The Popular Ezio Pinza

There was a time when Ezio Pinza was possibly the most famous opera singer in the world, but it was after he quit singing on the opera stage.

After Pinza retired from the Met in 1947, he almost immediately was cast as Emile de Becque, one of the leads in the new Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, South Pacific. The play was a huge hit, Pinza won a Tony Award for best actor in a musical, and Columbia's original cast album sold in large numbers, not the least because of Pinza's sonorous bass voice and his passionate rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening."

Hollywood soon came calling. Pinza had already appeared in the 1947 classical farrago Carnegie Hall, but now he was to become a leading man. The first film to be released was Strictly Dishonorable, based on a Preston Sturges play. Pinza plays to type as an amorous opera star, and Janet Leigh as a music student who is smitten with him.

Pinza in Faust

There is no soundtrack album from Strictly Dishonorable, but this RCA Victor 10-inch LP from 1951 includes an aria from Gounod's Faust that Pinza sings in the film, although this is not the same version. Otherwise, the LP is split down the middle between Pinza's operatic repertoire and pop songs. He is in fine voice for all, but is more comfortable with the operatic material. His phrasing in the pop songs is foursquare, and he sounds under rehearsed. Only in "The Way You Look Tonight" does he go below the surface, and in that he captures some of the ardor that made him so magnetic in South Pacific.

Pinza and Bidu Sayão in The Marriage of Figaro

When Hollywood came to call, so did Madison Avenue and American television. Pinza appeared in a variety of ads at this time, including the 1951 cigarette ad below. He also began appearing on TV that year, and did so almost up until his 1957 death.

Following Strictly Dishonorable, Pinza's movie career continued with Mr. Imperium, also in 1951, and Tonight We Sing! in 1953. This blog has previously presented the Tonight We Sing! soundtrack as well as a Pinza recital, both of which can be found here. And we have the Mr. Imperium LP coming up soon.

I should add that the sound on the LP at hand is quite good, and so is the quality of the various accompaniments. The classical items are led by Erich Leinsdorf; the others by Norman Leyden and Johnny Green.

Note (May 2024): this album has now been remastered in ambient stereo and has even better sound.

LINK

Ad in Life magazine, 1951

Chicago Symphony Woodwind Quintet

Here's a fairly rare example of classical music from the small Audiophile label of Saukville, Wisconsin.

This is one of four LPs that the Chicago Symphony Woodwind Quintet made for the company in December 1953. Audiophile's founder, Ewing Nunn, recorded relatively few classical recordings - primarily organ music. His main line was revivalist jazz. There is an interesting site about Audiophile here.

The program includes three excellent works by then-living composers:

Ibert: Trois Pieces Breves
Milhaud: La Cheminée dur Roi René
Hindemith: Quintet for Wind Instruments 

The quintet members were:

Wilbur Simpson, bassoon (in CSO from 1946-91)
Philip Farkas, horn (CSO 1936-41, 1947-60)
Jerome Stowell, clarinet (CSO 1936-73)
Robert Mayer, oboe (CSO 1931-56)
Ralph Johnson, flute (CSO flute, 1934-72; librarian, 1973-83)

The record was in excellent condition, and the sound is quite vivid.

Abe Burrows Sings?

The pop-eyed fellow on the cover appears astonished at the thought of Abe Burrows as a vocalist. "Abe Burrows Sings?" he asks.

The younger members of the audience may be asking a different question - who is Abe Burrows?

Not that well remembered today (except for those of us of a certain age), Burrows was one of the best-known Broadway craftsmen for many years, as writer, director and famously as "script doctor." He wrote or co-wrote the books of Guys and Dolls, Three Wishes for Jamie, Can-Can, Silk Stockings, Say Darling, First Impressions, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Forty Carats and Cactus Flower, and directed nearly as many famous shows.

Burrows in 1951

This 10-inch record predates all that. It came out in 1950, when Burrows had his own television show (thus the TV tube on the cover), right before Guys and Dolls opened on Broadway, which was in November of that year. The liner notes make no mention of the theatre, instead discussing his popularity at Hollywood parties, and his stint as radio writer and performer.

This was actually Burrows' second album, the first having come out on Decca in 1947, when he was on radio. His stock-in-trade was of pop music parody, and on the Columbia LP he works over cowboy songs, ballads, gypsy melodies, college songs, and sea chanteys. The record also includes a mock travelogue - a trip to Boulder Dam with side trip to Hollywood.

The humor here is verbal - Milton DeLugg's music is played almost completely straight.The liner notes say the effect is "sharply satiric, cheerfully melodic and immensely funny." Well - "clever and amusing" might be more accurate. Burrows went on to better things.

This was transferred at the request of Will Friedwald. The download includes four Burrows radio shows from 1947, through the courtesy of Internet Archive.

'Torrid Tunes' from April Stevens and Margaret Phelan

This late-50s reissue on the Audio Lab label brings together King singles from two singers whose specialty was sexual suggestion.

The more well known is April Stevens, who had a few big pop hits with her brother Nino Tempo in the mid-60s, notably "Deep Purple," with April's breathy recitation of the lyrics among its many attractions.

April had been making records as far back as 1950, for the Laurel and Society labels, the latter of which dubbed her "the girl with the sexy voice." If you believe Wikipedia (and who doesn't), Stevens would have been 14 when she started recording, which seems unlikely considering her repertoire and approach. Census records indicate that she (real name Carol LoTiempo) was actually born in 1929.

Stevens had little success on the charts until moving to RCA Victor in 1951. RCA's Henri René backed her on a version of the Cole Porter tune "I'm In Love Again." With April's steamy vocals and René's throbbing arrangement, it became a hit. She went on to make 12 sides for RCA in 1951-52, but none of the others repeated the success of "I'm in Love Again." In addition to the Audio Lab LP, this post includes the hit along with a coupling of "I Like to Talk to Myself" and "That Naughty Waltz" (which is a waltz, but is in no way naughty). In the former song, April's approach is distinctly reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe. As far as I can tell, though, the latter siren did not begin singing until the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, so I wonder just how much April influenced Monroe's style.

April Stevens: one hot tamale

After RCA, Stevens went to King records in 1953 for six songs, which are collected on the Audio Lab reisssue. Some of these are similar to the RCA recordings, although not nearly as well produced. She also ventures into double entendre with such items as "Hot Tamale," in which she offers her one hot tamale for a peso, to the noisy appreciation of the band.

April was next heard from in 1959, when she again hit the charts, this time for Imperial records, with a version of "Teach Me Tiger." I suspect the success of that song led to this Audio Lab release.

From a 1949 brassiere ad

King filled out the Audio Lab LP with four 1951 songs from cabaret artist Margaret Phelan. (King calls her "Marge Phelan" on the cover, although she never went by that name, as far as I can tell.) Phelan was a singer and actress who by the late 1940s was appearing in some of the top hotels - Waldorf-Astoria, St. Regis, Palmer House. In her act, she would start off with semi-classics and pop tunes, establishing a ladylike demeanor, then move into mildly risque material, which was unusual for the time. According to her reviews, the contract of her good looks and classy appearance with questionable material went over very well with the audiences.

These 1951 King recordings give us a clue to her repertoire. First, she tells us "I Want a Man" who "won't believe me when I tell him no-no." You can probably figure out the intent behind "Don't Try to Take It with You When You Go."

In 1952, Phelan complained that Pearl Bailey was stealing her repertoire. Hard to know if that is true or not, but the composer who did two of the numbers here (Evelyne Love Cooper) later wrote songs with Bailey's husband, Louis Bellson. While Bailey was a much more distinctive singer and personality that Phelan, it's possible that the influence was there. Phelan got married and apparently retired in 1953.