It was released in 1957 in mono only (stereo was just around the corner.) For this album Mure utilized four guitars with amplified rhythm, two drums and one bass. The playing was wild and frantic and would fit right in to the new sounds of rock-and-roll. Remember, this was the fifties and rock-and-roll and guitars were definitely "in". His next recording was "Fireworks" which was recorded and released again by RCA Victor but this time in "Living Stereo". Here Billy is allowed to explore some explosive and inflammable compositions including four originals "Firecrackers", "Dancing Guitars", "Guitar Theme" and "Crackerjack". He also added a third drummer and eight vocalists for these sessions giving him a unique sound. Billy followed this with a third album for RCA Victor entitled "Supersonics In Flight".

Billy also jumped into the Hawaiian craze by combining his electric guitar sounds with unusual percussion instruments. He would release four albums for Strand Records in the 60’s using the Hawaiian percussion theme. The most common is his "Hawaiian Percussion" album.

This album includes three original compositions by Billy. One "Pink Hawaii", was inspired by a statement Jack Parr made after vacationing in Hawaii. Parr commented on the fact that everything was pink at the hotel he stayed at in Hawaii.

During this time Billy was also busy arranging for a wide variety of people, including Della Reese, Don Rondo, Ray Peterson and even found time to arrange and conduct the Nutty Squirrels "Sing A Hard Day’s Night And Other Smashes" album for MGM during the Beatle craze of the mid-sixties. He penned a few hits including "Got A Match", "A String Of Trumpets", "Trumpet Cha Cha Cha" and "Toy Balloons". You Moog fans might notice that "Toy Balloons" was covered by Perrey & Kingsley on their album "Kaleidoscopic Vibrations". He also wrote the theme song of Murray The K’s popular radio show on WINS in New York and also the movie themes for "Five Against The House" and "No Down Payment".

In the mid-sixties (as if he wasn’t busy or anything) Billy Mure composed original musical backgrounds for a series of children’s albums on MGM Records. There is ten volumes in this series and they were recorded in "Stereo Motion". According to MGM "Stereo Motion" is a new concept to children’s records. "Through natural and realistic motion-of sounds, of music, of voices-your child is drawn into favorite stories of children everywhere as never before".

Billy Mure continued making albums for MGM including a return to the "Super-sonic Guitar" sound but then faded into obscurity. Not much is known about him after this point but by the amount of material he left behind, as well as the work he did for the fortunate people he worked with, we will be listening to him for a long time to come. Now if we can only get RCA to do a little vault digging and release a retrospective of his work on CD, we will all be a lot happier.

Jeff Chenault

Below is a listing of known Billy Mure recordings:

Supersonic Guitars In Hi-Fi, RCA Victor LPM-1536
Fireworks, RCA Victor LPM-1694/LSP-1694
Supersonics In Flight, RCA Victor LPM-1869/LSP-1869
Hawaiian Percussion, Strand SL-1010/SLS-1010
Pink Hawaii, Strand SL-1070/SLS-1070
Around The World In Percussion, Strand SL-1021/SLS-1021
Blue Hawaii, Premier PS-9014 (This album (also released on Spin-O-Rama) is a split LP with Harry Kaapuni and has five Billy Mure tracks taken from the "Hawaiian Percussion" album previously released on Strand.)
A String Of Trumpets, Everest SBDR-1067/LPBR-5067
Strictly Cha-Cha, Everest SBDR-1120/LPBR-5120
Tough Strings, Kapp Records KL-1253/KS3253
Supersonic Guitars, MGM E3780/SE3780
Supersonic Guitars Vol.2, MGM #?
Teen Beat Bossa Nova, MGM E4131/SE4131
Maria Elena And Other Great Songs, MGM E4189/SE4189
Nostalgia #1, MGM E4406/SE4406
Songs Of Hank Williams, Sunset SUS-5173