Music Out of the Moon

Music

The music was a mixture of late 1940’s lounge jazz and film music underpinned by Hoffman’s otherworldly theremin playing. According to the liner notes: "Harry Revel created the basic "idea" and themes while Leslie Baxter, conductor and arranger, has given them appropriately unique tone color, using mass harmonies of human voices as well as unusual instrumental effects with woodwinds, strings and bass; some without rhythm, others with a dominant, demanding beat."

Cover

Music Out of the Moon was noteworthy for being one of the first albums to feature a full color cover – a risqué photograph by Paul Garrison of partially clothed actress Virginia Clark of the Earl Carroll Theatre, Hollywood, sprawled across a bed – which made it stand out in an era of monochrome album packaging.

Reissues

Music Out of the Moon was reissued by Capitol in 1950 on one 10-inch, 33⅓ rpm disc (Capitol H-2000).

In 1954, Music Out of the Moon was combined with Music for Peace of Mind -- a six-song 1950 collaboration between Baxter, Revel and Hoffman -- on one 12-inch, 33⅓ rpm disc (Capitol T390).

In 1999, Basta reissued Music Out of the Moon on a CD called Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman and the Theremin, which also included Perfume Set to Music (1948) and Music for Peace of Mind (1950). In 2004, Rev-Ola issued the same three albums on a CD called Waves in the Ether: The Magical World of the Theremin.

Played in space by Neil Armstrong

The Hollywood producer Mickey Kapp compiled a cassette tape of tracks from the album for astronaut Neil Armstrong, who brought the tape on the Apollo 11 moonfight in 1969. He played it from the spacecraft during the flight back from the moon when it was about 275,000 kilometres from earth, and explained to Mission Control, "That's an old favourite of mine, about – It's an album made about 20 years ago, called Music Out of the Moon." (NASA audio recording)