The Brief Success Story of Adler and Ross

Richard Adler and Jerry Ross should have been one of the greatest Broadway success stories – and for a brief time, they were. The composer and lyricist, respectively, of two of the biggest musical hits of the 1950s – The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees – their rapid ascent was stopped only by the early death of Ross, at age 29 in November 1955, just six months after Damn Yankees opened.

Adler and Ross teamed up in 1950. Until The Pajama Game debuted, there was little in the duo’s output to suggest the range and skill displayed in that score. They did enjoy one big hit, Tony Bennett’s version of “Rags to Riches” in 1953, and they put together a good partial score for John Murray Anderson’s Almanac late that same year. Less distinguished was the work they did for the hyperactive R&B troupe, the Treniers, with their contribution of “Poon-Tang!”, a title derived from a vulgar American term referring to women as sex objects. (I should add that said title is the only racy thing about the song.)

(From left) Richard Adler and Jerry Ross demo their songs for director George Abbott (I believe) and Columbia Records honcho Mitch Miller

So when The Pajama Game opened in May 1954, it was a revelation. Every song was superb on its own and in context, and the music was complemented by an excellent book from co-director George Abbott and novelist Richard Bissell, a tremendous cast including John Raitt, Janis Paige, Reta Shaw, Eddie Foy Jr., and Carol Haney, direction from Abbott and Jerome Robbins, and choreography by Bob Fosse. The cast, with the wonderful Doris Day replacing Paige, repeated their performances for the 1957 film version.

Damn Yankees was hardly less successful, once again with a strikingly fine, if not as varied a score. I am less fond of this show, perhaps because the film is not as successful, with Tab Hunter (!) replacing Stephen Douglass as Joe Hardy, who makes a deal with the devil to become a baseball star and lead the Washington Senators to victory over the hated New York Yankees.

In the 1950s, songs from Broadway shows were still a major contributor to the repertoire of pop singers. The publishers would cajole the record companies into having their artists record songs from the upcoming shows as part of the pre-opening promotional push. These would first be issued as singles, then may have been repackaged as a compilation EP or LP, often in the low-price bracket.

Today’s offering is an example. It combined some of the hits from The Pajama Game and Damn Yankees as a tribute to Adler and Ross, and was issued in Epic’s budget-priced 10-inch LP series just before Ross’ untimely death. The record company was then a relatively new offshoot of Columbia Records. The artists, the Mello-Larks and Jamie, Dolores Hawkins and Neal Hefti, were on its roster at the time.

The Mello-Larks: Bob Wollter, Joe Eich, Jamie Dina, Tommy Hamm

The Mello-Larks started off with the Tex Beneke band in the post-war period, making a number of singles at the time. The original female singer in the group was Ginny O’Connor (who was to marry Henry Mancini). By the time these sides were made, the lead singer was young Jamie Dina, who was so accomplished and such an attraction her name was appended to the group’s own. Dina was married to group founder Tommy Hamm for a brief time, leaving him and the group for another musician, Joe Silvia. Together they founded the J’s with Jamie, who have themselves appeared on this blog.

The Mello-Larks were often on television and are quite polished in an entirely conventional manner. For some reason, arranger Neal Hefti takes a very square approach to “Once-a-Year Day,” treating it like a polka rather than the exuberant romp conveyed by the lyrics. The prominent trombone choir isn’t a help. “Whatever Lola Wants,” a vocal feature for Jamie, is much better.

The other featured singer is Dolores Hawkins, a very good vocalist who is particularly effective on “Hey There,” although she does not radiate the charisma of John Raitt (or Sammy Davis, Jr., for that matter).

For “Small Talk,” one of the best Adler-Ross songs, Hawkins is joined by contract artist Bill Heyer, a sonorous baritone reminiscent of Bob Manning.

Composer Adler never recaptured the magic of his collaboration with Jerry Ross, although Doris Day had a hit with his “Everybody Loves a Lover,” and his scores to Kwamina (for Broadway), and The Gift of the Magi and Olympus 7-0000 (for television) were released on LP.

The sound on the LP at hand is vivid. Backing Dolores Hawkins on her songs is Artie Harris. Don Costa leads the band for “Whatever Lola Wants.”

A note about the way that record companies would repackage material: Epic issued six-cut LPs by the Mello-Larks and Jamie and by Dolores Hawkins, both of which include two of the songs here. The record company also had an EP of hits from The Pajama Game with all three Hawkins tunes on this LP along with the Four Esquires’ version of “Steam Heat.”

Note (October 2024): This LP has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK