On the 24th of September, 2009 New Zealand lost one of its greatest musical icons – SIR HOWARD MORRISON. To mark the second anniversary of his passing Sony Music and Rajon present “SIR HOWARD MORRISON – THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION”.
The Definitive Collection is the first ever complete overview of Sir Howard's recording career, which spanned more than thirty years. It begins in 1958 with Sir Howard singing in his mothers lounge with The Quartet in front of Eldred Stebbing and his portable Grundig tape recorder, through to his last album “Live In Concert” from 1989, which was recorded at Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre.
Over half of the tracks included on this collection appear on CD for the first time, including many long forgotten Quartet and solo singles including “Lonesome Traveller”, “Running Bear”, “Flowers On the Wall”, “The Power Game”, “Tell Me”, “That Boy Is Lost”, “New World In the Morning” and “The KZ7 Team”.
In 1966 Howard starred, sang and financially backed the kiwi musical / comedy film “Don’t Let It Get You”. We have included four of Howard’s tracks from the soundtrack as well as uncovering two unreleased songs that were written by Howard for possible inclusion “Hello Auckland” and “Right Now” both of which highlight his soulful side.
The double CD comes with a colourful 16 page booklet which covers Sir Howard's career across five chapters – a chapter for each of the 5 labels that he recorded on.
Chapter One (The Zodiac Years) 1957 – 1959 deals with the Quartet in their embryonic early stages where they toured for Benny Levin and recorded for Eldred Stebbings Zodiac label.
Chapter Two (The La Gloria Years) 1960 – 1965 covers the golden years of the Quartet and the first tentative steps by Howard into a solo career
Chapter Three (The HMV Year) 1966 concentrates on Sir Howard – the film actor, the songwriter and the singer as he strives to show case New Zealand and it’s musical talent to the world via the film “Don’t Let It Get You”.
Chapter Four (The Joe Brown Years) 1967 – 1968, this period has Howard with the world at his feet as he plays to packed houses from Auckland to Hawaii and from Sydney to Manila.
Chapter Five (The RCA Years) 1969 – 1989 carries on from the previous chapter with Sir Howard mixing with the big stars such as Sammy Davis Jnr and guest starring in the TV show “Hawaii Five-O, before realising that home is where the heart lay.