Larry Page is most known as a manager or co-manager of notable '60s British rock bands, foremost among them the Kinks and the Troggs. His activities in that capacity are described in the main entry on Larry Page. However, Page also oversaw the Larry Page Orchestra, a vehicle for bringing in some more revenue and royalties via easy listening instrumental covers of contemporary rock and pop hits, as well as some originals. Page had done some singles as a singer in the late '50s, had a 12-piece orchestra called Larry Page and His Music in his late teens, and had played viola and violin in his school orchestra. His role in the Larry Page Orchestra, however, was more a symbolic and titular one, with the actual music left in the hands of arrangers and session musicians. The first Larry Page Orchestra release was Kinky Music, a 1965 album consisting wholly of instrumental orchestral covers of Kinks songs, done largely to attract cover versions by musicians that were more mainstream than the Kinks themselves were. Although of little consequence musically, it became a collectable release, both because of the Kinks connection and because of the presence of session musicians Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, years before their Led Zeppelin days. In addition to some subsequent singles, the Larry Page Orchestra also issued five albums between 1967-1970. These were average incidental mood music with a lounge-jazz-easy listening air, concentrating largely on covers of hits of the day, from "Light My Fire" and "House of the Rising Sun" to "Take Five" and "Everyone's Gone to the Moon." However, there was also room for some original material, some written by the arrangers, some co-written by Page himself. Selections from those five albums now comprise the RPM CD compilation Lounge With Larry. The Larry Page Orchestra continued to release records through the '80s, but it's the '60s releases that attract whatever interest exists from collectors. ~ Richie Unterberger