After the war he became a solo act, and quickly lined up a record contract with RCA Victor. That label marketed about a dozen Desmond sides in 1946-47, then the singer went looking for a new company. His manager announced that he was going with Majestic late in 1947 - just in time for that small imprint to implode.
 |
| Johnny Desmond |
So Desmond moved on to the nascent M-G-M operation in 1948, beginning one of his more notable associations with a record label, recording some 50 numbers with that concern into 1951.
For some reason, M-G-M saw Johnny as a specialist in French repertoire, and a significant minority of the songs he taped were from or about France. A 1952 10-inch LP gathered eight of these items, and there were enough left over that in 1958 the label could issue a 12-inch version on its budget imprint, Lion.
I have both editions, and this post consists first of the songs on the 10-incher, followed by the extra songs added to the Lion LP, "Johnny Desmond Dreams of Paris." The earlier album has marginally better sound, but there isn't much in it.
To complete the package, I have added Desmond's first M-G-M single, "P.S., I Love You," as well as the attractive ballad "If You Could Care," from 1951. Both are from 78 sources (sonics on the former are not ideal, although listenable).
Desmond worked extensively with guitarist-arranger Tony Mottola, who is in charge of the proceedings on most of not all these songs. Johnny was a romantic balladeer in the Sinatra mold (although he did not sound like The Voice), and Mottola appropriately evokes Sinatra arranger Axel Stordahl in his fine orchestrations.
At this time, Desmond was much better with the dreamy stuff than with up-tempo or novelty scores. Fortunately most of these recordings are of the softer variety, with the exception of "C'est Si Bon" and its follow-up "C'est La Vie," in which Desmond, Mottola and a group called the Quintones try to sound fizzy and end up sounding flat.
 |
| 12-inch LP on Lion |
I have both editions, and this post consists first of the songs on the 10-incher, followed by the extra songs added to the Lion LP, "Johnny Desmond Dreams of Paris." The earlier album has marginally better sound, but there isn't much in it.
Desmond worked extensively with guitarist-arranger Tony Mottola, who is in charge of the proceedings on most of not all these songs. Johnny was a romantic balladeer in the Sinatra mold (although he did not sound like The Voice), and Mottola appropriately evokes Sinatra arranger Axel Stordahl in his fine orchestrations.
At this time, Desmond was much better with the dreamy stuff than with up-tempo or novelty scores. Fortunately most of these recordings are of the softer variety, with the exception of "C'est Si Bon" and its follow-up "C'est La Vie," in which Desmond, Mottola and a group called the Quintones try to sound fizzy and end up sounding flat.
10 comments:
Thanks a lot Buster. As usual a great post.
A wonderful share Buster, and I love French songs!
What can I say? Other than " But of course, sees eeez a Buster essay, C'est Si Bon! Merci. I see Johnny Desmond records from time to time but I haven't seen this one.
Darlings, je vous aime beaucoup!
I love it, thank you
A favorite of mine. Many thanks, Buster!
As of today, I've only heard his name, but never heard the work of the artist. Thank you for enabling 'us' to hear Johnny Desmond for ourselves, Buster!
thank you, Buster
Thak you, Buster!!!
Thank YOU!
Post a Comment