Here is a superb piece of audio that showcases what might be the very best performance of John and Ralph’s lovely ballad “Paula’s Theme” from the soundtrack of the film Viva Max!

This two-minute track features a winsome performance and superb little embellishments by the great Al Hirt on trumpet heard here on his home turf, and what’s more, the man at the piano is none other than Ellis Marsalis, father of the great jazz musicians Wynton and Branford.

Enjoy a listen to one of the high points of Dino and Sembello’s 1969 foray into motion picture scoring. We are lucky that this worldwide web has snared this performance from April 25th, 1970 in New Orleans for us, and thanks very much to pastemagazine.com for making it available on their site. More to come from Dino and Sembello.

Paula’s Theme performed live