Dinah Shore on Columbia

Dinah Shore has often graced this blog, but I have never devoted a post solely to her single output for the Columbia label from 1946-50. This post starts with an early 10-inch LP descriptively titled Dinah Shore Sings, and continues with 14 other sides transferred from 78s in my collection.

1946 magazine cover

Shore was among the favorite female vocalists of the era, and this set shows why – while technically she is not the most accomplished of singers, she was among the warmest, sharing honors with Perry Como among the males.

The collection provides a good survey of her recorded repertoire of the time, especially current show tunes from hits such as Kiss Me, Kate (she is too sincere for “Always True to You in My Fashion” but just right for “So in Love”) and songs from films such as The Time, the Place and the Girl (the excellent “A Rainy Night in Rio” and “Through a Thousand Dreams” from Dietz and Schwartz) and The Perils of Pauline (“Poppa, Don’t Preach to Me” from Frank Loesser).

Columbia also liked to pair her with other singers. This blog has previously featured her duo LP with Buddy Clark, and she also recorded with Doris Day and Jack Smith. Perhaps inspired by Capitol’s success with Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely, the label sent her to the studios with a parade of country artists, including Gene Autry and George Morgan. This collection includes two sides with the relatively obscure Dusty Walker, who was on radio and television in Southern California and on the Columbia artist rolls for a few years. It also has her sole outing backed by Western swing artist Spade Cooley, a good if predictable song called “Heartaches, Sadness and Tears,” but Dinah just can’t evoke the desolate quality it needs.

Columbia favored Shore with a pre-LP album called Torch Songs in 1947, with the type of commercial blues songs she featured early in her career, when she was on radio’s "Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street.” I only have one of the two 78s in the set (a coupling of “St. Louis Blues” and “Tess’s Torch Song”), but have included it in the download along with scans of the album artwork, including the delightful inside spread shown below (click to enlarge).

The sound on all these items is quite good.