More Transcriptions from Doris Day

A little over a year ago I posted a memorial to Doris Day than mainly consisted of transcriptions that she recorded in 1952. Those recordings are still available here.

That post, however, did not include all the transcriptions she made in the early 1950s. Now longtime friend of the blog Giampaolo (aka Rio Veneno) has supplied this missing sides, and I have done my best to fix the pitch problems that seem to plague previous releases of these recordings. Last time, it took some help from reader Mac to get it right, so please let me know if these do not sound correct to you.

On these sides, Day is supported by either the Page Cavanaugh Trio or an orchestra led by Van Alexander. The selections are a mix of standards ("Embraceable You," "I've Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)") and the hits of the day ("Slowpoke," "Because You're Mine"). I do know that the song "I've Gotta Sing Away These Blues" also had a commercial release, appearing on the flip side of Day's giant hit, "Que Sera, Sera," from the 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much. Not sure if it's the same recording, however.

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A few more items that may be of particular interest for those of you who like vocalists:

First, frequent contributor Bryan Cooper has unearthed a studio disk of Mary Healy singing "Star Dust" on the soundtrack of the 1940 film of the same name. This is a welcome addition to the recent post of her commercial and Second Fiddle soundtrack recordings that Bryan contributed. Thanks, Bryan! You can find "Star Dust" on my singles blog.

Also, reader Eric kindly left a link to the four Tony Martin songs that could be found on the 12-inch version of (A Stroll Through) Melody Lane but were missing from the double-EP edition that I posted. Please see the comments to the post for his link. Thanks, Eric!

Finally, reader Simon Buckmaster is sending us a real find - several unpublished demo disks made by Jeri Sullivan, probably sometime in the 1940s, along with a few commercial recordings I did not know about. These are superb - very much worth hearing, and a welcome addition to the Jeri material we have already published on this blog and the singles blog (with thanks again to Bryan). I hope to bring you Simon's contribution soon.