Tony Hatch & His Orchestra - Beautiful in the Rain

All Music Guide

Beautiful in the Rain was the third in the series of Hatch's easy listening instrumental albums, which were sometimes billed to the Tony Hatch Sound, as this LP was. Hatch did write some of the tracks, but the majority were given over to interpretations of MOR pop and standards along the lines of "Fiddler on the Roof," "Music to Watch Girls By," and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "How Insensitive." If you're looking for period marginally hip instrumental easy listening music, that's what it delivers. There are enough Latininfluenced horns, booming orchestration, touches of jazzy organ, and arrangements suggestive of swinging adult apartment parties to appeal to a slightly more withit set than Muzak listeners. It's corny and silly, however, and even if this does acquire a bit of hipster collectability due to its relative obscurity, you can certainly do better if you're trying to find the best sort of this kind of action for your next Austin Powersthemed costume party. It's perhaps most notable ...for leading off with the first recording of the HatchJackie Trent composition "Beautiful in the Rain," which Petula Clark would do a vocal rendition of shortly afterward. That does happen to be the best track as well, with its dramatic continental European melody and stuttering keyboard hook. - Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide Read more Less