Atlantic sent me material they were recording of their other artists, and that's how I got a certain Chris Connor release. She had an album which I remember putting on the box while I was still living in Dallas. I was particularly struck by the strings… I asked [friends at Atlantic records]: Who wrote the strings for the Chris Connor record? Ralph Burns, they said. Ralph Burns! … [H]e was the man I wanted to write my string arrangements… Those first string sessions [in 1959] were little trouble and great pleasure. I sang the ballads as I had planned, and I loved working with a big band. << less