Dinah Shore Sings the Blues

Dinah Shore was not born to sing the blues. A middle-class girl from Tennessee, she became famous on radio, via records and in the movies in her 20s, and spent virtually all of her adult life as a glamorous American television presence.

But sing the blues she did, and very well, even if they were not the "real blues" and she was not a "real blues singer."

Shore's first brush with celebrity was on something called "The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street," an early-40s radio program that traded in Dixieland cliches and commercial blues songs. Dinah recorded some of the songs in this set for the first time while she was on that show, but the present collection dates from much later.

This RCA 10-inch LP came out in 1953, during one of Shore's less successful periods as a recording artist. As was the case with many singers of the time, she was a singles artist who was struggling to find material that would sell. Among her bigger records of the time were "Sweet Violets" (a tame version of the risque song) and "Salomee (With Her Seven Veils)." Not exactly the Great American Songbook.

"Sings the Blues," in contrast, was an attempt to appeal to a different audience. It was at a coherent album of commercial blues and torch songs - not a new or unique premise, but one that was nicely done, with charts by Frank DeVol, and with Dinah in excellent voice. Well-recorded, too.

In the 50s and thereafter, Shore's fame increasingly rested on her considerable charm and her powers of persuasion as a commercial spokeswoman for Chevrolet automobiles, but we shouldn't forget that she was a singer of great talent as well, one who went on to make any number of excellent LPs after the hits dried up.

Check my other blog for a new post of a 1953 EP from Dinah.

Dinah helps to introduce the new Corvette, circa 1953