As a toddler, I was drawn and repelled by the La Dolce Vita album cover, the way the woman is holding the kitten retains an element of madness, I fell in love with the score by age 6, very European feel, breaks all the rules, a composite for dining and dancing, reminiscent of parties at my house!

A couple songs from The Sound Of Music were incorporated in the public school system fall of '66 when I was 7, one of the first albums I got to play in my bedroom before falling asleep, had a dream I was standing alone on a hill, joined by the Von Trapp family, it felt like a homecoming, hard to shake off that dream for many years.

Thunderball is the first album I purchased with my own money, winter of Second Grade, with my background listening to symphonies, I was very proud my first orchestration was a series of underwater motifs, John Barry's score delves beyond the confines and natural beauty of liquid space, the Impressionist would be jealous the themes involve the power to breathe underwater.

After witnessing the raw sex and violence of Thunderball, my father felt sorry I was shunning James Bond for Snow White, I was told he saw an album that I would like, I waited for my dad everyday at the curb until he brought home The Great Escape, the motifs reminded me of the symphony Mysterious Mountain by Hovhannes.

Never On A Sunday was a huge hit on the radio, my parents purchased the soundtrack around '67 at Goodwill for pocket change, I listened to the lush orchestrations all the way through Junior High, oddly, the instrumentation and arrangements opened doors for me and paved the way for Mike Oldfield.

Nothing could be more welcome in 1967 than a follow up to A Man And A Woman. The theme song for the movie Live For Life captures what it's like to put new horizons out to sea. Album cover displays the new attitudes in clothes and hair.

Planet of the Apes was my first introduction to electronic music. Brilliant arrangements, influenced how chase music is performed. Formerly, only available at fancy high end retail stores, I purchase my copy in spring of '68 at Frederick & Nelson's, along with the first couple of paperback's chronicling the new hit series, Star Trek.

A Man and a Woman paved the way for a lifelong love affair with Brazilian music, but I tend to look at my world as before and after Lionel Bart. Oliver! has to be the single most important Musical to come out of my time, It'd be another 30 years before I got around to purchasing my favorite adult bedtime fairy tale, Promises, Promises.

Paper Lion and Yellow Submarine were a double bill at my favorite neighborhood theater summer '68, an astute move by the local chamber of commerce to not go entirely counterculture, my parents were so nice, they timed it so we were walking in at the end at the end of the first film so my father could catch the big game, and devote the main part of the evening to Yellow Submarine.

Let's not forget, in addition to The Beatles White Album, The Monkees Head cinched its' way into houses across America... STARS!

Burt Bacharach is my number one influence, he first garnered my attention in the early to middle 60's with songs by Gene Chandler and Dionne Warwick, but they were public domain for children like me, reserved for the air waves, the Oscar winning 1969 soundtrack for Butch Cassidy & The Sundance prove to be my first foray into buying and owning everything Burt Bacharach has done.

I explained to my B.C. soccer family I'd like to see Disney's Swiss Family Robinson, the crowd was lined around the corner, the older brother had another film in mind, I thanked him for suggesting we go see Bullit, between the brassy soundtrack I purchased that year, with the clever use of woodwinds, and the scene shot in a San Francisco nightclub, I was hooked on jazz the rest of my life.

I purchased the soundtrack and paperback novel for The Molly Maguires early 1970, I promised myself if I finished the book and understood the material I'd buy True Grit as a reward, it was a huge accomplishment to read and absorb, I was only 10, I still have the paperback, thoughts tend to turn to Henry Mancini's haunting soundtrack.

I started collecting Glen Campbell records when I was 8, by the time I was 12, I owned over eleven of his albums, the majority of his works to date, the movie, soundtrack and book for True Grit was a quite a gift spring of fifth grade, something that I'd compare to buying a girl their first horse.

I have a picture of me with my parents in a photo booth when I was 7 with my lips pursed like a donkey or rabid chipmunk, I was trying to smile like Warren Beatty, when I was ten I purchased the Stan Getz Micky One soundtrack, help stir me out of my dream world, captures the hysteria what it's like to feel trapped in the city, Jazz artist were beginning to grab my attention.

I spent all of Fifth grade listening to Howard Hanson For The First Time, it's such a pretty symphony, it has a way of making me red in the face, there was a element of insanity too, my soundtrack for Beneath The Planet Of The Apes... Behold The Bomb!

Spring of 1970, They Call Me Mister Tibbs Quincy Jones, sophisticated music wired for the city lights and inner city churches of Chicago... I'm so there.

Midnight Cowboy was my first oral book report in the Sixth grade, the staff took a vote and decided I was entitled if I could comprehend the text, the book, movie and soundtrack still strike me as being very modern.

I read the play Barefoot in the Park, and The Odd Couple when I was 11, the soundtracks are a real rapture, both imply relationships involve a lot of work, Neil Simon says it defeats the spirit of life to begin a story on a negative and end on a negative, better to start on a negative and end on a postive... music to my ears.

Matters came full circle, when Lawrence Of Arabia was re-issued around 1971, I immediately ran out and bought the soundtrack, ironically, the story takes place around the same time of Doctor Zhivago, I now had a companion piece to tie both films together, heavy duty magic for an eleven year old. David Lean, Robert Bolt, and Maurice Jarre- set your sights high, and raise the bar, son... Dream big.