wanted his recordings to take maximum advantage of left-right channelization without stooping to tricks like ''ping-pong'' effects. He was a meticulous engineer and put as much effort into the quality of his recording equipment and production systems as into the music itself. He tested a number of New York studios before selecting , and he was the first to arrange the musicians to suit the audio effects he wanted to achieve. He devoted a considerable amount of prose to describing the acoustic aspects of each number--to the point that he started a new LP packaging format, the gatefold, to fit it all in. Finally, he set Command LPs apart on the store racks with bold abstract designs, the first few by the artist Josef Albers.

The first Command LP, ''Persuasive Percussion,'' was a huge hit. It was unlike anything before it because its sales came almost exclusively from retail exposure--its numbers received relatively little airplay on the mono AM radio. Joel Whitburn lists ''Persuasive'' as one of the 25 best-selling albums of the modern era.

Light produced a steady stream of Command releases, under a variety of names, sometimes featuring musicians such as Tony Mottola or Dick Hyman, sometimes under anonymous groups like ''Los Admiradores.'' He also followed his love of classical music by releasing a series of recordings by William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra that are considered among the finest of the early stereo era. He continued to experiment with techniques, becoming one of the first to use 35mm film to record instead of magnetic tape. One big advantage of film over tape was that distortions due to the drag of the original tape across the recording head (''wow'' and ''flutter'') were reduced dramatically.

In 1965, he sold Command to ABC Records, which was itself bought by MCA a few years later. You can easily mark the end of Light's reign at Command: ABC dropped the gatefold package like a hot potato. Later, it stopped bothering with any of the interior liner notes. MCA further junked the label by making it a budget label, pressed on recycled vinyl, until it discontinued selling Command entirely in the mid-1970s. Steinberg once remarked of the MCA management, ''Gangsters! That's all they are: gangsters!''

Light returned to the scene within months of leaving Command with a new label, Project 3, and quickly picked up many of his former Command lineup of musicians. Like Command, Project 3 featured immaculate recordings and beautiful glossy gatefold designs. Overall, though, Project 3 recordings are more conventionally easy-listening and rely far less on dramatic contrasts between channels and dynamic extremes. Project 3's library was bought by Essex Entertainment and many of its recordings by Light and Tony Mottola are now available on CD. Light retired in 1974.