On July 20, 1969, the world was watching the CBS News broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing. As Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface for the first time, the music millions of viewers heard was an otherworldly, futuristic soundtrack by Mort Garson.
Without Garson, “electronic music as we know it today would not exist,” said Caleb Braaten of Sacred Bones Records, a Brooklyn, New York, label that specializes in lost and obscure recordings.
Garson wrote popular songs, including Our Day Will Come, a hit for Ruby and the Romantics, among other artists. He was an arranger on recordings by Doris Day, Glen Campbell, Mel Tormé and for The Sandpipers’ 1966 hit, Guantanamera.
He also
