In The 1970s Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Nope I am not getting mixed up with the classical charts. We are still talking about the pop charts, and in particular the charts from March 1972 when classic met pop.

The Austrian orchestra has members that are hand-picked and undergo a thorough and lengthy trial to even get into the Orchestra. So for that very reason it is one of the best Orchestras in the whole world. It tracks back to around 1842.

So the most popular orchestra in the world was in the charts why? Well it was down to a huge TV series of the time called The Onedin Line set in the mid-1800s. The show use a piece of music called Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from the ballet Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian. Such a mouthful was cut down to the theme from the Onedin Line when it was released.

See the video here.

The music was stirring, and went well with the film of a clipper on the sea at full mast. The show lasted from 1972 to 1980. The main actors were Anne Stallybrass and Peter Gilmore (died 2012). Anne and Peter were married in real life too. It seemed to be the last chart entry for the Austrian Orchestra.