Early Frankie Laine

Last December I remastered a Columbia Christmas record from the vocal duo of Jo Stafford and Frankie Laine, and enjoyed the experience so much I decided to transfer one of my many Laine LPs. I chose this one not for any musical reason, but because I liked the cover the best – a nice portrait of Frankie emoting, rather than the floating headshots that characterized many sleeves of the time.

This Mercury album collects singles that Laine recorded throughout his 1946-51 stint with Mercury, when he first achieved popularity as a big-voiced belter whose forceful sound contrasted with the enervated tones of the other Frankie or Laine’s label-mate Vic Damone. This muscular approach reached its apex with Laine’s 1949 hit record of “Mule Train” (heee-YAAAAH!), mercifully not included here.

Laine may have seemed fresh in the 40s, but his style was a throwback to the openly emotional singing of Al Jolson, crossed with Frankie’s admiration for the popular blues singers. After starting his recording career with a few sides on Bel-Tone and then Atlas records in 1945, Laine achieved success in his first Mercury session, which produced the big hit “That’s My Desire”. This 10-inch LP includes two of the songs recorded at that August date, “September in the Rain” and “Ain’t That Just Like a Woman” (a cover of Louis Jordan’s number one R&B hit). Trumpeter Mannie Klein leads a combo featuring the excellent tenor sax man Babe Russin.

The balance of the LP’s tunes are from 1950 and 1951, with backing by the Harry Geller orchestra and pianist Carl Fischer, who worked with Laine until the instrumentalist’s 1954 death. Fischer alone directs the band on the rollicking “Metro Polka."

As a bonus, I’ve added my transfer of Laine’s first two records, “In the Wee Small Hours” (not the Sinatra song) and “That’s Liberty,” made for the short-lived Bel-Tone label circa June 1945. My dub is from a reissue on the Gold Seal label, possibly from 1946 when Laine achieved renown with “That’s My Desire.” The download includes details from Gold Seal discographers Robert L. Campbell and Robert Pruter.

Chopin Nocturnes from Maryla Jonas

Here is my third and final post collating the remarkable Chopin recordings of Polish pianist Maryla Jonas.

This 10-inch LP brings together five Nocturnes in February 1950 recordings from Columbia's 30th Street studio in New York. The results are just as sensitive and atmospheric as the two previous collections I have posted. Columbia's sound is good.

The drawing of Jonas on the cover is based on the photo at left. Without checking, I have the sense that it was unusual for Columbia to use a drawing of the artist on their covers at the time; naive cartoons were more common (cf., this cover for Barber's Knoxville, Summer of 1915).

A more animated (but still apprehensive looking) Jonas is depicted below. Instead of Chopin, that seems to be Stravinsky looking over her shoulder, in Picasso's sketch.

LINK (newly remastered in ambient stereo, April 2025)

André Previn Meets David Rose

Today’s post comes to us courtesy of friend-of-the-blog Stealthman, who previously contributed the lone Conrad Salinger LP in stereo. Today he comes to us with a stereo copy of the first collaboration of blog-favorite André Previn with composer-arranger David Rose. M-G-M brought them together for a 1958 LP called Secret Songs for Young Lovers. (Apparently these were songs that had been kept hidden from Frank Sinatra when he recorded Songs for Young Lovers earlier in the 50s).

Rose and Previn were among M-G-M's leading lights, although Previn also recorded for Contemporary, and would soon defect to Columbia. (See his outing with Jackie & Roy here.) This album was a winner for the pair, ending up in the Billboard album charts for several weeks and spawning a popular single in the form of Previn’s composition, “Like Young,” and then an LP sequel, Like Blue.

Among the Grammy winners for 1960 were (from left): David Rose, André Previn,
Bobby Darin, Jonah Jones and Shelley Berman

The sedately funky “Like Young” was likely the inspiration for two other notable compositions that came along in the next year or two – Nelson Riddle’s “Route 66 Theme” and Cy Coleman’s “Playboy’s Theme,” the latter of which has appeared on my other blog here. But as I have opined previously, all three compositions owe a debt to the work of such artists as Horace Silver and especially Bobby Timmons.

That said, this is quite a good LP that is at once easy listening and jazz - or at least jazzy. “Like Young” also was somewhat popular in the R&B market, hitting both those charts and the pop listings in 1959.

The album includes two compositions from Rose (“Young Man’s Lament” and “Young and Tender”) and two from Previn (“Too Young to Be True,” written with then-wife Dory Langdon, along with “Like Young”) plus standards, including David Raksin’s memorable theme for The Bad and the Beautiful in its guise as the song “Love Is for the Very Young.” The sound is superb early stereo, with solid piano presence and Rose’s sweet strings.

Many thanks to Stealthman for this gem!

More Remasters, Again Featuring Buddy Clark

More reupped recordings for you today, again by request and again leading with a rejuvenated collection from the great pop singer Buddy Clark.

This featured group is from the early days of this blog, and comprises singles that Clark's label, Columbia, issued on its short-lived 33-rpm microgroove single format in 1948 and 1949. This 7-inch format was intended to supplement the 10-inch and 12-inch LPs that the label introduced at the same time. Record buyers, however, preferred RCA Victor's 45-rpm single format, and Columbia's alternative was abandoned.

The original blog post included three singles from Clark. For this post, I added a newly transcribed single that Clark made with frequent partner Doris Day - "You Was" and "If You Will Marry Me." Warning: the sugar content is very high on these two tunes.

Here are the other selections for today. The headings link to the original posts, where you will find the download links in the comments. The comments to this post have the links to all downloads.

Stravinsky - Firebird Suite; Concerto for Piano and Winds (Noel Mewton-Wood). One of two reups from a great pianist who died young, along with a worthy Walter Goehr-led version of the Firebird Suite.

Schumann - Piano Concerto (Mewton-Wood). The second offering from the talented Mewton-Wood, again with Walter Goehr conducting.

Ella Logan - Sings Favorites from Finian's Rainbow. A solo outing for one of the leads in the original cast of Finian's Rainbow.

Billy Eckstine - Love Songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein. An early LP from Mr. B, and a fine one, courtesy of Will Friedwald and David Lennick. Nelson Riddle leads the band. (mp3)

Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick. That unprepossessing title heralds one of the rarer musical soundtracks, with Dinah Shore, Robert Merrill and Alan Young and a Livingston-Evans score.

Ania Dorfmann in Chopin and Beethoven

Having recently posted two Chopin collections from Maryla Jonas, I thought I might present a contrasting approach to the composer from a Jonas contemporary, Ania Dorfmann, via her collection of waltzes issued on RCA Victor’s Bluebird budget label.

Like Jonas, Dorfmann did not enjoy an extensive recording career. Most of her records were made for RCA, although the Russian-born pianist did set down some items for EMI before coming to the US permanently in 1938.

You can hear the differing approaches of Jonas and Dorfmann in their renditions of Chopin’s Waltz No. 13:

The sense of unease lurking in Jonas’ playing is largely absent from the Dorfmann track. The latter artist was known for the elegance and sheen of her pianism, admirable qualities in full display throughout her collection of Chopin waltzes, which date from 1953 sessions at New York’s Town Hall.

As a bonus, I have also uploaded Dorfmann’s 1945 recording of Beethoven’s first concerto, with Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. While there is some end-of-side distortion on my pressing, the overall sound may be among the best ever afforded Toscanini, coming from Carnegie Hall rather than the cramped Studio 8-H. The more resonant sound may be one reason why the result seems less relentless than many of the maestro’s recorded output. Of course, many critics adored Toscanini in hard-driving mode, and this particular rendition has been criticized for being bland!

Dorfmann went on to record Mendelssohn, Grieg and others for RCA before joining the Juilliard faculty. I also have her Schumann-Tchaikovsky collection and hope to transfer it before too long.