Eddie Layton

Artist: Eddie Layton

LP: Great Organ Hits

Song: "Patricia"
[ listen ]

And now for some more Monday morning organ music. Eddie Layton played the Yankee Stadium organ for the team's baseball games for more than three decades! You can read more about Eddie here and here and find some Eddie Layton interview bits and info about other ballpark organists here. Here are the liner notes from the back of this 1961 LP:

When Eddie Layton makes his version of "Greatest Organ
Hits," he packs behind his ideas of the finest in his repertoire,
audience reaction from famous hotel lounges, such as the
Mermaid Room of the Park Sheraton, New York, and other
smart boites of the Sheraton chain. And more importantly,
he's the only Hammond organist currently who gets a real
feel of the European market, for Layton's been the ambassador
of good music to the British Isles and western continental
Europe for the past two years. His benefactors for this
unusual professional experience (and they'll admit they've
benefitted from Eddie's great demonstration of their electric
organs) are executives of the Hammond Organ Corp., Chicago.

For Eddie once said that if he could devote his lifetime to
developing new sound effects from his Hammond keyboard,
he felt the number would be limitless. And he's proven it in
albums like Organ Moods (monaural MG 20208) and Caravan
(MG 20426 monaural and SR 60098 stereo). And for melodic
and commercial presentation, truly characteristic of American
taste, Europeans definitely relished live in-person samples of
albums like In the Mood (done in conjunction with accordionist
Dick Contino) (MG 20471 monaural and SR 60153 stereo.)

Layton's "Greatest" selections are also his most varied.
The sensual "Grenada" captures all the tempestuous romance
of Spain. "The Perfect Song" re-lives nostalgically the many
years of "The Amos and Andy Show," for which an organist
provided this song nightly as theme. "You Can't Be True,
Dear" is Layton's tribute to probably the greatest all time
organ bestseller done by the late, immortal of the organ,
Ken Griffin. Milt Herth, now a fixture on the Strip in Las Vegas,
would be delighted with Eddie's version of his "Dipsy Doodle,"
The same for Ethel Smith for Layton's handling of her topnotcher,
"Tico-Tico." And the now defunct video vehicle, "Mr. Lucky,"
almost perks up on the TV screen with the layton style. No
organ album would be complete without a bow to Jesse
Crawford, dean of them all, in "The Organ Played at Twilight."
The Three Suns rate a bow from Layton with his inclusion
of "Twilight Time," their much requested theme.

[ Eddie Layton: October 10, 1925 — December 26, 2004 ]