Anita Kerr Sings Mancini and Bacharach-David

After presenting Anita Kerr's two earliest albums a short time ago, I wanted to do a follow up of two of her best albums from the 1960s.

The first, devoted to the music of Henry Mancini, is with her Nashville group and was made shortly before she moved to Los Angeles in 1965. The second, with her new West Coast ensemble, comes from 1969 and is her take on the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

We Dig Mancini

Throughout the first half of the 1960s, Kerr worked for RCA Victor as a singer, ensemble leader and producer.

For this excellent LP of Mancini's compositions, she worked with her long-time Nashville associates. From left on the cover above, they are Gil Wright, Kerr, Dottie Dillard and Louis Nunley.

The material is generally selected from among Mancini's greatest hits at the time - such songs as "Charade," "Baby Elephant Walk," "The Days of Wine and Roses" and "Moon River" from films, and selections from the television shows Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky.

Some of the most interesting items are those that are lesser known - the theme from the Richard Boone television show, "Too Little Time" from The Glenn Miller Story (the oldest item in the batch, dating from 1954) and "The Sweetheart Tree" from The Great Race.

In this set, the group (identified here as the Anita Kerr Quartet) have assimilated some jazz influences - even resorting to some arranged scat singing - and at points can sound a bit like their contemporaries The Swingle Singers.

It's quite a good record, and well recorded in London (not sure why there) by the young Glyn Johns, who was just then coming into his own as the Rolling Stones' engineer.

The Anita Kerr Singers Reflect on the Hits of Burt Bacharach and Hal David

Kerr moved to Los Angeles because it was the center of the recording universe, so it offered her more opportunities to work as an orchestral arranger as well as a vocal group leader.

And soon she was doing so, working on many albums with the immensely popular Rod McKuen, providing backdrops to his poetizing with the San Sebastian Strings.

Anita Kerr conducts at a recording session

Meanwhile for her own LPs, she would sing with her new group, provide all arrangements and conduct. She worked throughout the late 1960s with studio singers Gene Merlino and Bob Tebow, and one or the other of B.J. Baker and Jackie Ward.

Ward, who performs on this record, was also known as Robin Ward, and had enjoyed a hit record in 1963 with "Wonderful Summer." Baker was an experienced singer (who parenthetically was at various times married to Mickey Rooney and guitarist Barney Kessel).

Gene Merlino, Anita Kerr, Jackie Ward, Bob Tebow

For me, this record encapsulates the "Kerr sound" because it represents the period during which I began to hear her work. Her sophisticated yet understated arrangements are particularly well suited to the songs of Bacharach and David, with Bacharach's complex rhythmic patterns and lovely melodies allied to the frequently rueful or melancholy lyrics of Hal David. This shows particularly on the lesser known songs, such as "The Windows of the World," "In Between the Heartaches," the wonderful, a capella "A House Is Not a Home" and Promises, Promises' "Whoever You Are, I Love You." The latter has some gorgeous interplay between Kerr and Ward.

In 1970, Kerr was off to Europe and more successes - but she perhaps never surpassed her work in the 1960s.

These recordings come from my collection. The sound is excellent.