Hans Kindler Conducts Tchaikovsky; Reups

Hans Kindler is not remembered today, but he was a well regarded conductor in his day, the 1930s and 40s.

Kindler, originally a cellist, founded the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. in 1931, and led it until being replaced 17 years later. He passed away the following year.

The conductor and his ensemble recorded for RCA Victor in the 1940s, but only had the opportunity to inscribe two symphonies - the Brahms Third and this worthy attempt at Tchaikovsky's Third, or Polish Symphony. It comes from the orchestra's first RCA session, on November 8, 1940, according to a Kindler discography in the Autumn 1999 International Classical Record Collector.

For a relatively new ensemble, the Washingtonians acquit themselves well. The symphony is well paced and alertly played, and the recording is good. You can learn more about Kindler here.

This transfer is taken from an early 1950s reissue on RCA's budget Camden label. At that time, most or all of Camden's classical line was offered under pseudonyms; in this case the National Symphony became the "Globe Symphony."

I have previously offered three other symphonies from American orchestras in those recordings' Camden guise, and am reupping them today along with this newcomer. They are:

Tchaikovsky - Manfred (Indianapolis Symphony/Fabien Sevitzky)

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 1 (Indianapolis/Sevitzky)

Vaughan Williams - London Symphony (Cincinnati Symphony/Eugene Goossens)

I heartily recommend the two Tchaikovsky symphonies in particular - they are strongly characterized under Sevitzky's baton. All of these have been remastered and the sound is excellent. Links for these recordings are in the comments.

Curtain Going Up in Boston

This 1957 LP shows off one of the specialties of the house for the Boston Pops during the long Arthur Fiedler reign - medleys from famous musicals.

Curtain Going Up features mash-ups from the recent Broadway hits My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Carousel, Can-Can, Wonderful Town and South Pacific, along with a selection of Richard Rodgers' waltzes.

All feature the typical Fiedler élan that stops just this side of seeming rushed. This works particularly well with such tunes as "It's a Grand Night for Singing," which ends the program on a high note. If there is little depth in this approach - well, it is the Pops, after all.

The sound also is typical of RCA Victor's efforts for this ensemble. Depending on your own preferences, you could call it big and glamorous, or woolly and indistinct. Note (January 2024): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo).

Several arrangers are credited for these medleys: Leroy Anderson for Carousel and Brigadoon, Jack Andrews for Can-Can, and Dave Terry for Wonderful Town. Also, the arrangement for South Pacific is Anderson's work as well.

The cover is by Mozelle Thompson (a favorite of my friend Ernie). It appears to depict an operetta that is being presented on a particularly tiny stage.

LINK to Curtain Going Up

The artist as shoe salesman

Ray Price, Floyd Tillman, Carl Smith and Cowboy Copas

Today we have a doubleheader with music from four of the best singers in country & western history - a set of early hits from Ray Price, Floyd Tillman and Lefty Frizzell, and a bonus LP of gospel songs from Cowboy Copas.

Ray Price, the "Cherokee Cowboy," on stage in 1956

I transferred "Greatest Western Hits" a while back following the death of Price, one of the finest singers in any genre. It contains "Crazy Arms," perhaps the singer's best record, and a gigantic success for him in 1956. Price's performance is haunting - it only takes a few notes for his voice to give me the shivers. By the way, the excellent harmony singing on this record is by Van Howard.

Nearly as famous is Frizzell's "If You've Got the Money, I've got the Time," the sly anthem of the honky-tonk lothario, which came out in 1950. (I actually prefer Willie Nelson's jaunty 1976 remake.)

Among the the Carl Smith hits here is "Hey Joe," a number one record in 1953, also the first top hit for writer Boudleaux Bryant.

Price, Smith and Frizzell were mainstays of the Columbia catalogue of the early 50s. During that period, Cowboy Copas was one of the big stars on the King label of Cincinnati. His 1959 LP of "Hymns and Gospel Songs" collects songs he recorded in the early 50s.

By the time the album came out Copas had moved on to the Dot and Starday labels. This is a good record, but the production may be a little too smooth and bland for the material.

Mitropoulos Conducts Vaughan Williams and Rachmaninoff

I transferred this LP because I have been reading William Trotter's vivid, if melodramatic biography of Dimitri Mitropoulos, Priest of Music.

The conductor was indeed an unworldly sort who was a mismatch with the all-too-worldly New York Philharmonic. But before his ill-fated Phil follies, he was the long-time maestro in Minneapolis, and a beloved figure there.

Mitropoulos' commitment to modern music extended from the more conservative works heard here (and previous uploads such as compositions from Gian Carlo Menotti and Elie Siegmeister), through the second symphony of Roger Sessions (also previously featured here), to Schoenberg's Erwartung (which I will transfer when I locate the record in my collection).

Mitropoulos was famous for his remarkable memory, control and intensity. These traits serve the Rachmaninoff very well. But his febrile approach may be less suited to the Tallis Fantasia, which needs more room to breathe.

Columbia recorded these works in March 1945 in Minneapolis' Northrup Auditorium. The sound is adequate. This transfer is from an early LP issue.

Mitropoulos in his Minneapolis days

Dream On with Elliot Lawrence

Conductor Elliot Lawrence has had a remarkably long career. Still active today, there are photos of him leading a youth band in the 1930s (with Buddy DeFranco on clarinet).

Lawrence's career splits neatly into two parts - first, as leader of big bands on the road and on records; and second, as conductor and arranger for Broadway and television, after being enlisted for Bye Bye Birdie by director Gower Champion.

In his band days, Lawrence had some association with jazz, notably using the arrangements of Gerry Mulligan on a number of occasions. But his niche was a soft, danceable variety, reminiscent of the style of Claude Thornhill. Here he enlists the services of several notable arrangers:

Mood Midnight - Al Cohn, composer and arranger
Someone to Watch Over Me - Lawrence
The Pretty One - Lawrence, composer and arranger
Our Love Is Here to Stay - Cohn
Nightfall - Cohn, composer and arranger
Deep Purple - Johnny Mandel
Cheek to Cheek - Frank Hunter
To a Wild Rose - Nelson Riddle
They Didn't Believe Me - Cohn
The Night Is Young and You're So Beautiful - Hunter
Jazz Lullaby - Cohn, composer and arranger
I'll Follow My Secret Heart - Lawrence

As you might expect, the band is composed of New York's finest studio musicians (Cohn, Nick Travis, Urbie Green, etc.). Lawrence had given up his road band a few years earlier.

This was one of Fantasy's first stereo releases. The recordings were made in December 1957.

There was a considerable amount of interest in this disc in my recent poll, so I hope you like it. I have many Lawrence records, and have already transferred one of his first LPs for future presentation.

Juno and the Paycock

I transferred this some time ago, as a follow-up to my post of J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, and then never posted it. I am here today to make amends and satisfy a promise made back in 2012.

Cusack and McKenna

Sean O'Casey's 1924 Juno and the Paycock is often considered a successor to Synge's 1907 masterpiece, and rightfully so, even though it is set in Dublin and Playboy in the rural west. Here the similarities are accentuated by the casting, with Siobhán McKenna, Marie Kean and producer Cyril Cusack among the cast, as they were in the Synge recording. Both productions are from 1955.

Like Playboy, this is a tragi-comedy among the working class with a female character as the fulcrum and ineffectual males. Here, McKenna (as Juno) is married to the loutish Captain Boyle (Seamus Kavanagh), with the setting amidst the Irish Civil War. As with the Synge play, the language is key to its success. This is not an easy play to bring off; the present cast succeeds beautifully. The recording has a spoken introduction by the playwright. The sound is good.

The download includes a booklet with O'Casey's preamble, essays, photos and a synopsis. I've included the text of the play from Project Gutenberg.

YouTube has the 1930 filmed adaptation, with the original Juno, Sara Allgood. It is directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

'Merry Overtures' from Cleveland

I prepared this transfer because I've been reading the recent biography of conductor George Szell written by Michael Charry, and when looking for a Cleveland Orchestra record to listen to, this one came to hand.

It's a collection of overtures - an idea whose time has passed, but one I favor - and this is an especially good one.

Merry Overtures is a vintage 1957 recording, which was the year that the Szell-led Cleveland troupe began to be recognized as a leading orchestra after a highly successful European tour. The group set down these items in the months following that expedition. The Szell discography claims that the first comes from Severance Hall on October 25, 1957, with the following overtures taped in the city's Masonic Auditorium in November 1957 and March 1958. (For many years, Cleveland Orchestra recordings were made in that auditorium, which was more resonant that Severance.)

Szell and bassoonist George Goslee

I've published Cleveland Orchestra recordings from the 1940s, and the playing there is always quite good, but these are of a different order altogether. This collection is superb; it shows why the orchestra gained renown.

This LP has never been reissued as a package, although as far as I can tell, all the pieces and parts except perhaps for the Rossini overture have been parcelled out to other LPs or CDs. This Epic album was mono-only, but I believe some or all of the items were taped in stereo. I am sure I have a stereo copy of the Mozart, and perhaps others. No matter - the mono sound is glowing and does full justice to a great orchestra beginning to achieve its considerable potential.

By the way, the grandees on the cover are not in Severance Hall - a note says the photo was taken in Carnegie Hall. It's not normal for tails and tiaras to be worn at orchestra concerts these days, but perhaps the custom was considerably more formal in the 50s.

Pam Garner Sings Quietly

Pam Garner was a stylish singer of the late 50s and early 60s who made just a few records.

She is a vocalist much to my own taste - unmannered, sensitive, in tune. It is unfortunate that she only made two LPs - this and one two years later for Columbia. The market for pop singers changed in the post-Elvis era, and that change only accelerated when the English invaded in the early 60s. The result was the market for traditional pop singers dried up, at least on records.

Pam Garner shows up in Billboard as early as 1953, and disappears right after her Columbia LP came out. So not a long career, but one that is worth your attention.

Garner also recorded two singles for Coral. One backed "Me and My Shadow," which is on this LP, with something called "Pinch Me Baby," which can be found on YouTube. Pam linked up with the Les Brown band for the other 45, which I haven't been able to locate.


This album was among Coral's first stereo issues in late 1958. It has the familiar foibles of early stereo records. Pam's voice wanders all over the stereo field on the first side. The sound on the second side listed decidedly to starboard; I have rebalanced it here. Finally, it took some doing to lessen a pronounced hissing on Pam's sibilants. This must have been an artifact of the recording; she was too young for loose dentures.

1958 Billboard ad

A Christmas Carol and Lyn Murray Singers

Columbia's two Christmas releases in 1942 were Basil Rathbone as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol and the Lyn Murray Singers in songs of the season. The label brought them together in 1948 for this early LP.

Rathbone as Scrooge

Rathbone was identified with the Dickens tale, and not just as Scrooge. He appeared in a televised version in 1954 as Marley's ghost, then returned to the central role for the 1956 TV musical, The Stingiest Man in Town. (I offered that album two years ago here.)

For its 1942 adaptation, Columbia advertised a "Hollywood cast," but it was mainly radio actors. Among the troupe were Arthur Q. Bryan (the voice of Elmer Fudd), Elliott Lewis (who has popped up on this blog a number of times, most notably in Manhattan Tower), Lurene Tuttle (a ubiquitous presence on radio and television), and silent film star Francis X. Bushman. The connecting music is by Leith Stevens, another semi-regular at this location.

The potted performance is an effective one, and the sound is alright. My pressing is a little worn. At one point it's hard to tell if it the ghost's chains or the groove's walls that are making the clunking noises in the background.

Lyn Murray

Don't neglect the other side of the record. It may look like a generic collection of carols, but it is very well done by the Lyn Murray Singers, a radio group of the time. Murray went on to become a Hollywood composer.

Columbia's ads for the set of carols (see below) quote composer-critic Deems Taylor as claiming that Murray's group rates with the "great English Singers". Most people these days wouldn't understand the comparison, and I doubt that most people then did either.

The English Singers were a pioneering early music group that also performed contemporary works. I have a 78 of the group in Christmas settings by Rutland Boughton and Peter Warlock that will soon be up on my other, long-neglected blog. I will say here that Lyn Murray's singers and the English Singers had little to do with one other, despite what Deems Taylor may have said. The repertoire was different, and Murray's group was much more secure technically than the Londoners.

The image below is the cover of the Christmas Carol's 78 set, presumably by Alex Steinweiss. You can see how the artwork was adapted for the LP cover above. The download also includes the inside of the 78 set and a different LP cover (these are not my scans).

Christmas in 1954

Here is what Christmas sounded like in 1954 - at least if you confined yourself to the products that the RCA Victor recording company had on sale that year.

And quite a pleasant sound it was, with RCA's biggest stars in mostly familiar fare, which actually had been released as singles and on other LPs in earlier years.

One highlight is Perry Como's fine version of "White Christmas," which he manages to make personal, even though as a vocalist he is descended from the immortal Bing, the song's originator.

Dinah Shore offers "Happy Christmas Little Friend," welcome perhaps because the song is not overplayed like most traditional holiday material. Life Magazine commissioned this particular song from Rodgers and Hammerstein, but it nonetheless never entered the popular repertoire.

Tony Martin is excellent in "Silent Night" - one of his best records. And Eddy Arnold's country hit "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S" is appealing even though it is a corny alphabet song. Blog favorite Ralph Flanagan adds a Miller-styled "Winter Wonderland" that I much enjoyed.

The low point is the Three Suns' four-square rendition of "Silver Skates," which evokes the roller rink more than the ice house. Also, I could live without Eartha Kitt's overplayed "Santa Baby" (and the Madonna clone version, for that matter).

All in all, though, a fine record. The sound is very good, as usual with RCA Victor products.

Virgil Fox's First Christmas Album

Virgil Fox was a much applauded and much derided organist who was known both for his technique and his flamboyance. Scorned as the "Liberace of the organ." he also had quite a following and made some great recordings, this among them.

"Christmas Carols on the Organ," one of RCA Victor's 1954 holiday offerings, is the first of Fox's four seasonal LPs, and one of his first of any repertoire.

I am no organ expert - and in general avoid pop organ records - but this is extraordinarily well done, both in performance and recording.

Fox in 1954

In 1954, Fox had been the organist at New York's Riverside Church for eight years, and would remain there until 1965. Here he is performing on the church's Aeolian-Skinner organ, which I believe had been newly installed to his specifications.

Fox had a reputation for being slick, loud and sentimental, but you will find little of that here. His playing always remains well within the bounds of good taste, yet he also injects considerable life into this well worn material through his remarkable control, which he uses to inject a dance-like lift to the contours of these simple tunes.

The sound has an ideal balance of resonance and presence, with just enough church reverberation for my taste.

RCA issued this material both as a 12-inch LP and in abbreviated form as a double EP, with a different and preferable cover (below) by the American regionalist painter Adolf Dehn. I admire Dehn, but why is it that these nostalgic scenes always feature a sleigh and someone waving from the front porch?

George 'The Fox' Williams in Hi-Fi

It's about time for Christmas music shares, but before I start down that path, I thought I might feature one of the most repulsive covers of the 1950s, or any other decade.

Someone at Decca Records (and it my have been Alex Steinweiss) decided it was a great idea to honor bandleader George "The Fox" Williams by dressing up someone in a ratty fox costume, giving him a baton, putting the results on the cover, and expecting it to sell records.

You have to spend a few moments examining the magnificence of this misguided art direction - the evil eyes, the leering mouth and the mangy fur, accented by a scarf and matching gloves, all topped off by a pair of earphones.

Fortunately, the music is good! Like Buddy Morrow, Williams decided the way to the charts might lie in adopting the R&B style. Unlike Morrow, he wrote his own material, although it is mostly simple riff tunes. Performing the results are several groups of superb New York studio musicians, with one constant being the authentic R&B tenor sax of Sam "The Man" Taylor. I particularly like the way the arranger uses bass sax in the textures.

There is one vocal among the instrumentals, delivered by Belfast-born Cathy Ryan in a convincingly bluesy style. Ryan had made records with Art Mooney and Lucky Millinder, and went on to make several sides as a single for M-G-M, Cardinal and King.

The 12 items here were originally issued as Coral singles from early 1954 through 1955. The sound is excellent. For more on Williams, see the earlier posts here.

George Williams Remembers Jimmie Lunceford

A few weeks ago the blog presented a Ray Anthony record that was almost certainly arranged by George Williams. At that time, I said I would upload this LP that RCA Victor issued under the arranger's own name in 1957.

I wish I had chosen Williams's Brunswick LP instead, because it has a spectacularly repulsive cover showing a gentlemen in a ratty fox costume conducting the band - in honor of Williams' nickname, "The Fox".

Then again, this cover isn't bad, what with the gentleman grasping his impressively large instrument between the lady's legs.

George Williams

But what of the music? Williams (or RCA) decided to do a tribute to band leader Jimmie Lunceford, on the tenuous premise that Williams was a Lunceford arranger for a few months back in the late 1930s. Homages of this kind were popular in the late 50s, as people looked back fondly on the vanished swing era.

The results are what you might expect - streamlined versions of Lunceford standards played by a talented group of studio musicians who appeared on hundreds of other records of the time. The cover details the performers. Two of them are given pseudonyms - trombonist Jimmy O'Heigho is presumably Jimmy Cleveland and trumpeter Swede Enlovely is Harry "Sweets" Edison. This peculiar custom of fanciful renamings, common at the time, was probably done for contractual reasons.

The music is enjoyable, if not characteristic of the records that had been issued under Williams' name in earlier years. Those recordings, mainly in a quasi-R&B mode, are collected on the Brunswick album I mentioned above. Maybe I'll present that one as well, if people are interested.

A Wagner Concert from Pittsburgh and Reiner

My recent post of a Brahms concerto with Rudolf Serkin, the Pittsburgh Symphony and Fritz Reiner sent me looking through my files for other early Reiner recordings. The first one that came to hand was this "Wagner concert" from the first years of the conductor's tenure in the then-Steel City.

As sometimes happens, my friend Bryan of The Shellackophile blog had the simultaneous idea of posting the same set, and did so yesterday. I would urge you to go there to take advantage of Bryan's efforts, for several reasons: he does a great job on his transfers; he worked from the 78 set while I worked from the LP; he includes the very good graphics from the 78 album, which appear to be by Alex Steinweiss; and his download includes the Venusberg music, not included here.

Reiner caricature by
Olga Koussevitzky

Here are the LP contents and dates (all recordings were made in the Syria Mosque):

Die Meistersinger - Prelude (January 9, 1941)
Siegfried - Forest Murmurs (January 9, 1941)
Lohengrin - Prelude from Act 1 (November 15, 1941)
Lohengrin - Prelude from Act 3 (January 9, 1941)
Die Walküre - Ride of the Valkyries (February 25, 1940)

Similar to the Brahms, these excerpts display fine control, balance and orchestral discipline, if little glamour, delivered in boxy sound.

Reiner's later work in Chicago has been much discussed; I'll be posting a few more examples of what he was able to accomplish in Pittsburgh. If you want to learn more about the conductor, here's a good article with some familiar anecdotes and a few I hadn't heard before.

Alexander Young Sings Roger Quilter

This blog has presented Alexander Young's recital of songs by Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock; now it's time for his take on another English composer - the less celebrated, but nonetheless worthwhile Roger Quilter.

Roger Quilter

Five years younger than Vaughan Williams, Quilter had died at age 75 only a year or so before this program was transcribed in 1954. His output was almost entirely confined to songs, although his Children's Overture is sometimes heard.

I continue to be puzzled by the slight regard for tenor Alexander Young's artistry. The download includes a review of this LP by the estimable Andrew Porter, who complains that Young does not measure up to Gervase Elwes (who introduced some of these songs) or to John McCormick. For good measure Porter snorts that some of Quilter's work is insipid.

Alexander Young

Well, now. What Porter thinks is bland, I think is sensitive. Similarly, I enjoy the understated approach of Young, which Porter finds to be too much of too little.

I will say that if you have enjoyed the previous Alexander Young recitals, you may discover that this edition is to your taste as well. The sound is good, and as before, the sympathetic accompanist is Gordon Watson. This was transferred from the American Westminister edition of an English Argo original.

More Fox Trots from Ray Anthony

Not long ago, I posted the Ray Anthony album of Swing Fox Trots, part of the 1950s Capitol series designed to promote the Arthur Murray dance studios. I had the earlier Anthony recording of Fox Trots at hand as well, so thought I might as well go ahead and add it to the blog.

Swing Fox Trots was recorded in the period of a week in August 1954, possibly with arrangements by Billy May. In contrast, Anthony laid down the songs for Fox Trots over a series of eight sessions, from February 1950 to September 1952.

The Fox Trots charts were probably by George Williams, former Miller and Lunceford arranger who reputedly did most if not all Anthony's scoring at the time. Williams and Anthony wrote "Saddle Shoe Shuffle" (trying pronouncing that one) and "Lackawanna Local," included here. Coral gave Williams a recording contract of his own in 1953. I may transfer a Lunceford tribute LP that Williams made for RCA in 1957.

This is an enjoyable album by a very fine ensemble, and the sound is good, too. My LP still contains a certificate for two free dance lessons (see below). It may not work 60 years later, but you can always try.

Langston Hughes' 'Simply Heavenly'

I thought I might lead off a new series of several off-Broadway original cast recordings with this production of Langston Hughes' Simply Heavenly, from 1957.

This story of Harlemite Jesse Semple ("Simple"), his love life and his friends, played off Broadway for two months, then moved to a Broadway theater for another two months. It later was adapted for television.

Hughes adapted the story from his own novels about Simple. He also contributed the lyrics, with David Martin providing the music.

Portrait of Langston Hughes
by Winold Reiss

Simply Heavenly was by all accounts a charming show. One review of the time said, "Its great merit is that Mr. Hughes contemplates the people he is writing about with a respect that never becomes patronizing or stuffy and always retains its sense of humor." The songs display several varieties of pop music of the time - blues, R&B and even calypso, and gave a integral part to folk-blues artist Brownie McGhee (who had already appeared in two other Broadway shows). Composer Martin was a veteran pianist, arranger and composer. Hughes himself had written several plays along with his poetry and novels, and did the lyrics for Street Scene, with music by Kurt Weill.

Claudia McNeil, Brownie McGhee, John Bouie

The songs here are enjoyable, but take flight only when deep-voiced Claudia McNeil is to the fore. A commanding presence, she was best known for her role in both the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun.

The role of Simple is taken by Melvin Stewart, a fine actor who often appeared on American television in later years. Stewart, however, was just adequate as a singer. This also could be said of his two female foils, Anna English as the "bad girl" and Marilyn Berry as the "good girl." Simple had to choose, and thus the plot.

This very well produced record is a fine tribute to both a notable show and an important writer. As far as I can tell, it has never been reissued.

Anna English, Melvin Stewart, Marilyn Berry

Prokofiev's "The Prodigal Son"

Several years ago I posted Léon Barzin and the New York City Ballet Orchestra performing music by Virgil Thomson and Hershy Kay, a recording that is still available here.

Barzin and his troupe had signed a contract with Vox in 1954 for three records per year for three years, but I have only encountered the Thomson-Kay disc and this present rendition of Prokofiev's "The Prodigal Son" ballet music.

Léon Barzin

Prokofiev's music was written for Diaghilev and premiered in 1928. It has been little heard since then, although the music is related to the composer's fourth symphony. This was the first recording of the complete (or near-complete) ballet music, and I believe it has been succeeded by only a few other attempts at the score. If not as well known or memorable as some of Prokofiev's other ballet scores, it is nonetheless worthwhile.

This is a good, straightforward performance, although it sounds like it might have been recorded in the Baths of Caracalla. Barzin, a talented conductor, was more noted as a trainer of orchestral musicians, through his National Orchestral Association. He left relatively few recordings, so this LP is a fine remembrance. It was taped in March 1955.

Early Gisele MacKenzie

The reaction to my recent Gisele MacKenzie post on my other blog surprised me. Far more people like Gisele than I realized. Most of you probably like her more than I do!

With so much latent interest in the singer, I thought I might transfer her rarest LP. It is Orchids from Gisele, a promotional item issued only in her native Canada by the sponsor of her radio show.

While the album came out in 1958, it collects singles issued on Capitol from 1952 through early 1954, before MacKenzie spent several years with RCA Victor and its offshoot Vik.

The songs themselves are what you might expect from the period - a mixture of ballads, novelties and covers of country tunes. I find this era fascinating, while realizing that others disagree.

A few notes:

"Whistle My Love" was from the the Disney film Story of Robin Hood, and was widely recorded at the time. I had one of the recordings (can't recall which) and don't think I had heard the song in the intervening years. I liked it when I was four, and I like it now. Arranger Buddy Cole takes the "whistling" literally and has violinist Paul ("The Hot Canary") Nero on hand to supply the high harmonics. I could have done without them - Cole has a tendency to overdo things. This shows as well in the next song, the familiar "Adios," which includes a female backing vocal that sounds like Mary Ford on phenobarbital. Cole  adds organ accompaniment that sounds remarkably like Walter Wanderley's records of 10 years later.

"Mississippi River Boat" is another novelty, and if you can handle the constant "tu pocketa, tu pocketa" refrain, you may enjoy this. It's not my thing.

Nelson Riddle's arrangements are definitely my thing, and he takes over for "A Letter and a Ring" and "A Walkin' Tune." Both are handled nicely by MacKenzie.

"The Best Things in Life Are Free" was apparently unreleased except for this compilation. "Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" was a country hit for Slim Willet (the composer) among many others, and Gisele's cover is accomplished. "My Favorite Song" is a good Moose Charlap composition. Buddy Cole is back for the latter two songs.

Possibly the best effort on the LP is MacKenzie's version of "Gone," a legendary country song by Smokey Rogers. "Gone" was a giant hit for Ferlin Husky in 1957 - five years after this version was cut. Husky had recorded the song earlier (also for Capitol) under the name Terry Preston, and it was even issued on a promo record together with Gisele's recording. MacKenzie appears on the sheet music.

As a bonus, I have included the promotional version of "My Buick, My Love and I" recorded by Gisele and Gordon MacRae and given out by Buick dealers in 1952. It was the theme song for Milton Berle's second TV program, The Buick-Berle Show. The promo record also had a version by the Mellomen on the back. The Macs' version was issued commercially as well. The bonus is not my transfer, although I have remastered it, and is from a lossy original. The LP transfer is of course from my own copy.