Johnny Desmond

This 1955 LP, responding to a request by Will Friedwald, finds Johnny Desmond in mid-career, looking for a hit to bolster his career. He had already sung with Bob Crosby and Gene Krupa before the war, notably with Glenn Miller's AEF band during the war, and solo for RCA and M-G-M before joining Coral in 1953.

This 10" album brings together several singles of greater or lesser success for Desmond. Perhaps the most successful was his version of "The High and the Mighty," which short-circuits the eerie whistling in favor of Johnny's vocal, which had nothing to do with the film. Two other film tunes are on board as well - "Tara's Theme" and the "Song from Desiree." The entire second side is collected from an 1954 EP of film tunes.

The title song did have some chart action, and was listed by Billboard as the 48th most popular record of 1955 (right above Chuck Berry's "Maybelline"). Johnny introduced this song on a TV show - the LP cover photo is taken from that program. The ad below comes from that period. It also features a bigger hit - the McGuire Sisters' cover version of the Moonglows' "Sincerely," another indication of the changing tastes of the time.

It would be a stretch to call "Play Me Hearts and Flowers" a great song, then again, the lack of great material doesn't bother me in the least. I am as much an admirer of the canonical American songbook as any vocal collector, but please, how many times can the canon fire off the same shells? If I never hear "Yesterdays" or "I Get a Kick Out of You" again, I won't be sad. I do like to hear lesser-known songs and sometimes they are well worth getting to know. Too bad this isn't one of those times. Perhaps the weakest song here is "A Woman's Loveliest When She Is Loved." The lyrics to this condescending anthem were written by Sylvia Dee, best known for "Too Young" and worst known for "Chickery Chick." There is some groove damage on this item, perhaps intentional. (Note (December 2023): most of the noise has now been removed.)

Johnny does sound good, as always. By this time he had modified the vocal approach that got him called the Creamer and the GI Sinatra (by his publicist, anyway) in favor of a more robust attack similar to Tony Martin. I like the earlier Johnny better, but it's a matter of taste. Desmond went on to record some excellent LPs, for Columbia in particular.

Note (December 2023): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

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