The Alley Cat Song

Details

Description

Alley Cat", also known as "Alleycat" and "The Alley Cat," is a popular instrumental song made most famous by the Danish pianist and composer Bent Fabric, released in 1962. Fabric (born Bent Fabricius-Bjerre) wrote the tune under the pseudonym Frank Björn.

The song was originally released in November, 1961, under the Danish title "Omkring et flygel," which means "Around a Piano." In 1962, the Bent Fabric composition reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number two on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.[3] In Australia, it went to number two and in Germany it went to number 49. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Rock & Roll Recording during the 5th Grammy Awards. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. Siw Malmkvist recorded the song in Swedish, "Våran katt", in Danish, "Vores kat" and in German, "Schwarzer Kater Stanislaus" (1962).

About the Recording

This recording was made on a single track, not a series of tracks recording over each other. The up to 9 individual instruments sounding in the song at one time are all controlled live while playing – not in the sound studio using DAW software.

About the Accordion

The Concerto Digital/Acoustical Accordion is what many consider to be the “Stratovarius” of modern accordions. It is a leader in sound quality, both acoustically and digitally.

This particular model is the DA300 with hand-made reeds (LMMM) and two tone chambers. The electronics give it the ability to choose from over 380 different sounds and save them to an unlimited number of registers. In addition to the reeds, eight other instruments can be played simultaneously (4 on the keyboard side, and 4 on the bass button side).

The mix of instruments can be controlled using the bellow, keyboard touch sensibility, or an expression pedal to properly emulate each of the instruments relative volume to each other. Instruments can also be phased in and out of a solo position.

It is unique amongst electronic instruments in many ways. One particularly useful difference is that when a register is changed, that change does not take effect until another note is played (and does not affect any notes held). So, for example, you could hold a note, and play a counter melody under it with a completely different set of instruments, and then switch back to the original registers of eight instrument.

There are many other features too numerous to list here – but I am always willing to answer any questions.