Honey in the Horn not only features a smooth and soulful vocal backing to Al Hirt´s mellow trumpet, but is also Big Al´s first album recorded in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is "Hitsville," the town that has given a country sound to pop music and flooded best-seller charts with hits.

But, perhaps better than anything else, an anecdote from one of the recording sessions will convey the feeling of what is in this album.

On one date, Al was scheduled to do I Can´t Get Started, a perennial that most knowledgeable musicians feel should be left alone after Bunny Berigan´s incomparable rendition. Especially wary was Louis Nunley, a member of the vocal chorus and a good trumpet player himself. When behemoth Hirt finished with that fine song, however, Nunley sat down and said, "I´ll never pick up my horn again."

Besides his treatment of I Can´t Get Started, trumpeter Hirt has given another milestone performance with another standard, Fly Me to the Moon. You´ll agree that Al´s version is pure poetry.

Al´s instrumental support on this album consisted of some of Nashville´s most heralded personnel: pianist Floyd Cramer, Boots "Yakety Sax" Randolph, Bob Moore on bass, Grady Martin and Ray Edenton on guitar, and of course, the wonderful Anita Kerr Singers who provided Hirt with the first vocal backing to be used on any of his records. Anita also wrote the arrangements.

Everyone present at the sessions observed that as the album neared completion, there emerged a higher and higher exchange of respect and admiration between Big Al and the crew. This discerning group of musicians was, in short, impressed by Hirt´s talent. And why not? Creation rests on inspiration. And Al´s capacity for inspiration is as oversized as his physical frame.

DYNAGROOVE RECORDINGS ARE MASTERED ON RCA MAGNETIC TAPE.
© 1963, Radio Corporation of America * Printed in U. S. A.

This is DYNAGROOVE

Dynagroove records are the product of RCA Victor´s newly developed system of recording which provides a spectacular improvement in the sound quality.
CHARACTERISTICS:
1. Brilliance and clarity— the original sound in startling definition
2. Realistic presence—sound projected in "photographic" perspective
3. Full-bodied tone—even when you listen at low level
4. Surface noise virtually eliminated!
5. Inner-groove distortion virtually eliminated!

To solve these old and obstinate problems in disc recording, highly ingenious computers — "electronic brains" — have been introduced to audio for the first time. These remarkable new electronic devices and processes grew out of an intense research program which produced notable advances in virtually every step of the recording science.
The final test of any record is in the listening — compare the sound of Dynagroove recordings!

+Recorded in RCA Victor´s Studio A, New York City
Recorded in RCA Victor´s "Nashville Sound" Studio, Nashville, Tennessee.
Recording Engineer: Bob Simpson - New York / Bob Porter - Nashville
Mastering by Jim Malloy