Playlist 517 - Van Dyke Parks Tribute

Amid word of a new album collaboration with Gaby Moreno, I felt like digging into VDP's extensive back catalogue.

He's something of a Zelig character - his fingerprints are all over some of the most progressive and extraordinary pop music of the last 50 plus years, whether as writer, singer, arranger, producer or simply player.

(Music pop quiz nugget - What links The Byrds' 5D and Robert Altman's Popeye?)

Here is just a taste.

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Playlist
The Byrds – 5D (Fifth Dimension) (1966, VDP plays organ)
Tim Buckley – Song for Janie (1966, VDP plays keyboard)
Van Dyke Parks – Palm desert (1967, Song cycle)
Harper’s Bizarre – Come to the sunshine (1967, written by VDP, also plays keyboard on recording)
Phil Harris & Bruce Reitherman – The bare necessities (1967, arranged by VDP, from soundtrack of the film The Jungle Book)
Randy Newman – I think it’s going to rain today (1968, co-produced by VDP with Lenny Waronker) The Beach Boys – Surf’s up (1971, co-written by VDP with Brian Wilson) Esso Trinidad Steel Band – Apeman (1971, produced by VDP) Van Dyke Parks – G-Man Hoover (1972, Discover America) Little Feat – Spanish moon (1974, produced by VDP) Van Dyke Parks – Clang of the Yankee Reaper (1975, Clang of the Yankee Reaper) Shelley Duvall – He’s large (1980, written by Harry Nilsson, arrangements by VDP, from the soundtrack of the film Popeye)
Van Dyke Parks – Opportunity for two (1984, Jump!)
Jennifer Warnes – Came so far for beauty (1987, VDP plays synthesiser & accordion)
Van Dyke Parks feat. Mari Iijima – Calypso (1989, Tokyo Rose)
Brian Wilson & Van Dyke Parks – Orange Crate Art (1995, Orange Crate Art)
Van Dyke Parks – Big Rock Candy Mountain (2000, from the soundtrack of the film O Brother, where art thou? [10th anniversary deluxe reissue])
Joanna Newsom – Cosmia (2006, co-produced by VDP with Newsom, also orchestral arrangements)
Inara George & Van Dyke Parks – Right as wrong (2008, arrangements by VDP)
The Shortwave Set – Yesterdays to come (2008, orchestral arrangements by VDP)
Van Dyke Parks – Aquarium (2013, Songs cycled)
Van Dyke Parks – The water is wide (2014, Super Chief: Music for the Silver Screen)
Gaby Moreno & Van Dyke Parks – Espérame en el cielo (2019, ¡Spangled!)

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