Stuart Foster with Tommy Dorsey, Part 1

Not long ago, I devoted a post to a fine, but now forgotten singer, Stuart Foster. That post covered much of his career, while leaving out the period of his greatest success, when he was Tommy Dorsey's band singer in 1945-47.

At that time, I glibly asserted that Foster's Dorsey oeuvre is well-known, which elicited a gentle riposte from friend and vocal maven Bryan Cooper, who has contributed to the blog over the past several years. He insisted that Foster's many Dorsey recordings are too little known, and offered to compile them for me.

This then, is the first installment of two devoted to Foster's vocals with Dorsey, which total 50 recordings. Today we have 25 records made in 1945 and 1946, compiled by Bryan and cleaned up by Bryan and me.

The vocalist was highly regarded during this period, but that didn't lead to solo success after he left Dorsey, unlike Tommy's previous star vocalists Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes. But Foster's subsequent career was addressed in the previous post, and today is devoted to his excellent work with Dorsey's band. 

About Stuart Foster

A few notes from my previous post about this vocalist:

Stuart Foster (1918-68), is a former big-band vocalist who was not even that well known during his heyday, and recorded only sporadically under his own name. He was featured, however, on records by bandleaders as diverse as Guy Lombardo and Gordon Jenkins, and had a long career as a studio singer. Foster was much more talented than his reputation would suggest, as I hope you will agree after sampling his output.

Foster's first professional gig was as a singer for the Ina Ray Hutton band, starting in 1940. The download includes a May 1946 interview with George Simon of Metronome magazine, where Foster tells the story of his stage name. Born Tamer (or Tamir) Aswad to a Syrian-both father and American mother, he acquired the name "Stuart Foster" upon joining Hutton's band. She introduced him as such on a broadcast, neglecting to tell "Stuart" of his new name ahead of time. He went with it.

When Hutton disbanded in 1944, Foster joined Lombardo, then Dorsey in early 1945, where he stayed until 1948.

Foster had a strong voice, even throughout his range, excellent diction and superior intonation. While a forthright singer, he also was sensitive to words.

In this post, you will perhaps note that he was a polished singer from the beginning of his stay with TD, gaining more confidence as time went on.

Stuart Foster and family

The 1945 Recordings

Dorsey had run into trouble finding a steady male vocalist before Foster joined him in time for a March 8, 1945 recording date. That session produced a recording of "June Comes Around Every Year," an indisputable assertion from the team of Mercer and Arlen that was written for the film Out of This World. 

Unlike most of his Dorsey recordings, Foster is behind the beat here. He told George Simon that he had to learn to sing on the beat during his tenure with the decidedly choppy Lombardo band (an experience he did not enjoy), but here he had slipped into his old habits.

Stuart also recorded Out of This World's better remembered title song, although not until the following month. "Out of this World" is a beautiful song, here marred by an distracting Gus Bivona clarinet obbligato. In the film, Eddie Bracken, who played a band singer, had the good fortune to have his warbling dubbed by Bing Crosby. (The movie was a release from Paramount Studios, where Bing was king.)

To return to Dorsey's March recordings: Tommy and his new vocalist were back in the New York studios on March 9, a date that yielded the excellent "A Friend of Yours" and "Nevada." The former song was from a film that Crosby produced, The Great John L, which predictably had music by Burke and Van Heusen. In the movie, "A Friend of Yours" was assigned to Linda Darnell's character, dubbed by Trudy Erwin. Foster's singing is lovely, befitting this beautiful song and lush arrangement.

For some reason, Dorsey resurrected "Nevada" from a two-year old Freddy Martin film, What's Buzzin', Cousin. (We can be thankful that he did not choose "Three Little Mosquitos (Hitler, Tojo and Benito)" from that same score.) "Nevada," in contrast, isn't a bad song.

"Nevada" was Foster's first recording with Dorsey's vocal group, the excellent Sentimentalists, a name that Dorsey had given to the Clark Sisters upon adding them to his troupe in 1944. They replaced the Pied Pipers, who went solo. The quondam Sentimentalists later returned to performing under their family name, making four LPs in the 1950s. They had wanted to continue using the "Sentimentalists" name after they left his band, but the bandleader's felt the name was too associated with him; after all he was the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" and his theme song was "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You." 

The Clark Sisters. This is from their 1959 barbershop-style LP Beauty Shop Beat, which explains the panoply of products

Switching back to the April session, "You Came Along (From Out of Nowhere)" is from the film You Came Along, sung there by Helen Forrest and Lizabeth Scott (herself a passable vocalist who later made an LP). Before the film came out, the song was called "Out of Nowhere" and had been introduced under that title by Bing in 1931. It's one of the best numbers that Johnny Green and Edward Heyman ever wrote. After You Came Along (the film) left the nation's theaters, "You Came Along" (the song) reverted to being called "Out of Nowhere."

"There You Go," from a May 14 session, is a little-remembered but pretty tune by Fud Livingston with words by Edna Osser. Livingston himself did the arrangement. He's best known for "I'm Thru With Love," while Osser's greatest hit was "I Dream of You (More than You Dream I Do)," which Dorsey had recorded in 1944.

Later in May, Foster was back before the microphones for "In the Valley," which Mercer and Warren wrote for The Harvey Girls, where it was performed by the incandescent Judy Garland. It's not the best remembered number from the film, but still a good one.

Billboard ad, October 6, 1945

In September, Dorsey and Foster were back in the land of Bing, with "Aren't You Glad You're You," a Burke and Van Heusen tune from Crosby's The Bells of St. Mary's. "Aren't You Glad," possibly a Bill Finegan arrangement, starts with a muted Dorsey. Unlike the recordings we've covered to this point, the bandleader did not employ strings or woodwinds on this date.

"Never Too Late to Pray" is another Fud Livingston tune. The words (from the "Mammy-Alabamy" school of faux-Dixie dislocution) are by Willard Robison, who apparently did not record the number. Foster plays it straight, thank goodness.

Also from this second September session is the fine "A Door Will Open" with music by John Benson Brooks, another one-time Dorsey arranger. Brooks' "Just as Though You Were Here" had been a hit for Dorsey and his then-vocalist Frank Sinatra. The lyricist of "A Door Will Open" was Don George. Although the arrangement does not utilize strings, the tinkling of a celeste and the contributions of the Sentimentalists give it a romantic feel.

"That Went Out with Button Shoes" is a novelty, in contrast with Foster's previous numbers. It employs 40s hipster lingo that is as quaint to us as button shoes were back then. It's not a bad song, actually. Foster shares it with Pat Brewster and the Sentimentalists.

The Dorsey Show Boat album cover

Next on the schedule were November 1945 sessions devoted to Dorsey's recordings of songs from Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat. Tommy did six numbers for an album produced in the run-up to the opening of Show Boat's 1946 Broadway revival. Four have vocals by Stuart Foster: "Make Believe," "You are Love," "Nobody Else But Me," and "Ol' Man River." Kern wrote "Nobody Else But Me" for the revival. It was to be his last composition; he died in November 1945, just a few weeks before Dorsey and Foster recorded this valedictory song.

Dorsey's Show Boat recordings are what you might expect from a dance band, but neither the arrangements nor Foster's vocals show this team at its best.

1946 Recordings

From Kern, Dorsey moved on to Louis Alter, a good songwriter whose instrumental compositions have appeared on this blog twice before. "If I Had a Wishing Ring," with lyrics by Maria Shelton, is pleasant, but not of the quality of Alter's best songs, such as "Nina Never Knew," "My Kinda Love" and "You Turned the Tables on Me." Andy Russell introduced "Wishing Ring" in the film Breakfast in Hollywood.

Billboard, February 16, 1946. Victor had apparently run out of Dorsey poses. (See ad above.)

Also during that January 1946 session, Foster recorded Ivor Novello's wistful wartime song, "We'll Gather Lilacs," from the composer's West End success Perchance to Dream. This gorgeous number was a deserved success for the Dorsey-Foster team.

Later in January, the band recorded a Cahn-Styne-Harry Harris song, "Where Did You Learn to Love," which was popular with many recording artists of the time. It's not one of the best known works from the prolific Styne and Cahn, but even so has a agreeable melody complemented by a good arrangement and vocals from Stuart and the Sentimentalists.

For March's "There's No One But You," Dorsey paired Foster with his small instrumental group, the Clambake Seven. That was quite a starry ensemble, boasting trumpeters Ziggy Elman and Charlie Shavers, clarinetist Buddy DeFranco and tenor sax Boomie Richman. Dorsey, however, did not give his sidemen much room to shine on the vocal numbers. This is a good Redd Evans song, and a worthy performance.

From April, "Like a Leaf in the Wind" is by Marjorie Goetschius. Her best known song is "I Dream of You," which Dorsey had recorded with Freddie Stewart. As usual, the Dorsey team's performance shows the song in its best light.

Billboard ad, June 15, 1946

A date later in April 1946 yielded three Foster vocals. "Remember Me" is not one of Harry Warren's greater efforts, but it is a much better song than I would have expected, being only familiar with it from the Hal Kemp-Skinnay Ennis recording from 1937. Eschewing Ennis' enervated phrasing, Stuart's romantic vocals flatter both the tune and its Al Dubin lyrics. The Dorsey single was occasioned by the song's use in the 1946 film Never Say Goodbye.

"That Little Dream Got Nowhere" is by Cahn and Van Heusen, and comes from the film Cross My Heart (not "Your Heart" as the label has it), where it was introduced by the hyperkinetic Betty Hutton. Foster can't match her energy, but can match her vocal skill. This is one of his best performances. Here (and elsewhere), you can hear echoes of his early idol, Bob Eberly.

"I Don't Know Why" is a nice performance of an old classic. It dates from 1931 when it was a hit for Wayne King among others. In 1946, it was featured in the movie Faithful in My Fashion and did well for Dorsey and company.

Allie Wrubel's "Gotta Get Me Somebody to Love" was featured in 1946's Duel in the Sun and recorded by many artists. It's a cowpoke song, but done well here. Foster was more convincing with this type of material than, say, Sinatra, although the champ was Crosby, who was an experienced tune wrangler. 

The recording comes from a July 1946 session in Hollywood. Tommy had moved out there to open a ballroom and to film The Fabulous Dorseys with his fabulous brother Jimmy. More about that film and the balance of Stuart Foster's Dorsey recordings in Part 2 of this collection.

These recordings come from several sources, some of them lossy, but the sound is generally very good. Beside quite a few contemporary ads, articles and reviews, the download includes a discography of Foster's Dorsey recordings, plus 1945 and 1946 Dorsey chronologies from Dennis Spragg of the Glenn Miller Archive.

Thanks again to Bryan for supplying these recordings! Part 2 soon.

Addendum: Bryan has sent along a photo of the Clark Sisters when they were Tommy Dorsey's Sentimentalists. See below.