Mood Music

Combining rich melodic strings with a big band in the 19405, Paul Weston '33 invented a new sound that was to stimulate countless romances around the world. "Mood music," it was called, and Weston was universally declared the master.

As a composer, arranger, and music director, Weston worked with the stars of his generation: Rudy Vallee, Tommy Dorsey, Dinah Shore, Johnny Mercer, Doris Day. He arranged the music for the movie "Holiday Inn," starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. On his own, Weston wrote such hit songs as "Day by Day," "I Should Care," "Hey Mr. Postman," and "When April Comes Again."

The National Academy of Recording Arts showed what it thought of Weston's achievements in 1971, when Weston joined Thomas Edison, Leopold Stokowski, the Beatles, and Frank Sinatra in receiving the Academy's Trustee Award.

Weston brought his strings-backed melodies to wife Jo Stafford (right) and to the "Holiday Inn" (below).