From the Back Room: Jane Powell at M-G-M

My recent post offering to present recordings I had prepared but never posted (Buster's Back Room) has so far produced a variety of choices.

I developed this 23-track tour of Jane Powell's career at M-G-M shortly after my post of her complete Verve recordings, but wondered if anyone would be interested. It turns out that quite a few of you do want to hear her, so here she is.

This selection is not comprehensive. For one thing, some of her film soundtracks have appeared on this site before, so are not included in this collection; links to those soundtracks are at the end.

For these "From the Back Room" items, the transfers, etc., are prepared with the usual care, but my gabby commentary may be abbreviated. In this case, not much abbreviated.

A Date with Judy

Elliott Ness, er, Robert Stack, Jane Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, Scotty Beckett

First we have four songs from the 1948 hit A Date with Judy, Judy being Powell, and her best friend being Elizabeth Taylor.

The film was notable for introducing "It's a Most Unusual Day," by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh, which is irresistibly joyous in Jane's hands. As with all the songs from this film, it doesn't seem to have been issued commercially, so this comes from a soundtrack bootleg.

Also from this film is the oldie "Through the Years"; "Love Is Where You Find It," which M-G-M also allotted to Kathryn Grayson that year (in The Kissing Bandit); and "I'm Strictly on the Corny Side," by Alec Templeton of all people. The latter is a duet with Scotty Beckett.

Nancy Goes to Rio

Ann Sothern and Jane Powell

This one from 1950 involves Nancy (Jane) going to Rio, where she meets up with her mother (Ann Sothern) and encounters the usual misunderstandings and complications, which involve mother and daughter inadvertently competing for the same stage role.

All this enables Jane to sing "Magic Is the Moonlight," by María Grever with English lyrics by Charles Pasquale (a duet with Sothern); "Love Is Like This," music by Pixinguinha, English lyrics by Ray Gilbert; and "Musetta's Waltz" from Puccini's La bohème.

These all come from M-G-M singles.

Four Songs from The King and I

UK EP cover

Also in 1950, M-G-M records decided Powell would be a good match for the songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein's new show The King and I. So she and arranger-conductor David Rose went to the studio to record "Something Wonderful," "We Kiss in a Shadow," "I Whistle a Happy Tune" and "Hello, Young Lovers." Magnificent songs, fine performances.

Probably at the same time, the label had Powell and Rose record "The Echo Song" by Earl Brent, a Hollywood songwriter. M-G-M may have bought or even used this work for a film project; it's not clear. The flip side of "The Echo Song" was "Paris" from the soundtrack of Rich, Young and Pretty. That LP can be found here, newly remastered.

Small Town Girl

Farley Granger, Jane Powell, Bobby Van

Small Town Girl from 1953 is best known for Bobby Van's jumping around town like a human pogo stick. Farley Granger is a big-town fellow who falls for Jane. Bobby Van is her other, somewhat reluctant suitor.

Powell sings "Small Towns Are Smile Towns" and "The Fellow I Follow," both by Nicholas Brodszky and Leo Robin. These were not, I believe, released commercially. The recordings come from a soundtrack bootleg.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

The score for 1954's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is well known, but I have included Powell's three songs because they are not often heard these days.

The numbers are "Wonderful, Wonderful Day, "When You're in Love" and "Go'in Co'tin'," the title of which has more apostrophes than words. The songs are by Johnny Mercer and Gene de Paul.

Deep in My Heart

Deep in My Heart: Jane Powell in organdy, Vic Damone in an ill-fitting suit

Deep in My Heart was a quasi-bio of composer Sigmund Romberg, and is almost enjoyable if you can stand Jose Ferrer. It comes from 1954.

Jane has two specialties. First, a duet with frequent partner Vic Damone, who begins with "The Road to Paradise," leading to the duet "Will You Remember (Sweetheart)," both from 1917 operetta Maytime, with lyrics by Rida Johnson Young.

Powell also sings "One Kiss," from Romberg's operetta The New Moon, with Oscar Hammerstein's lyrics.

Hit the Deck

"Chiribiribin": Vic Damone, Jane Powell, Tony Martin,
Kay Armen, Russ Tamblyn, Debbie Reynolds 

Hit the Deck hit the theaters at about the same time that Hollywood's interest in musicals hit the skids. It did have a tuneful score drawn largely from Vincent Youmans' catalogue.

We begin with "Sometimes I'm Happy," which is another duet for Jane and Vic Damone.

Then the musical ensemble gathers around the piano for a go at Pestalazza's "Chiribiribin" (here called "Chiribiribee"). Jane is in the ensemble; the wonderful Kay Armen takes the lead. I've included it because I enjoy the performance, especially Armen's contribution.

Jane takes the lead in "Why, O Why," then teams up with Damone for "I Know that You Know."

That was all for Jane's career at M-G-M. Her Verve recordings were next.

* * *

This collection does not include Powell's first two films - Song of the Open Road and Delightfully Dangerous; nor does is encompass Athena, which soundtrack was released on Mercury and has appeared here previously, or 3 Sailors and a Girl, done on loan at Warner Bros., which has been posted here. And I previously mentioned Rich, Young and Pretty. These have all been remastered in ambient stereo fairly recently.

Finally, I haven't included the underrated score for Royal Wedding, which I had planned to make a separate post - and will still do so if anyone is interested. The transfer is done; the gabby commentary yet to come.

LINK

Jane Powell - The Verve Recordings

Jane Powell had the fortune or misfortune to become one of the last stars of the Hollywood musical. She became popular for her winsome appearance and distinctively appealing singing, starting in her teens in the mid-1940s through the downturn in musical films in the late 1950s - before her 30th birthday.

Powell made records for Columbia as a juvenile performer, then for M-G-M until her luck ran out in about 1956. At that point, a change of image was overdue - Jane was tired of playing overage adolescents.

The gamine began to mature with her new recording contract with Verve records in 1956, as exemplified by the cover of her LP for that label.

This post gathers together the 20 recordings she made for Verve in 1956-57 - the album above, two singles, and four songs from the television musical Ruggles of Red Gap (which also also released on singles).

Single: True Love / Mind If I Make Love to You

Powell's Verve recordings actually began with a cover version of two songs from the Cole Porter musical film High Society. The sonorous Bing Crosby moaned the hymn-like "True Love" to Grace Kelly in the film, which reading did well as a single. But so did Jane's summer 1956 entry for the Verve catalog, which was backed up by a (to me) even finer record, the beguine "Mind If I Make Love to You." 

Powell was always much more skillful with lyrics than is sometimes acknowledged. And in this single, her voice and phrasing have added a welcome maturity.

LP - Can't We Be Friends?

The single was a portent of what was to come in Powell's first and only Verve LP, which came out in late 1956. There, the selections were even more varied from her teen-operetta image, including both easygoing and harder swingers among the well-chosen standards. In the first song, "My Baby Just Cares for Me," her prominent vibrato is still in evidence, but much more relaxed than on previous records. Her phrasing, flexible even as a youngster, is notably well done in "For Every Man There's a Woman."

For these - and all her Verve recordings - she contends with arranger Buddy Bregman, never the most subtle of craftsmen. His blasting brass assaults on the first few songs are not all that helpful to projecting a more sophisticated approach.

Bregman is more under control in the ballad "Imagination," very nicely done by all parties, perhaps excepting the plaintive viola solo. Lovely song, so well handled.

Buddy Bregman

The Arlen-Robin "Hooray for Love" gets a relaxed interpretation with Bregman thankfully muting the brass. For "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)," Bregman even indulges in some Ellingtonian wind colorations. Jane is not Ivie Anderson, but she is nonetheless convincing here.

Side 1 closes with a great song, the Martin-Blane "Ev'ry Time," handled with the requisite poignance - and including the seldom-heard verse, which is simply gorgeous. This is a high point of the LP.

Powell also is much more flexible with the standard "Comes Love" than the usual practice, including the verse. Bregman has the assault brass back for this one, but Jane belts right along with them, very well, too.

"Let's Face the Music and Dance" was introduced by one of Powell's former co-stars, Fred Astaire. She does him proud, and Buddy is all violins and winds - for a while, anyway. The bravura ending is too much from both of them.

"In Love in Vain" is not one of my favorites from Jerome Kern, even with Leo Robin's accomplished lyrics. Powell is not inside the song as much as in other numbers, although her coda is ravishing.

The Gene Austin-Roy Bergere oldie "How Come You Do Me Like You Do?" is a good choice for Jane, allowing her to move deftly from being aggrieved to aggressive, with sound backing from Buddy.

The album's title song is Kay Swift's greatest hit - "Can't We Be Friends?" - a marvelous torch song with lyrics by her then-husband Paul James (James Warburg). It was introduced by Libby Holman, but not done more effectively than here.

What better to close with than "The Things We Did Last Summer," the universally liked Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn song. Jane could be more rueful here as the leaves of summer fade.

Single: What Gives? What Goes? / Till the Next Time

Jule Styne (Bregman's uncle) was to be involved in the balance of Powell's Verve recordings. First was a follow-up single, with the composer's one-off song "What Gives? What Goes?" being the A-side. The lyrics are by "Kahn" according to the label, but I believe that is Sammy Cahn rather than the long-deceased Gus Kahn.

(Note: Dave Weiner tells me, "The 'Kahn-Styne' composer credit on one of the Jane Powell singles are Stanley Styne, Jule's son, and Donald Kahn, no relation to Sammy Cahn. They also wrote 'A Beautiful Friendship,' which Ella Fitzgerald recorded for Verve.")

It's an undistinguished song, so I chose to give pride of place to its B-side, the unknown-to-me "Till the Next Time," a mid-tempo song that's enjoyable despite the rote lyrics.

Songs from Ruggles of Red Gap

Powell was back in the musical spotlight for a televised version of the play Ruggles of Red Gap, with music by Styne and lyrics by Leo Robin. It appeared on television to little acclaim in February 1957, with an album issued at the same time.

I haven't seen the production, but apparently Powell played the love interest to the butler Ruggles, played stiffly by Michael Redgrave. An odd couple, to be sure.

I've included Powell's four songs from the album, which is enough considering she was the only real singer in the production. Styne and Robin gave her two skillful if hardly weighty songs, "A Ride on a Rainbow" and "I Have You to Thank," which she dispatches neatly, no thanks to the superfluous chorus.

Peter Lawford serves Imogene Coca and Jane Powell

The other two songs were shared with the leaden Michael Redgrave, who could carry a tune but not so as you would want to hear him do it. They are "It's Terribly, Horribly, Frightfully Nice" and "I'm in Pursuit of Happiness." The latter song only comes to life when Powell sings. The notorious non-singer Peter Lawford also is heard on that one, alas.

(Note: Geoconno tells me, "'I'm in Pursuit of Happiness' was a rewrite of a song called 'Why Did I Have to Wait So Long?' with an unfinished lyric by Sammy Cahn for an unproduced film. The tune was used again in Gypsy with the Sondheim lyric 'You'll Never Get Away from Me.'  Sondheim was unaware that the melody had been used in Ruggles of Red Gap.")

I have been assmbling Jane's earlier Columbia and M-G-M recordings - many of which have already appeared here - and hope to produce a follow-up to this post later on.

LINK to Jane Powell - The Verve Recordings

Athena

This post of the soundtrack to Athena was inspired by nothing more profound than me watching the film the other day, and deciding to transfer the record for my own amusement. (I believe I have an expanded soundtrack CD around here someplace, but who knows where that is.)

Athena was a most peculiar movie, with Louis Calhern as the patriarch of a physical culture sect that included his daughters Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds as well as (among others) future sword-and-sandal stalwart Steve Reeves. This was certainly the only musical from Hollywood's heyday that featured a body-building contest as part of the plot.

The film provides love interests for Reynolds and Powell in the persons of crooner Vic Damone (who really does wear that set of carmine-colored tails in the movie) and the dour Edmund Purdom, who dumps Linda Christian for a somewhat-addled Powell during the proceedings. Purdom had much better chemistry with Christian, to the point of later marrying her in real life.

Powell and Reynolds were among Hollywood's most charming commodities and the film is fun to watch - and listen to, with its fine score from the distinguished Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. The studio may not have thought much of the tunes, however, for they brought back the team's "The Boy [here, Girl] Next Door" from Meet Me in St. Louis for an encore. I find it most enjoyable, with wonderfully relaxed and effective performances of the gorgeous "Love Can Change the Stars" and "Venezia" from Damone, and the terrific "Imagine" from Damone and Reynolds. On the other hand, Powell's waltz feature "Vocalize" was surely inspired by her breakthrough performance of "It's a Most Unusual Day" in A Date with Judy. And Reynolds's hectic "I Never Felt Better" is reminiscent of "I Cain't Say No" from Oklahoma!

Lobby card

The program concludes with Powell's version of "Chacun le sait" from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment. In truth, she is a little squally, and the track has several clumsy splices.

For some reason, M-G-M ceded rights to the soundtrack to Mercury, which provided its usual gravelly pressings for this 1954 10-inch LP. The sound is perfectly fine, nonetheless.

Note (June 2024): I have much improved the sound for this version, removing the high frequency glare and mastering it in ambient stereo.

LINK

A Date with Jane Powell

Jane Powell had already become a popular film star when Columbia issued this 10-inch LP in 1949. The initial recording sessions had been held as far back as 1946, and encompassed 1947 dates in both New York and Hollywood.

The album's contents have been reissued a number of times, but I thought I might try my luck at a transfer because the originals were, I believe, off pitch.

Columbia possibly raised the pitch of Powell's singing to make it more brilliant and superficially impressive. To me, doing so drains the expression from her voice. Dropping the pitch down almost a full tone makes her sound more involved. This is particularly important when she attempts "Over the Rainbow," so closely associated with Judy Garland. She does not suffer in the comparison.

The rest of the program is composed of familiar operetta items, chestnuts like the Schubert "Ave Maria" and the horrid "Mighty Lak' a Rose" (in dialect, yet), and the like. The accompaniment is led by Carmen Dragon, who went on to produce a series of light classical records for Capitol. The cover is almost certainly by Alex Steinweiss.

Rich, Young and Pretty

Would that Rich, Young and Pretty - or any of the three - applied to the proprietor of this blog, but no. It instead refers to the star of this M-G-M musical of 1951, the glorious Jane Powell.

On this soundtrack LP, Jane shares the singing chores with Danielle Darrieux and Fernando Lamas (with him, the listening also is a chore). Vic Damone was the love interest in the film, but was under contract to Mercury at the time, so does not appear here.

Powell has most of the numbers, notably "Wonder Why" and "Dark Is the Night." Those songs and most of the others are by Nicholas Brodszky (his Flame and the Flesh was featured here recently) and the ubiquitous lyricist Sammy Cahn.

By the way, the orchestrations here are by M-G-M stalwarts Leo Arnaud and Wally Heglin. David Rose conducts.

LINK to Rich, Young and Pretty (remastered in ambient stereo)

3 Sailors and a Girl

Another 50s musical on 10-inch LP, this one a tale of sailors on leave. Not an original concept, it's true, and many of the songs have a manufactured quality as well. But the leads are the attractive Gordon MacRae and Jane Powell, and some of the tunes are fine, particularly the lovely "Face to Face," so all's not lost on this soundtrack album.

Or, to be more exact, on this album of songs from the movie. Rather than using the soundtrack itself, Capitol remade the songs using the arrangements of George Greeley for this 1953 release.

Gene Nelson, Jane Powell, Gordon MacRae

One final note: the rather large sailor on the right in the cover artwork represents Jack E. Leonard, of all people, taking the comical sidekick role. The other lead was Gene Nelson. Neither appears on this LP.

[Note (August 2023): The sound has been newly remastered in ambient stereo, and is quite good.]

Two Weeks with Love

Another in the series of musical soundtracks on 10-inch LPs - Two Weeks with Love.

This record is more like two minutes with love - it's pretty short. But what's not to like - six songs by the adorable Jane Powell and the delightful Debbie Reynolds-Carleton Carpenter duo.

If you're not familiar with the film, you might have seen Reynolds and Carpenter do Aba Dabba Honeymoon in one of the That's Entertainment compilations. The clip used there is only about half the song - this record has the complete item, including the verse.

Georgie Stoll is the conductor here, Leo Arnaud did the orchestrations.