IRVING FIELDS

Biography

Irving Fields (born August 4, 1915) is an American pianist and lounge music artist who was born in New York City, New York. Some of his most noteworthy compositions include “Miami Beach Rhumba”, “Managua, Nicaragua” and “Chantez, Chantez,” covered by Dinah Shore in 1957.

Fields’ most famous album is Bagels & Bongos, recorded for Decca Records in 1959 with his trio, which sold two million copies. The next year he released the sequel More Bagels & Bongos, which was reissued on CD in 2009 by Roman Midnight Music under the direct creative advisement of 94-year old Fields, the only reissue commissioned directly by Irving. Fields claims to have recorded nearly 100 albums featuring trios, quartets, orchestras and solo.

His most known work is the 1960s output that directly followed Bagels & Bongos and fused international music with Latin, including: Bikinis and Bongos, featuring Hawaiian music, Pizza and Bongos featuring Italian music and Champagne and Bongos featuring French music. He also did an album of songs done in a Twist style called Twistin!. Irving’s sister was Peppy Fields, often called the Sophie Tucker of Miami, who hosted celebrity radio and TV shows for 35 years.

Irving Fields wrote, upon a fan’s request, a YouTube theme song. The song, “YouTube Dot Com Theme Song”, which he wrote within fifteen minutes, has subsequently received over 800,000 views and was released on iTunes.

In July 2012 Roman Midnight Music, a Manhattan indie book publisher/music label owned by music critic and author Aaron Joy published ‘The Pianos I Have Known: The Autobiography Of Irving Fields.’ It was created via conversations between 94 year old Irving with Tony Sachs, who writes regularly for the Huffington Post.
Irving Fields currently plays six nights a week at Nino’s Tuscany, an Italian restaurant in New York City.