Something Beautiful

An hour of relaxing easy listening  for Wednesday nights, presented by Jake Longwell.

From the late 1950s through the late 1980s, one of the most popular music formats on radio the world over was known as ‘Beautiful Music’. This was primarily a radio industry term to describe “Easy Listening” styles of music. The genre featured primarily instrumental, orchestral renditions of popular songs from Broadway, movies, the Great American Songbook, and then-current pop hits. This music, once a staple of BBC output because of agreements made historically to limit the use of commercially recorded content, has all but disappeared from the radio dial in most places. Something Beautiful does what it can to recreate the Beautiful Music sound. We feature authentic recordings from some of the top orchestras and performers of the genre. Key artists include Henry Mancini, Percy Faith, The Living Strings, 101 Strings, Roger Williams, Ronnie Aldrich, John Fox and the Fantasy Strings.

But we’re now making a change to the format. The show will retain the name Something Beautiful, and will still feature plenty of Beautiful Music. But going forward, you will hear two or three vocal tracks per show too. These vocals will come from the Easy Listening, Pop Standards and Jazz genres mostly, with a touch of vintage soft rock, smooth jazz, and anything else that sounds right. From time to time, we’ll also play some more accessible Jazz instrumentals that are of a relaxing nature.

Presenter Jake Longwell says “I sincerely hope that you will enjoy this new take on the show. Your feedback is important. Please let me know if you like this new approach, or even if you don’t! If you have any ideas for how the show might be improved, I want to hear those as well. Please email qualityradioproductions@gmail.com. Now, on with the show!”

A Quality Radio Production presented in the UK by South Norfolk Radio