'A Walk in the Sun' and Earl Robinson

Several years ago, I posted an LP split between leftist balladeers Earl Robinson and Tony Kraber. That Mercury album reissued 78s made for the Keynote label earlier in the 1940s.

Robinson

Today we return to Robinson's 40s output in the form of one of the most unusual soundtrack albums ever released. It collates the songs that Robinson composed for Lewis Milestone's harrowing 1945 war film, A Walk in the Sun, which follows a platoon of U.S. soldiers during and after the 1943 invasion of Italy at Salerno. The words by Millard Lampell comment on the action.

Robinson became known for composing "Joe Hill," "The House I Live In," and "Ballad for Americans." Background on him can be found on my earlier post. Lampell was a founding member of the Almanac Singers with Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, an important group that later included Woody Guthrie and recorded for Keynote. Lampell, who had become a screenwriter, was blacklisted in the 1950s, as was Robinson.

The Almanac Singers: Guthrie, Hays, Lampell, Seeger

Strictly speaking, this 78 album on the Asch label is not from the soundtrack; instead it is "songs from the film," with Robinson providing the vocals in place of Kenneth Spencer, who was heard in the film.

The Asch album contains five songs from A Walk in the Sun, with the excellent "Song of the Free Men" the fill-up on the sixth side. The sound is very good.

I have newly remastered the Robinson-Kraber LP I posted earlier. The download now includes cover scans from Kraber's Keynote album, which I recently acquired. The liner notes contain the singer's commentary on each of the songs.