Here's another of the ageless pop music veterans who, like Herb Jeffries, is still with us. He is 95-year-old Tony Martin, whose career goes back far enough for him to have appeared in an Astaire-Rogers movie.
Tony's hit records and movie appearances began in the 1930s, and his vocal style, although a little dated sounding even in these late 1940s recordings, was a precursor of the romantic balladeers who were ascendant in the post-war years.
This album also allows us to revisit the work of my cover art "discovery," Fred Steffen, who did a number of odd and outrageous covers for Mercury Records way back when. This one, possibly inspired by Cot's The Storm (I know my kitsch), is tame by Steffen standards. It might even be considered attractive, if not for the obtrusive cartouche.
These are very fine records of their type, and well recorded for the time. They are wildly out of style, but I love 'em anyway.
Wow... For such a long time I wandered through much of the blogosphere hoping to find something, just something solo from Tony Martin.
ReplyDeleteThanks to you and your great taste, finally one great album. Thanks dear friend! Keep up the relentless generosity you are appreciated!
It took me long enough to get to this one!
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Does anybody know the songwriting credits for "Without You." There are a slew of more recent songs with the same or similar titles. I gather from Martin's English-accented Spanish that it is a Latin-American (Mexican, perhaps?) song translated into English but more than that I can't find.
It's a great melody, that's for sure.
Charlot - I checked the LP cover and label, but unfortunately they do not have the songwriting credits.
DeleteNew link:
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/file/DVEGDIoS#uF381oS5nHV_SPhaGZv29QmDS4whOqEOZDDtYNwgTCI
"Without You" is from the Walt Disney film "Make Mine Music" (1945)and was composed by Osvaldo Farres with English lyrics by Ray Gilbert
ReplyDeleteNigel
Thanks, Nigel!
DeleteI thank you, very tardily, for this information. According to the Wikipedia article on Osvaldo Farrés:
DeleteAlthough unable to read or write music, he became a prolific and world-renowned composer. His songs include "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás", "Acercate Mas", "Tres Palabras", "Toda Una Vida" and his own favorite "Madrecita" written in honor of his mother and sung to this day in Latin America on Mother's Day.
So a sort of Cuban Irving Berlin.
Thanks for the additional info, Charlot. I know "Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" under the English title, "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps."
DeleteThank You!
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