Les Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American musician and… Read Full Bio ↴Les Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was an American musician and composer.

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.

Little White Lies
Les Baxter and His Orchestra Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

The moon was all aglow
But heaven was in your eyes
The night that you told me
Those little white lies

The stars all seemed to know
You didn't mean all those sighs
The night that you told me

Those little white lies

I try, but there's no forgetting
When evenin' appears
I sigh but there's no regretting
In spite of my tears

Who wouldn't believe those lips
Who wouldn't believe those eyes
The night that you told me
Those little white lies

I try, but there's no forgetting
When evenin' appears
I sigh but there's no regretting
In spite of my tears

The Devil was in your heart
But Heaven was in your eyes
The night that you told me
Those little white lies

Those lies
Teeny-weeny little white lies

Overall Meaning

The song "Little White Lies" by Les Baxter and His Orchestra tells the story of a person who is deceived by their lover's lies. The song begins with the setting of a beautiful moon and stars, but the singer's attention is focused on their lover's eyes, which hold heaven. The singer talks about the night when their lover told them "little white lies" and how the stars seemed to know their lover did not mean everything they said. The singer tries to forget what happened but finds they cannot, and despite their tears, they do not regret what happened.

The chorus of the song reveals that the singer was drawn in by their lover's lips and eyes, and the lies that were told that night. The final stanza of the song reveals that the singer knows their lover had a devilish side, but their eyes held heaven that night. Overall, the song is an exploration of the tension between the desire to forget and the inability to regret.

Line by Line Meaning

The moon was all aglow
The night was bright and beautiful

But heaven was in your eyes
You looked stunning and angelic

The night that you told me
The moment you shared something with me

Those little white lies
You lied to me about something insignificant

The stars all seemed to know
The universe knew you were lying

You didn't mean all those sighs
You were faking your emotions

I try, but there's no forgetting
I attempt to forget, but it's impossible

When evenin' appears
As the night sets in

I sigh but there's no regretting
I express sadness but don't truly regret

In spite of my tears
Despite my crying

Who wouldn't believe those lips
Everyone would believe the words you say