Artist:Al Caiola
Song:Magnificent Seven
Album:Solid Gold Guitar
Guitarist Al Caiola started out in jazz. But then he became a studio musician. And in the 60s he was a house arranger for United Artists Records. And that led to recording instrumental versions of UA movie and TV themes in the 60s. He scored a top 40 pop hit with his 1961 recording of Elmer Bernstein's theme from the popular film The Magnificent Seven. Caiola charted three times and for the rest of the 60s, his albums did well in the Easy Listening marketing. He was born Sept. 7, 1920 in Jersey City, NJ. Caiola played in the US Marine Corps band during WWII and he was a stretcher bearer at The Battle of Iwo Jima. He moved to New York in the 50s and became a studio musician. Among those he recorded with were pianist Stan Freeman, Rosemary Clooney and The Ray Charles Singers. He recorded a couple of jazz albums for Savoy with pianist Hank Jones and drummer Kenny Clarke. He also recorded for Atco, RCA, Time and Roulette. And he worked as an arranger at Chancellor Records with Frankie Avalon. That's when United Artists hired him. The film The Magnificent Seven was pretty hot at the time. So it was decided that Caiola and arranger Don Costa would record an instrumental version of the theme led by Caiola's guitar. It looks like this was only released as a single. But when it reached #35 on the Billboard Hot 100, they had Caiola record an album. You can get Magnificent Seven on this 1962 album which is available as a digital download. This was followed up with the top 20 hit Bonanza in 1961. Like many instrumental bands from this era, this was strictly a studio band. I don't think Caiola ever performed live in the 60s. He recorded for UA until 1969. Caiola had his own label in the 70s. Later on he recorded for Accord and Alanna until his death on Nov. 9, 2016 at age 96. Here's a video for Magnificent Seven by Al Caiola.
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