Helen Ward - 1950s Recordings

Helen Ward (1916-98) was a very good singer who made her name with the Benny Goodman band, then worked to regain that prominence for the rest of her career.

This post is devoted to songs she recorded in the 1950s, derived from three LPs:

• It's Been So Long, one of her two solo albums, where she is backed by Percy Faith.

• With a Little Bit of Swing, where she is top billed over Peanuts Hucko and his band, even though she appears on only five songs.

• Larry Clinton in Hi-Fi, which recreates some of the bandleader's biggest songs, including four vocals by Helen.

The Hucko LP is presented in full, but the Clinton set includes only Ward's vocals.

In addition to these records, I've gathered 11 of Helen's 1934-40 singles for a post on my other blog.

It's Been So Long

The 1953 LP It's Been So Long was recorded after Helen appeared with Goodman on an abbreviated tour. In the liner notes to the album, producer George Avakian provides a useful if rose-colored view of her career to that date, and offers this summary of Ward's appeal:

"The ingredients of the Helen Ward style have always been the same: simplicity, taste, sincerity, and sound musicianship, Like all great singers, she also has the gift of complete individuality - no matter what she sings, one measure is enough to identify the voice as Helen Ward’s. There is an unaffected warmth in every note; her personality projects purely through the sheer honesty and directness of her singing. And under the straightforward voice is a simmering, pulsating drive which makes everything swing, even the sweetest ballad."

Percy Faith

There's much truth to that assessment, although in her mid-30s her voice did not have the flexibility of the young band singer. The eight songs on this 10-inch LP with Percy Faith are mostly standards, with the exception of "Same Old Moon (Same Old Sky)," which Rudy Vallee had recorded in 1932, "You're Mine," which she learned from trumpeter Charlie Shavers, and "When You Make Love to Me (Don't Make Believe)", written by Jim Hoyl and Marjorie Goetschius. Avakian doesn't mention that "Hoyl" was actually violinist Jascha Heifetz!

The LP oddly includes two versions of "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" - slow and fast. So nine cuts, but eight songs.

Faith's arrangements are typical of his work - a bit fussy but enjoyable. The sound is very good.

LINK to It's Been So Long

With a Little Bit of Swing

With a Little Bit of Swing is actually a Peanuts Hucko record, although Ward is given top billing. It came out in 1957, although I believe it was recorded the year before. "A Foggy Day" appears on the 1956 album Dave Garroway Presents the Wide, Wide World of Jazz, which I included in the recent post devoted to Lee Wiley's RCA recordings.

Besides "A Foggy Day," the other Ward vocals are on the standards "I Get Along Without You Very Well," "Don't Cry Baby," "Gone with the Wind" and "I'm Shooting High."

Peanuts Hucko

Clarinetist Hucko was a veteran of many big bands, and an oft-recorded studio musician. For the Garroway LP, he (or RCA) called his aggregation Peanuts Hucko's Swing Band. Here it is simply Peanuts Hucko and His Orchestra; probably a good choice considering that swing was no longer the thing.

Whatever you call the band, it's a good LP, with fine musicians, excellent charts, primarily by the prolific Al Cohn, and good vocals from Ward. I don't believe the album sold well, unfortunately. There was not a follow-up until decades later.

LINK to with a Little Bit of Swing

Larry Clinton in Hi-Fi

Trumpeter-arranger Larry Clinton's specialty was reworking the classics into big band form. His biggest hit in that realm was "My Reverie," which he reworked from a Debussy piece.

I'm not overly interested in such material, so I did not transfer the complete LP, only the four songs which feature Ward.

Larry Clinton

Beside "My Reverie," these include two other classical transformations - "Our Love" from Tchaikovsky

and "Martha," from the Flotow opera of the same name. Helen's other number is the Carmichael-Loesser favorite "Heart and Soul," which was a hit repeatedly, starting with Clinton's 1938 version through Jan & Dean in the 1960s.

The Clinton LP comes from my collection; the others are cleaned up from Internet Archive transfers.

LINK to Helen Ward's vocals on Larry Clinton in Hi-Fi

1934-40 Singles

Young Helen Ward

My other blog has 11 selections from the many singles that Helen recorded in the 1930s (and 1940). These include two with Goodman, four with studio bands that predate or parallel her Goodman period, plus items with Gene Krupa, Joe Sullivan and Teddy Wilson.