Frank Metis: Life and Legacy

Musician Frank Metis was one of the leading music publication arrangers in New York City. His credits comprise some 150 piano books and hundreds of choral editions. Learn more about him in this article.

During the second half of this past century, musician Frank Metis was one of the leading music publication arrangers in New York City. His credits comprise some 150 piano books and hundreds of choral editions in virtually every genre of music. His assignments included arranging music by Springsteen, Shearing, Paul Simon, Brubeck, Stephen Sondheim, Barry Manilow, Tori Amos, Kander & Ebb, John Williams, and dozens of other distinguished composers, song writers and artists. He edited and transcribed the entire 396-page printed Vocal Score of Sondheim’s Broadway Musical, “Sweeney Todd,” as well as the published music for the world-wide hit show, “Riverdance.” His choral arrangements are performed in virtually every school in the country and in many concerts. He was co-writer and co-producer of the Top 10 Islander’s instrumental hit “The Enchanted Sea.” Also, his original compositions are published in various piano editions and music magazines. In addition, Frank’s own evocative instrumentals have been recorded for use as film and background music in the U.S. and abroad. His non-musical interests include writing and lecturing about Creativity. Many of his credits are listed on various internet sites and those of book stores.

F R A N K M E T I S

MEMO to Whomever…

Though most of my friends and countrymen/ladies think of me as just a ‘music arranger’, few know or remember that I also co-wrote and co-produced a Top 10 instrumental recording way back when…in 1959.

Throughout the past decades, like a whale periodically coming up for air, this instrumental composition occasionally still garners attention through various recordings and venues. For example, it is included in numerous nostalgic CD compilations of past popular music, such as in the Time Life Record Series Your Hit Parade 50’s Instrumentals, and others. Also, it was recorded some years ago by the London Symphony, and then became part of a promo CD for Alitalia Airlines.

Happily, once again in the not too distant future the original recording will be included in a compilation CD of ‘50’s and ‘60’s music, entitled “Strings and Things,” and released by ACE RECORDS in England.

For so many of us, life is not unlike a game of cards – unpredictable. It certainly is true in my case. The account of how I and my co-writer, albeit unwittingly, found ourselves on the Billboard Honor Roll of Hits may not have been an earth-shattering event, but for us it had its moments.

Following is the chronicle of how several chance meetings – maybe they were twists of fate – brought a few diverse people together and resulted in somehow creating an exotic instrumental recording that managed to beat the odds.

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Romance, Gestation and Birth (not necessarily in that order)

of the 1959 Hit Recording

“The Enchanted Sea”

by The Islanders

related by Frank Metis

Many, many years ago, as a freshly-minted young arranger who had just completed a four-year study program of the then popular Schillinger System of Musical Composition at New York University, I was befriended by a much older, more experienced studio musician; he once said to me, “You know, kid…every record has a story!”

My friend’s comment proved hardly wrong, because the Top Ten Recording in 1959 of “The Enchanted Sea,” written and produced by Randy Starr and me had a distant beginning, and an almost unlikely story.

After my NYU days, starting as an independent arranger in the early 1950’s with an office right on Broadway, one of my clients was Genuine Records, an African-American recording label headed by Tommy Robinson. It specialized in producing so-called race records for the black folks market in Alabama, Mississippi and other Southern states.

It was an odd pairing of talents: the label’s owner and all participating musicians and singers were African-American, as were the songwriters; so how did this young white arranger of German-Jewish background (who knew little about black race music) fit into this setting? Somehow it all worked out, and this Jewish soul brother, as my black colleagues called me, while arranging and conducting the recording sessions, learned a lot about black music and culture, and enjoyed every minute of it.

One day, during one of those sessions, I noticed a man quietly sitting in the control room, watching intently but never saying much to anyone. After we completed recording, he walked into the studio and complimented my efforts, saying he especially liked my arrangement of one of his songs which was included in this session. He then introduced himself: his name was Churchill Coleman, a songwriter from Pittsburgh who wrote that monster hit by Johnny Ray, “Cry,” which dominated the airwaves around the world. I invited him for a post-recording supper, and we became good friends. Thereafter, every time he came to New York, he would stop by my office to visit with me.

During one of those visits, Churchill mentioned that Walter Volkwein, head of Volkwein Music Publishers in Pittsburgh, one of the largest sheet music mail order companies, was also of German descent, and a good friend of his. Churchill said he would tell Walter about me and try to get us together. Indeed, Walter Volkwein called me, and a professional and personal relationship ensued and endured till he died sometime during the 1980’s.

During my time with Genuine Records, I also worked on music by Dave Brubeck, transcribing from the renowned LP “Brubeck” his compositions into two folios for publication. It was an interesting, but demanding assignment. After completing it in the summer of 1956, I felt I had earned a vacation. I decided to go on a cruise to the Bahamas, to get away from music, musicians and songwriters. Alas, the fellow who was assigned to share my cabin was – an aspiring songwriter as well as a dentist, Dr. Warren Nadel of New York City. In the next couple of years, he achieved several notable successes, writing and performing his songs under the stage name “Randy Starr.” We had kept in touch after our vacation meeting and decided in 1958 to form a writing alliance which lasted till the latter part of 1960. During this time, I introduced Randy to Walter Volkwein, and subsequently, Randy and I produced several recording projects for Volkwein of Pittsburgh. One of those was the single, “The Enchanted Sea.” Sometime thereafter, as a result of its Top 10 success, we produced an entire LP, much of which embodied The Islanders’ sound.

The original recording of “The Enchanted Sea” had less than an auspicious beginning in the spring of 1959. Randy would stand by my old piano, while I noodled around on the keyboard, hoping I, or we could come up with something more than musical platitudes. One day, we both were intrigued with a plaintive melody which seemed to have possibilities; I was reminded of Stravinsky’s remark, “I always know when I am at the starting gate.” Sitting at the piano, I devised a left-hand arpeggiated triplet accompaniment to our new-found melody. It sounded pretty promising! But soon, we encountered a problem: what shall we call this instrumental concoction? Composing the piece took us less than an hour, but finding the right title – that was another story. Over the next couple of weeks, we assembled a bagful of titles, but somehow, none of them seemed quite right. Then, one morning, while playing this piece for Randy for the nth time, I lamented to him in dispirited voice, “…these triplet figurations remind me of running water.” At that moment, Randy must have had an epiphany, because he blurted out, “THE ENCHANTED SEA!” We immediately knew that he had found the missing title for our creation. As I recall, within a couple of days, we played it live over the telephone for Volkwein in Pittsburgh, and persuaded him to let us record it as a contemporary exotic instrumental.

As the arranger of this team, I had the task, with Randy’s input, to create and write out a chart which projects our composition to its best advantage. My contribution included incorporating an accordion, piano triplets and an organ-sound harmonic carpet, all of which I overdubbed on the recording. (At that time, multiple tracks were not yet in use.)

Randy and I also decided to add ocean sounds. Randy’s major contributions consisted of adding his own distinctive-sounding whistling, playing rhythm guitar, and also suggesting whale and fog-horn sounds, all of which enhanced the recording. Oh yes, and we both added our oohs and aahs as background voices (while praying that my somewhat foreign accent would not be noticeable). To get all the sound effects just right, we had hired Ralph Curtiss, the well-respected sound effects man from Columbia Records.

The actual recording of “The Enchanted Sea” was done in the spring of 1959 at Regent Sound Studios on 56^th Street in New York City. It had better-than-average equipment and facilities, and Randy and I felt comfortable there. According to our musical arrangement, we needed 3 musicians to create the background fundament on which Randy and I could then overdub all the additional parts. Being quite familiar with New York’s top studio musicians, I hired the very best available:

‘Panama’ Francis (Drums) George Duvivier (Bass) Al Caiola (Electric Guitar)

After we created the basic background for this recording, Randy and I overdubbed the missing melody parts and sound effects. Lastly, we refined the overall sound and also added some echo. Both of us really liked our final creation. Happily, so did many others!

On November 16, 1959, “The Enchanted Sea” reached #10 on the Billboard Honor Roll of Hits. Subsequently, the song was recorded by many other artists, including Martin Denny, Chet Atkins, The Browns, Santo and Johnny, Sacha Distel, Alfred Newman and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony with the Ken Darby Singers, and more recently by the London Symphony Orchestra.

If you’re wondering how the band’s name “The Islanders” originated, it was simply a ‘studio’ name Randy and I gave ourselves. In reality, there was no such group at the time, and we never publicly performed as such. That phantom group’s name was Randy’s idea because it cleverly underscored the character of our music. Frankly, at that stage of my own life, I was less than commercially indoctrinated to have thought of it.

Looking back, I must confess that it never ceases to amaze me how a little 32-bar song, written just about 50 years ago by two un-Gershwin-like young men, can travel through time and still embrace an audience a lifetime later. Winston Churchill was right when he opined, “Only the written word will last forever.” But then again, maybe he should have said, “…the written word and music…”

October 2008

Copyright © 2008 by Frank Metis