Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer. At the age of 23 he joined Mel Tormé's Mel-Tones, singing on Artie Shaw records such as "What Is This Thing Called Love?".
Baxter then turned to arranging and conducting for Capitol Records in 1950, and was credited with the early Nat King Cole hits, "Mona Lisa" and "Too Young", but both were actually orchestrated by Nelson Riddle.[1] (In later releases of the recordings the credit was corrected to Riddle.[citation needed]) Not a uncommon practice these days: Baxter himself had arranged Nat King Cole's "Nature Boy" in 1947 for a recording conducted by Frank De Vol. In 1953 he scored his first film, the sailing travelogue Tanga Tika. With his own orchestra, he released a number of hits including "Ruby" (1953), "Unchained Melody" (1955) and "The Poor People Of Paris" (1956). The latter recording sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.[2]He also achieved success with concept albums of his own orchestral suites: Le Sacre Du Sauvage, Festival Of The Gnomes, Ports Of Pleasure, and Brazil Now, the first three for Capitol and the fourth on Gene Norman's Crescendo label. The list of musicians on these recordings includes Plas Johnson and Clare Fischer.
Baxter also wrote the "Whistle" theme from the TV show Lassie.
Baxter did not restrict his activities to recording. As he once told Soundtrack! magazine, "I never turn anything down".
In the 1960s, he formed the Balladeers, a besuited and conservative folk group that at one time featured a young David Crosby.[citation needed] He operated in radio as musical director of The Halls of Ivy and the Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello shows.
Like his counterparts Henry Mancini, Lalo Schifrin and James Horner, Baxter later worked for the film industries from 1960s to 70s. He worked on movie soundtracks for American International Pictures where he composed and conducted scores for Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films and other horror stories and teenage musicals, including The Pit and the Pendulum, Panic in Year Zero!, Beach Party, The Comedy of Terrors,The Dunwich Horror, and Frogs. Howard W. Koch recalled that Baxter composed, orchestrated, and recorded the entire score of The Yellow Tomahawk (1954) in a total of three hours for $5,000.[3]
With less soundtrack work in the 1980s, he scored music for theme parks and SeaWorlds. In the 1990s, Baxter was widely celebrated, alongside Martin Denny and the Arthur Lyman Group, as one of the progenitors of what had become known as the "exotica" movement. In his 1996 appreciation for Wired magazine, writer David Toop remembered Baxter thus:
"Baxter offered package tours in sound, selling tickets to sedentary tourists who wanted to stroll around some taboo emotions before lunch, view a pagan ceremony, go wild in the sun or conjure a demon, all without leaving home hi-fi comforts in the white suburbs".
Baxter has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6314 Hollywood Blvd.
April in Portugal
Les Baxter and His Orchestra Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When we discovered romance, like we never knew.
My head was in the clouds, My heart went crazy too,
And madly I said: "I love you."
Too soon I heard you say:
"This dream is for a day"
That's Portugal and love in April!
Those tears I know so well,
They told me it was spring fooling me.
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
When we discovered romance, like I never knew.
Then morning brought the rain,
And now my dream is through
But still my heart says "I love you."
This sad reality, To know it couldn't be,
That's Portugal and love in April!
The music and the wine convinced me you were mine,
But it was just the spring fooling me.
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
When we discovered romance, like I never knew.
Then morning brought the rain,
And now my dream is through
But still my heart says "I love you."
Les Baxter's "April in Portugal" is a love song that encapsulates the beauty and heartbreak of a fleeting spring romance in the picturesque country of Portugal. The song expresses a hopeful yearning mixed with a certain melancholy and nostalgia, taking the listener on a journey through the ups and downs of an intense but ultimately short-lived love affair.
The lyrics narrate the singer's discovery of love as he wanders through the magical streets of Portugal in April. He finds his "April dream" in his lover, with whom he experiences the kind of romance he never knew before. He gets lost in his emotions, with his head in the clouds and his heart going crazy. But too soon, his lover tells him that the romance is just for a day, and the rains that come following the showers make him realize that his spring love affair was nothing more than a fleeting illusion.
The song manages to capture both the magic and the heartbreak of a whirlwind romance, setting it against the backdrop of a stunning, dreamlike country. It's a poignant reminder that, even in the midst of an idyllic relationship or a picture-perfect environment, things can change in a heartbeat.
Line by Line Meaning
I found my April dream in Portugal with you
I discovered a beautiful, romantic experience with you in Portugal during the month of April.
When we discovered romance, like we never knew.
We found a new level of love and passion that we had never experienced before.
My head was in the clouds, My heart went crazy too,
I was so swept up in the moment that my emotions and thoughts were consumed by the romance we were experiencing.
And madly I said: "I love you."
I couldn't contain my feelings and expressed my love for you in a passionate and intense way.
Too soon I heard you say: "This dream is for a day"
Unfortunately, you told me that this romantic experience we were having would not last forever and was just temporary.
That's Portugal and love in April!
This kind of fleeting, temporary romance is common in Portugal during the month of April.
And when the showers fell, Those tears I know so well, They told me it was spring fooling me.
When it started to rain and I started to cry, I realized that the romance we were experiencing was just an illusion created by the excitement of springtime.
Then morning brought the rain, And now my dream is through
The next morning, it was still raining and our romantic experience was over.
But still my heart says "I love you."
Although the romance is over, my feelings for you have not changed and I still love you.
This sad reality, To know it couldn't be, That's Portugal and love in April!
It's a heartbreaking reality to know that our romance was not real and would not last, but this is a common experience in Portugal during April.
The music and the wine convinced me you were mine, But it was just the spring fooling me.
The combination of the music and wine made me feel like you were mine, but really it was just the excitement of spring causing us to feel that way.
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Jimmy Kennedy, Raul Ferrao
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
1949waldo
Wonderful!! Takes me back so many years !
Gustavo
Essa música não me faz lembrar apenas da tradicional Portugal de doces e vinhos, mas dos adoráveis anos 50 e toda nostalgia causada por época tão contraditória!
Dejael Long
Love this tune! Wonderful Les Baxter music!
David Todora
Awesome 🤩
James Bisset
Takes me back 70 years. Happy times, the fifties.
Jeannette Baker
Breathtaking 👍
Eric Seal
Light and refreshing!!
Manfreda
🥰🥰🥰
Pornsak Pongthong
This reminds me of March in Portugal
Nicolás
so glad!