The Guinness Book of Hit Singles and Albums sums it up in a sentence: Mantovani and his orchestra were ‘Britain’s most successful album act before the Beatles. They were the first act to sell one million stereo albums and had six albums simultaneously in the US Top 30 in 1959.’ But enough, for now, of the facts and figures: as this compilation shows, the success of Italian-born, British-bred Annunzio Paolo Mantovani was founded very much on a unique musical formula. His distinctive ‘cascading strings’ made him a byword for orchestral excellence. Now, half a century since his heyday and 35 years after his passing, we salute the man and his magic touch.