Julius La Rosa on RCA Victor

This post is in response to a request to honor the memory of singer Julius La Rosa, who passed away last month.

I am happy to do so. I have long admired La Rosa's singing, and while I have never been an assiduous collector of his recordings, I seem to have accumulated most of them.

So for this entry, I have put together the majority of his recordings for RCA Victor, as issued on LP and singles in 1956-57.

This was just after the period of La Rosa's greatest popularity. He had come to notice on Arthur Godfrey's American television show in 1951, only to be summarily dismissed by the legendary broadcaster in 1953 because the singer had hired a manager.

By that time, however, La Rosa had achieved a renown comparable to Godfrey's own. In late 1952, Godfrey's music director, Archie Bleyer, established Cadence Records, with La Rosa as his first artist signing. The next year they had a tremendous hit with their adaptation of the Italian novelty "Eh, Cumpari!" and some of their other records did well.

La Rosa moved on to RCA Victor in late 1955 or 1956, staying there until shifting to Roulette records in 1958. RCA issued one LP and 24 single sides by the singer. This post contains the contents of the self-titled LP along with half of La Rosa's single output.

The LP consists almost entirely of easy-going standards, dispatched with winning sincerity, along with "Don't You Know I Care," a lesser-known Duke Ellington song (with Mack David lyrics), and "I Love My Bed," a weird Bob Haymes tune.

Whether because of his own taste, or that of his arranger-producer, Joe Reisman, La Rosa seemed to favor songs by Dick Haymes's brother. In the selection of single items, he does Haymes's "I've Got Love" and "Lipstick and Candy and Rubbersole Shoes." The latter, as you might guess, is a novelty, and in common with most pop singers of the era, La Rosa had a goodly number in his recorded repertoire.

Promotional EP

In what was probably an attempt to replicate the success of "Eh, Cumpari!", RCA had him do both a ersatz German number, "Augustine" ("To Brünnhilde and Marlene, I've just said 'auf wiedersehen'!"), and a fake Polish item called "Stashu Pandowski" ("She's not very much good for pretty, but she's very much good for strong!"). La Rosa dispatches both these with admirable enthusiasm and no apparent embarrassment.

The other items range from a cover of Eddie Cooley's rockish "Priscilla" to a pop number, "Famous Last Words," by R&B stalwarts Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. There also are a few songs from My Fair Lady and a number of lesser known but attractive ballads. In all, La Rosa seems completely at home, showing off the expected influences, from Frank Sinatra to Tony Bennett, without ever sounding like a clone.

The singing on the singles is in some ways superior to the LP, where his intonation is not always secure and where he flubs a few lyrics. (Joe Reisman should have called for retakes.)

The sound is very good for the most part, after adjusting the shrill sonics that afflicted some of singles. There is a bit of surface noise on a few of the sides.

If this isn't enough Julie for you, I invite you to RCA's Julius La Rosa Pajama Party over on Buster's Swinging Singles.