Kathryn Grayson in Grounds for Marriage

Here we go again with one of our obscure soundtrack LPs, once again featuring Kathryn Grayson.

In 1951's Grounds for Marriage, Grayson plays an opera singer, which she reputedly wanted to be in real life. Most all the music on this album is from operas, namely Le Coq d'Or, Carmen and La Bohème. This is all fairly well performed, except for the nasal tenor in "O Soave Fanciulla". But you can hear the arias better performed on many other records, so the package works best as a souvenir of the film.

I haven't seen Grounds for Marriage, but the plot synopsis makes it sound like a contrived farce (so I probably would enjoy it). Van Johnson plays Grayson's ex-husband.

The only non-operatic piece on the program is a Toy Concertino, written by David Raksin for the film. Bronislau Kaper wrote the other soundtrack music, but none of it appears on the LP. The sound is good.

1952 ad (click to enlarge)

Digression No. 18

There's a post of unusual interest over at a blog of unusual interest called Rand's Esoteric OTR. This post contains a transcription of a 1948 concert that originated in the Hollywood Bowl sponsored by M-G-M. The Hollywood Bowl Symphony was conducted by Miklós Rózsa, with vocal soloists Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza.

Pertinent to today, the major work on the program was a Halloween Suite, composed by Lionel Barrymore - a delightful work with Barrymore in characteristic form as narrator. I can't recommend this too highly. I had read that Barrymore liked to compose, but had never encountered his work before. This composition is certainly enjoyable. The only downside is a low bit-rate transfer, but the sound is listenable.

I've prepared a declicked and rebalanced version of this for my own use. If anyone is interested, leave a comment and I'll make it available. But please visit Rand's blog; he has many fascinating transcriptions there.

Kathryn Grayson in So This Is Love

When the Warner Bros. were casting the 1953 film So This Is Love, they needed a good looking woman who could handle both popular and operatic material. Who better than Kathryn Grayson, the wide-eyed, bow-mouthed wonder, to grace the screen as Grace Moore, a famous personality of an earlier generation.

Moore is forgotten today, but when this movie was made, she was well-remembered as a star of the opera and musical stage, films and records who died in a 1947 plane crash.

Grayson was similarly versatile, and she had to be to handle what is presented here, everything from Mozart and Puccini to "Everybody Ought to Know How to Do the Tickle Toe," a dreadful 1918 novelty number. She is better used in Berlin's waltz, "Remember," where her wistful quality is most affecting.

I don't believe this soundtrack LP has been reissued, so it makes a nice addition to our earlier posts devoted to this enduringly popular artist.

The Desert Song (Grayson)

As a follow-up to the very popular Kathryn Grayson collection, here is the 10-inch LP she made of songs from her 1953 starring vehicle, The Desert Song.

Warner Bros. paired her with Gordon MacRae for that operetta, but since MacRae was a Capitol artist, she did a "songs from" collection for RCA with Tony Martin. Meanwhile, MacRae paired up with Lucille Norman for his own competing collection.

Being non-partisan, I'll be presenting both versions, neither of which have appeared since their original issue, as far as I can tell. This post presents the Grayson collection, here from the 2-EP version of the LP.

This is a good collection sure to please admirers of these artists. It contains seven sings from the film and one Martin bonus song.

Kathryn Grayson

Here's a tribute to one of MGM's great stars, Kathryn Grayson, and her recordings on the MGM label, starting with the 10-inch record Kathryn Grayson Sings, and adding other titles.

Making this compilation was a little confusing because, in the time-honored tradition of record companies everywhere, MGM issued two different records called Kathryn Grayson Sings, with partially overlapping contents, and its subsidiary Lion issued another called Kathryn Grayson, again with overlapping contents.

The 10-inch Kathryn Grayson Sings (above) has the best sonics of the three, so I used its contents where possible. But since it also was in the worst condition, I have substituted dubs from the two 12-inch albums (covers below) as needed.

The first eight songs are the ones that appeared on the 10-inch album. To these I've added the items on the 12-inch records that weren't on the 10-inch, so we ended up with 15 tracks in all. (I wanted to mention that the last track has some peak distortion, so please skip it if your ears are sensitive.)

If the explanation above hasn't put you to sleep, let's move on to discussing the voice, and it's spectacular. I've always loved the way she sings. She was a star; it's surprising she isn't more remembered today.

These songs are a combination of soundtrack recordings and sides made with a studio orchestra directed by Philip Green. The soundtrack recordings that are documented on the album covers are led by Georgie Stoll.

I'll be back later on with the recording of Desert Song that Grayson made with Tony Martin.