Editing Percy Faith (section)

==Biography==
Faith was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.<ref name="Larkin50"/> He was the oldest of eight children. His parents, Abraham Faith and Minnie, née Rottenberg, were [[Jewish]]. He played violin and piano as a child, and played in theatres and at [[Massey Hall]]. After his hands were badly burned in a fire, he turned to conducting, and his live orchestras used the new medium of radio broadcasting. He moved from Canada to [[Great Neck, New York|Great Neck]], New York and became a United States citizen.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Percy Faith album: Percy Faith Program|url=https://www.percyfaith.info/discography/original/Percy-Faith-Program|access-date=October 13, 2020|website=www.percyfaith.info}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Great Neck Online {{!}} Some Famous Great Neckers|url=https://www.westegg.com/greatneck/famous-people.html|access-date=October 13, 2020|website=www.westegg.com|archive-date=February 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226121008/https://www.westegg.com/greatneck/famous-people.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Beginning with stations [[CJBC (AM)|CKNC]] and [[CHKT|CKCL]], Faith was a staple of the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]'s live-music broadcasting from 1933 to 1940, when he resettled in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]].<ref name="Larkin50"/> In the early 1940s, Faith was orchestra leader for ''[[The Carnation Contented Hour]]'' on [[NBC]].<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Say Hello to ...|magazine=Radio and Television Mirror|date=February 1941|volume=15|issue=4|page=39}}</ref> From 1938 to 1940 on the [[Mutual Broadcasting System|MBS]] radio network, and from 1948 to 1949 on the [[CBS]] radio network, he also served as the orchestra leader on ''The [[Coca-Cola]] Hour'' (also called ''The Pause That Refreshes'').<ref name="Sold">{{cite book |last=Cox |first=Jim |title=Sold on Radio-Advertisers in the Golden Age of Broadcasting |date=2008 |publisher=[[McFarland & Co.]] |location= North Carolina, USA & London, UK|isbn=978-0-7864-3391-9|page=119 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwVkMMLqMdkC&dq=%22Radio+Series%22+%22Percy+Faith+and+His+Orchestra%22&pg=PA119 |access-date=October 21, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> The orchestral accordionist [[John Serry Sr.]] collaborated with Faith in some of these broadcasts. Faith also led the orchestra on ''[[The Woolworth Hour]]'' on CBS radio (1955–1957).<ref name="dunningota">{{cite book |last1=Dunning |first1=John |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |section=The Woolworth Hour |date=May 7, 1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-984045-8 |page=726 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&dq=%22Woolworth+Hour%22+CBS&pg=PA726 |access-date=October 21, 2023 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1945, he became a [[naturalized citizen]] of the [[United States]]. He made many recordings for [[Voice of America]]. After working briefly for [[Decca Records]], he worked for [[Mitch Miller]] at [[Columbia Records]], where he turned out dozens of albums and provided arrangements for many of the pop singers of the 1950s, including [[Tony Bennett]], [[Doris Day]], [[Johnny Mathis]] for Mathis's 1958 Christmas album titled ''[[Merry Christmas (Johnny Mathis album)|Merry Christmas]]'', and [[Guy Mitchell]] for whom Faith co-wrote with [[Carl Sigman]] Mitchell's number-one single, "[[My Heart Cries for You]]".<ref name="Larkin50"/>

His most famous and remembered recordings are "[[Delicado (song)|Delicado]]" (1952), "[[The Song from Moulin Rouge|The Song from ''Moulin Rouge'']]" (1953) and "[[Theme from A Summer Place|Theme from ''A Summer Place'']]" (1959),<ref name="Larkin50"/> which won the [[Grammy Award]] for [[Grammy Award for Record of the Year|Record of the Year]] in 1961. Faith remains the only artist to have the best selling single of the year during both the pop singer era ("Song from ''Moulin Rouge''") and the rock era ("Theme from ''A Summer Place''"); and he is one of only three artists, along with [[Elvis Presley]] and [[The Beatles]], to have the best selling single of the year twice. The [[A-side and B-side|B-side]] of "[[Song from the Moulin Rouge]]" was "[[Swedish Rhapsody No. 1|Swedish Rhapsody]]" by [[Hugo Alfvén]]. In 1961 his fame in Sweden rose exponentially as his work ''Mucho Gusto'' became the [[theme music]] for the sports broadcasts of [[Sveriges Radio]].

Although Faith initially mined the worlds of Broadway, Hollywood and Latin music for many of his top-selling 1950s recordings, he enjoyed popularity starting in 1962 with his orchestral versions of popular rock and pop hits of the day. His ''Themes for Young Lovers'' album was a top seller during this era and introduced the Faith sound to a younger generation of listeners. With the success of Columbia record-mate [[Ray Conniff]]'s chorus and orchestra during this same time, Faith began using a chorus (usually all female in most of his recordings, but used a mixed chorus on his albums ''Leaving on a Jet Plane'' and ''I Think I Love You'', which were released in 1970 and 1971 respectively) in several popular albums from the mid-1960s on. Faith's first single with a female chorus, "Yellow Days," was a substantial hit in the [[Middle of the road (music)|MOR]] (Middle of the Road) easy listening radio format of the mid-1960s. Faith continued to enjoy airplay and consistent album sales throughout the early 1970s, and received a second Grammy award in 1969 for his album ''Love Theme from 'Romeo and Juliet'.''

Although best known for his recording career, Faith also occasionally scored motion pictures, and received an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of the song score for the [[Doris Day]] musical feature, ''[[Love Me or Leave Me (film)|Love Me or Leave Me]]''.<ref name="Larkin50"/> His other film scores included romantic comedies and dramatic features such as ''[[Tammy Tell Me True]]'' (1961), ''[[I'd Rather Be Rich]]'' (1964), ''[[The Third Day (1965 film)|The Third Day]]'' (1965) and ''[[The Oscar (film)|The Oscar]]'' (1966).<ref name="Larkin50"/> Faith also composed the theme for the NBC series ''[[The Virginian (TV series)|The Virginian]].''

With the advent of harder rock sounds in the 1970s, Faith's elegant arrangements fell out of favour with the listening and record-buying public, although he continued to release albums as diverse and contemporary as ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'' and ''Black Magic Woman''. He released one album of country music and two albums of disco-oriented arrangements toward the end of his forty-year career, his last recording being a disco-style reworking of "Theme from a Summer Place", titled "Summer Place '76", which was a minor and posthumous hit. Faith died of [[cancer]] in [[Encino, California]],<ref name="Larkin50"/> and was interred in the [[Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery]] in [[Culver City, California]].

Faith had two children, Marilyn and Peter, with his wife Mary (née Palange), whom he married in 1928. She died in Los Angeles in 1997.