Night Out Music for Stay-At-Homes

I transferred this circa 1956 LP for the Matt Dennis songs it contains, but I thought some of you might enjoy the complete contents, which feature a number of other pianists.

First, about the three Dennis songs. "Black Lace" and "Just a Girl That Men Forget" were coupled on a Coral single in 1950 or 51. As far as I can tell, "The Lonesomest Whistle" is otherwise unissued. I believe these were the only recordings the singer-pianist made for Coral.

I don't have access to my Dennis LPs at the moment, but I think he may have recorded "Just a Girl That Men Forget" for another label. Seems hardly worth recording once.

The LP starts off with two songs that Nat Cole recorded for Decca very early in his career, with guitarist Oscar Moore and bassist Wesley Prince. "Sweet Lorraine" - a classic - comes from December 1940, and "Slow Down" is from March 1941. The latter was written by singer-songwriter-publisher Redd Evans, a friend of Cole's. (Evans has appeared as singer on my other blog.) This transfer seemed to be about a half-step flat, so I've adjusted it accordingly.

The three sides by Erroll Garner are among the four he recorded for Signature in March 1945. I am not an admirer of Garner's pianism, so have little to say about these records, except that "Loot to Boot" appears to be based on "Nola" - at least Garner quotes the earlier tune.

Pianist Billy Taylor also makes an appearance with two standards: "My Heart Stood Still" is from January 1950; "Darn That Dream" could be from the same session. They first came out on a Coral single, and are pleasant.

Finally, there is pianist, later composer and sometime singer Cy Coleman, a favorite of mine. He recorded these two songs circa 1950, when he was just 21. The transfers of "Sabia" and "Caprice" seemed to be very sharp, so I have taken them down a full step.

The more records I work on, the more I realize that record companies often mucked with the speed of their transfers, for whatever reason. I have compensated for this phenomenon on many occasions, and have been taken to task (sometimes rudely) by commenters for missing other off-speed recordings. My collection contains one recording so out of kilter that I can't even produce an acceptable transfer. So this LP is by no means an anomaly for the period.

The recorded sound is variable, and my pressing had a few issues, hopefully not too distracting.

The cover is characteristic of the time, when the proportion of men smoking pipes and women in negligees was far higher on record covers than it was anywhere else, other than Hugh Hefner's publications.