Matt Dennis and Virginia Maxey

Singer-pianist-composer Matt Dennis is a firm favorite on this blog, via his MacGregor transcriptions and his complete Capitol output. Here's another unusual item - actually four of them, taken from The Navy Swings series of 15-minute shows sent for promotional purposes to radio stations.

In these, Matt is joined by his wife, the well-known former band singer Virginia Maxey. The programs are from about 1963 or 1964, which is when the couple began performing in nightclubs as Matt and Ginny Dennis.

The four shows are on two LPs, and contain 16 songs in total. These probably reflect their act, being split among solo features and duets. The performances are extroverted, which also likely reflects their nightclub performances. The loud number "Oom-Pah-Pah," from Lionel Bart's Oliver!, is made for live performance and doesn't work very well on a record. (Oliver! opened on Broadway in 1963, one of the reasons why I've dated the records for that year or soon after.)

George Fenneman

The Navy programs intersperse musical numbers with the usual scripted banter, here slightly better than usual because of the announcer, George Fenneman, who had become famous as Groucho Marx's unflappable straight man on the TV show You Bet Your Life. Each program also contains two recruiting spots, which on these shows promote the Airborne Officer Candidate program.

Matt's songs include:

"Show Me the Way to Get Out of This World ('Cause That's Where Everything Is)," which he wrote with Les Clark and recorded for RCA Victor in 1955.

"By the Bend of the River," a 1927 song that Matt may have picked up from the recent LP versions from Betty Carter and Etta Jones. He doesn't seem to have recorded it otherwise.

"Everything Happens to Me," one of his most famous songs, written with Tom Adair in 1940 and introduced by Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey. It's also on Dennis' 1954 Trend LP, and on a MacGregor transcription that can be found here.

"The Lorelei," an instrumental written by Barclay Allen, former Freddy Martin pianist who was paralyzed in a 1949 car crash.

"Why Try to Change Me Now" by Cy Coleman and Joseph McCarthy, which was introduced in 1952 by Sinatra. An interesting choice by Dennis - this song strikes me as being strongly influenced both musically and lyrically by "Everything Happens to Me."

"Have You Met Miss Jones?" from 1937's I'd Rather Be Right. This is also on Dennis' 1954 RCA Victor LP She Dances Overhead, his Rodgers and Hart LP.

"Love Is Wonderful Everywhere," a Dennis song that was not otherwise recorded, as far as I can tell.

Ginny's selections are:

"Time After Time" by Cahn and Styne, written for Sinatra's 1947 MGM film It Happened in Brooklyn.

"Come Fly with Me," a Sammy Cahn-Jimmy Van Heusen song from one of Sinatra's most popular albums.

"The More I See You" by Harry Warren and Mack Gordon for the 1945 film Diamond Horseshoe, where Dick Haymes introduced it.

"Just in Time," a Jule Styne song from Bells Are Ringing, written in 1958 with Comden and Green, and sung by Judy Holliday and Sydney Chaplin in the show.

"On the Street Where You Live," Lerner and Loewe's great number from My Fair Lady.

Young Ginny and Matt

The Ginny-Matt duets are:

"We Belong Together," a 1954 song by Dennis and Don Lodice, which also can be found on Matt's 1954 Trend LP.

"Oom-Pa-Pa," the Lionel Bart song from Oliver! introduced by Georgia Brown in the 1960 West End production.

"The Night We Called It a Day," another classic Dennis-Adair song that was Sinatra's first solo single. It's on Matt's 1954 album on Trend; also on a MacGregor transcription that can be found here.

Matt is in excellent form throughout; Ginny too except for a tendency to get shouty on the high notes. As a band singer, I imagine she was used to projecting her voice. The backing combo is proficient, although I could do without the trumpet obbligatos. 

As always, I've tracked the LPs so that you can listen once (if that) to the banter and Navy spots, then jettison them in favor of the songs. The sound is very good, although the dynamics are compressed for AM radio use. The download includes a New York Times review of Matt and Ginny's act from early 1964.