Lonesome Echo, aka Jackie Gleason Presents Lonesome Echo is a studio album of "Easy listening" by television personality, Jackie Gleason. It was released in 1955 on Capitol Records (catalog no. W627). Gleason conducted an orchestra of strings that included , , and , augmented by guitars and marimba. The solos are performed by Romeo Penque on oboe d'amore.[Back cover to "Lonesome Echo".]
The album featured cover art by Salvador Dalí. Dalí described the work as follows: "The first effect is that of anguish, of space, and of solitude. Secondly, the fragility of the wings of a butterfly, projecting long shadows of late afternoon, reverberates in the landscape like an echo. The feminine element, distant and isolated, forms a perfect triangle with the music instruments and its other echo, the shell."[
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Lonesome Echo entered Billboard magazine's pop album chart on June 25, 1955, peaked at No. 1, and remained on the chart for 23 weeks.
AllMusic gave the album a rating of three stars. Reviewer Heather Phares described the music as "lush interpretations of standards" and noted the "striking cover artwork" by Dalí.[
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Track listing
Side A
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"There Must Be a Way" (Saxon, Cook, Gallop)
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"I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" (Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk)
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"Deep Purple" (Mitchell Parish, Peter DeRose)
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"Mad About the Boy" (Noël Coward)
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"Someday I'll Find You" (Coward)
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"Come Rain or Come Shine" (Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer)
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"The Thrill Is Gone" (Lew Brown, Ray Henderson)
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"I Wished on the Moon" (Dorothy Parker, Ralph Rainger)
Side B
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"How Deep Is the Ocean?" (Irving Berlin)
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"Remember" (Berlin)
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"Speak Low" (Kurt Weill, Ogden Nash)
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"I Still Get a Thrill" (Benny Davis, J. Fred Coots)
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"Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" (Anna Sosenko)
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"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" (Harry Carroll, Joseph McCarthy)
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"A Garden in the Rain" (Carroll Gibbons, James Dyrenforth)
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"Dancing on the Ceiling" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)