Another James Dean Story

The second in my mini-series of James Dean exploitation records (and the second to be called The James Dean Story) is this paean written and partially narrated by Steve Allen. The other narrator is Cleveland DJ Bill Randle, whose concept this is.

What we have here are a number of Dean exploitation singles ("Jimmy, Jimmy," "His Name Was Dean," "James Dean" and "The Ballad of James Dean" - I think they have most of the possible titles covered), music from his films, and a poem written by a teenage fan, stitched together by narration.

Amazingly, the poem is not the worst thing on the record - the dreadful choral rendition of "The Ballad of James Dean" takes the prize of dishonor. The other ballads are done by country/pop singer Jimmy Wakely.

The James Dean Story

James Dean made only three films but became an instant icon after perishing in a 1955 car crash at age 24. The great American postmortem exploitation industry was operating at full tilt soon after his death, with this 1957 documentary one of its first products. The James Dean Story was one of the estimable director Robert Altman's early efforts, following such gems as How to Run a Filling Station and Corn's-A-Poppin'.

Hollywood tends to impose a persona on its inhabitants, and Dean certainly had a strong one - one that was easily captured, anyway. David Stone Martin, on the album cover, portrays him as a confused child, playing with a toy car, smoking his cigarette (curious how this deadly habit persists as a sign of hipness), and carrying his drum in the thumbnail drawing. A striking if unsubtle pair of images.

Leith Stevens' score is more nuanced, displaying a variety of styles and moods in this characteristically well-recorded Capitol album. The title song is by the universal tunesmiths of the day, Livingston and Evans. It's presented on the soundtrack album by teen crooner Tommy Sands (who isn't bad, actually).

To illustrate how, as Jimmy Durante might say, everyone wanted to get into the exploitation act, I have appended a cover version of the title song - as presented by Mantovani, his cascading strings, and his bottomless echo chamber. The download includes the picture sleeve from the Mantovani 45 - a photo of Monte shares the front with the David Stone Martin drawing of Dean from the LP cover above. The back of the picture sleeve has the excellent likeness of the actor shown below.