Artists of the Airways on Vinyl
March 2010 – July 2010
During the 1950s, new technologies changed the way people traveled and spent their leisure time. Larger, faster, and pressurized commercial aircraft were increasing public air travel at unprecedented rates and opening up international tourism to a large segment of the population. At the same time, the introduction of the long-play, 33 1/3 rpm vinyl record was revolutionizing the dissemination and quality of recorded music. Airlines soon began using this new musical recording medium to promote interest in the destinations now offered.
In 1956, Columbia Records produced European Holiday for SAS Scandinavian Airlines System to promote the airline's trans-polar route from Copenhagen to Los Angeles on its new Douglas DC-6B fleet. Conducted by Mitch Miller with vocalists Jerry Vale and Jill Corey, the record was distributed with tourist information packets and featured whimsical songs about various European countries.
Other airlines were soon offering similar promotional records as popular entertainers began releasing songs based on themes of chic international air-travel on the modern airliners of the day. Frank Sinatra's Come Fly With Me (1958, at right) featured cover art of a sleek TWA (Trans World Airlines) Lockheed Model 1049G Super Constellation on the runway. In the title song, the singer encouraged listeners to fly with him to Bombay, Peru, Acapulco Bay, and other exotic lands.
Over the next three decades as the jet age took hold, artists and airlines continued to celebrate and promote air travel, good will, and cultural exchange through record production. This collection of vinyl records and colorful cover art presents a legacy of music shared by the airlines and the recording industry before the digital age of the compact disc (CD) and MP3 technology.