The Hollyridge Strings served as an umbrella designation for a rotating cast of session players who cut a run of easy listening instrumental LPs for Capitol Records during the height of the British Invasion. Veteran music-industry figure Stu Phillips conceived and oversaw the entire endeavor; the composer-producer had earlier fronted his own string of Capitol easy listening releases, among them Organ and Strings in Stereo, prior to departing the company in 1960 for the A&R helm at Colpix Records, where he oversaw chart successes such as the Marcels’ “Blue Moon,” Shelley Fabares’ “Johnny Angel,” Paul Petersen’s “My Dad,” and James Darren’s “Goodbye, Cruel World.” Phillips rejoined Capitol in 1964, and his ease with rock material positioned him to exploit Beatlemania via an album aimed at adult listeners; the debut Hollyridge Strings outing, The Beatles Song Book, reached the Top Ten and prompted parallel, saccharine treatments of material by Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, the Four Seasons, and Simon & Garfunkel. At one juncture three distinct Hollyridge Strings albums sat inside the Billboard Top 20 simultaneously, prompting rival labels to launch their own imitations—Vee-Jay with the Castaway Strings, Liberty with the Sunset Strings, and MGM with the Fantabulous Strings. While back at Capitol, Phillips also released his own Feels Like Lovin’, a modest ’60s soft-pop landmark that grafted vocals onto the trademark Hollyridge Strings sound.
