This is a soundtrack requested by my friend Ernie, I suspect as much for the star of the film, Natalie Wood, as for the music.
Even so, it's a good record with music by blog favorite
Neal Hefti. It's also notably short - barely 30 minutes. So I've added six songs that Hefti recorded for the Coral label in the early 1950s that have not had an official re-release, as far as I can tell.
The title of the 1964 film,
Sex and the Single Girl, is far more suggestive than the final product turned out to be. The movie derived its name from the book that Wood and Tony Curtis are coyly perusing on the album cover. That 1962 tome, written by ad copywriter Helen Gurley Brown, was a notable best-seller, and the author went on to be the editor of
Cosmopolitan magazine for 32 years.
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| Helen Gurley Brown |
Wikipedia tells us, "In the 1960s, Brown was an outspoken advocate of women's sexual freedom and sought to provide women with role models in her magazine. She claimed that women could have it all - 'love, sex, and money' ... Her work played a part in what is often called the sexual revolution." I remember all the hubbub about the book and the movie; unfortunately, I was slightly too young to participate in what is often called the sexual revolution.
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| Natalie Wood |
So while the
Sex and the Single Girl title might lead you to think that the movie was a sex manual of sorts, I believe it was actually your standard farce of the time. Some of it is knock-off of
Pillow Talk, with Curtis taking the Rock Hudson impersonation route to deceive Wood. And apparently Tony ends up in drag at one point (see below), reprising his
Some Like It Hot antics (and those of Cary Grant in
Bringing Up Baby 25 years earlier).
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| Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood |
The score, too, is not terribly original, although entirely pleasant. "Legs" is a smooth swinger, very early 60s, as is "The Game," with piano, strings and woodwinds led by flute played by jazz standout Buddy Collette. "Midnight Swim" has a twist-frug beat and an organ lead, which was then becoming popular. Hefti reused the "City Style" riff in his 1968 theme for
The Odd Couple. "I've Got Love" sounds like any number of soul-jazz anthems.
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| Fran Jeffries |
One oddity is that the title song was written by Richard Quine, the producer. The vocalist on that piece and Jolie's "Anniversary Song" was singer-dancer-actor Fran Jeffries, who appears in the film. A fine entertainer, she was married at the time to blog favorite
Dick Haymes.
Coral Singles
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| Frances Wayne |
The Coral singles all date from 1951-53. Three of the six feature a vocal by Frances Wayne, who, I will admit, is not a favorite of mine. The first cut is, by chance,
"Regular Man," the Jeri Sullivan song that recently appeared
here as interpreted by its author. Wayne's externalized reading is less pleasing that Sullivan's simpler approach. The backing is
"You're the Only One I Love."
The single above was issued under Wayne's name. On
"Lonesome and Blue," Wayne and Hefti are listed as co-leaders of the orchestra. Its flip side is a Hefti instrumental,
"Why Not?", which he also arranged for Count Basie, who recorded it at about the same time.
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| Bunny Briggs |
The final two songs have vocals by the excellent dancer-singer Bunny Briggs -
"Cecilia" and the traditional New Orleans number
"Eh! La Bas," here credited to Maddy Russell. Very enjoyable stuff!
Briggs appeared with several big bands. I plan to feature a few of his records with Charlie Barnet on the singles blog.
The sound on all these items is excellent.
