More Vocals by the Great Stuart Foster

My posts of vocals by Stuart Foster were so successful (artistically, anyway), that I wanted to bring him back for an encore. Today we have 19 songs from singles issued under his name or those of bandleaders Hugo Winterhalter, Gordon Jenkins, Russ Case and several others.

Foster was busy in the studio because he could sing almost anything convincingly, displaying great sensitivity or impressive power as the song demanded. Listening to him is always a pleasure.

Today's singles date from 1949-53.

"Wishing Star" is a pretty ballad that did fairly well for bandleader Russ Case and Foster in 1949. Case's arrangement is dated but lovely, and no one did this kind of wonderment better than Foster. The Modernaires were the market competition for this one.

Next, circa late 1950, we have four songs issued under Stuart's own name for the small PAB label. This were likely done at the invitation of bandleader Dick Freitas, who co-wrote all the tunes, two with the well-known Albert McCarthy, and two with Freitas' wife Mary. (Down Beat sneered at her contributions, observing that they "are a clear indication of why every third American is supposed to fancy himself a song writer." Actually, she is not as bad as all that, although no Ira Gershwin.) The songs are the ballads "If It Isn't Forever" and "Casually" and the contrasting Latin numbers "Carnival" and "Querida." 

In early 1951, bandleader Hugo Winterhalter had the happy idea of pairing Stuart with "Alice in Wonderland," the gorgeous title song of the Disney movie. Foster does wonders with this fine Sammy Fain-Bob Hilliard song. The flip is also good - "I'll Never Know Why," by lyricist Sammy Gallop and veteran songwriter Chester Conn.

A few months later, Foster was in the studio with Bill Snyder, who claimed to wield a "Magic Piano," although he sounds like all the other grandiloquent pianists who were popular back then. The songs are good, even so. Snyder wrote "My Dearest" with singer turned songwriter Sunny Skylar. "Unless" was an English number with music by Torchard Evans and lyrics from Robert Hargreaves and Stanley Damerell. Gracie Fields and Al Bowlly recorded it over there in the 1930s; Eddie Fisher and Guy Mitchell over here in 1951.

Billboard, August 11, 1951

Hugo Winterhalter brought Foster on board again in 1951 for "Make Believe Land," a song by Abner Silver and Benny Davis, who had been writing together for 30 years at that point. Nat Cole did a competing version for Capitol.

Also for RCA Victor at about the same time was "When I'm Gone," written by arranger Dewey Bergman working with Sunny Skylar. The bandleader's name on the label was "Bob Dewey" but that was a pseudonym for Bergman when he recorded for RCA. The song's trenchant lyrics were "You'll be sad, you'll be lonely, when I'm gone, when I'm gone, when I'm gone," in waltz time. The tune is basically the same as the wartime hit "In My Arms."

Russ Case called Foster in for a go at "Play, Fiddle, Play," which, you may have guessed, was a quasi-gypsy tune. The writer was, appropriately, fiddler Emery Deutsch, working with Jack Lawrence and Arthur Altman. The singer is effective in the tune, but it's undoubtedly kitschy.

In early 1952, Stuart issued a few sides under his own name on the small Abbey label, with backing by the experienced Dick Jacobs. "Chimney Smoke" is one of those quasi-folk tunes of the time that managed to insert extra syllables into words to make them sound more, well, folksy. So "chimney" herein comes out "chim-a-nee." Foster is persuasive as always, but these affectations drive me up the listening room wall. Abbey did Stuart no favor by pressing this one a half-step sharp.

The flip side was a revival of "Take Me," a nice Rube Bloom-Mack David song that was a success for Jimmy Dorsey a decade earlier. Foster, predictably, is much better in the song than Dorsey's scrawny-voiced and out-of-tune Helen O'Connell. Jacobs' arrangement starts off loud but settles down.

In late 1952, Stuart was back with Hugo Winterhalter for two memorable movie songs that are seldom heard these days. These, along with "Alice in Wonderland" and "Julie" (below) are the best recordings in the set. "Your Mother and Mine" comes from the Disney version of Peter Pan, with Sammy Fain providing the music, working this time with Sammy Cahn.

From Frank Loesser's score for the Danny Kaye film Hans Christian Andersen came "Anywhere I Wander," a beautiful song that became the first big hit for Julius La Rosa. Foster's reading is well worth hearing.

Making pop songs from classical works is an old trick and not one I enjoy, but the the next version is certainly unique. Jack Lawrence and Fred Spielman had the idea of turning Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune into a rapt pop song called "Afternoon Dream," and Gordon Jenkins thought that Foster would be just the right singer for the number. He was right; Foster did "rapt" about as well as anyone.

The other side of the record could not be more of a contrast - a noisy David Saxon-Norman Gimbel number called "Fury," which treatment befits its title. Foster shows his range here in his bravura singing.

The final song is another overlooked gem from a film of the time. "Julie" comes from 1953's Take the High Ground, a war movie whose principal female character is named Julie, played by Elaine Stewart. The glorious theme by Dmitri Tiomkin, working with Charles Wolcott, is superbly done by Foster backed by Le Roy Holmes. One of the finest things in this collection, it provides a fitting conclusion.

Most of these recordings were remastered from items found on Internet Archive. The sound is generally excellent.

Stuart Foster - A Fine, But Forgotten SInger

The subject of today's post, Stuart Foster (1918-68), is a former big-band vocalist who was not even that well known during his heyday, and recorded only sporadically under his own name. He was featured, however, on records by bandleaders as diverse as Guy Lombardo and Gordon Jenkins, and had a long career as a studio singer. Foster was much more talented than his reputation would suggest, as I hope you will agree after sampling his output.

Foster had a strong voice, even throughout his range, excellent diction and superior intonation. While a forthright singer, he also was sensitive to words.

For this post, I've combined 12 single sides that he made with assorted bandleaders from 1944 to 1953, together with a 1954 EP issued under his own name. These provide a good overview of his accomplishments.

Early Career and Singles

Foster's first professional gig was as a singer for the Ina Ray Hutton band, starting in 1940. When Hutton disbanded in 1944, he joined Guy Lombardo. Our playlist starts with two Lombardo singles. "The Trolley Song" comes from Meet Me in St. Louis; in that movie, Judy Garland's ride was exhilarating, while Lombardo's band just lumbers along, as was its habit. Foster does fine, though.

"Poor Little Rhode Island" is a Cahn and Styne song from another 1944 film, the Kay Kyser vehicle Carolina Blues. Foster is again encumbered by the clunky Lombardo Trio, but the song is a good one. It presumably was the inspiration for the slightly later "Rhode Island Is Famous for You" (from Dietz and Schwartz' Inside U.S.A., which can be found here).

We'll skip over Foster's 1944-48 residency with Tommy Dorsey, which has been covered in reissues of Dorsey's records, and move on to 1949, when the singer joined Russ Case in the M-G-M studio for three songs. The first, "A Thousand Violins," comes from the Bob Hope film The Great Lover. It was among the many songs that Livingston and Evans contributed to the movies of the time.

I can't say much about the pop tune "All Year 'Round," but "Mad About You" is a Victor Young-Ned Washington song written, appropriately enough, for Gun Crazy. Sinatra also recorded this number; Foster's interpretation is not inferior.

The following year, M-G-M had Foster join another dance maestro, Shep Fields, for a go at "Today, Tomorrow and Forever." By this time, Fields had ceded his "rippling rhythm" bubble-machine gimmick to Lawrence Welk, so this is not a bad outing, if hardly a swinger. Foster is excellent, as you should be able to discerned through the coos of his backing choir.

In 1951, mood-music maven Hugo Winterhalter brought Foster on board for four songs recorded for RCA Victor. The first is a Cy Coben compose-by-numbers piece called "The Seven Wonders of the World." The vocalist shines against Winterhalter's lush background.

Bob Hilliard and Sammy Fain wrote "Alice in Wonderland" for the movie of the same name. It's a lovely song, and is one of Foster's best records.

The vocalist's final two items for Winterhalter are in the semi-folk vein that was popular following the Weavers' big 1950 hit, "Goodnight, Irene." Frank Loesser wrote "Wave to Me, My Lady" back in 1946 for the country market, where it became a number three hit for Elton Britt. Foster is entirely convincing in this song - as he is on the flip side, "Across the Wide Missouri." The latter is a folk song usually called "Shenandoah," although here the songwriting team of Ervin Drake and Jimmy Shirl have attached their names to it. This effort is probably a cover of the Weavers-Terry Gilkyson record.

Foster was very well matched with the trumpet and big band of Billy Butterfield for "Baby Won't You Say You Love Me." Josef Myrow and Mack Gordon wrote the song for Betty Grable's Wabash Avenue, which improbably co-starred Victor Mature.

The final single is from 1953, and is one of Foster's best. "Secret Love" was written for Doris Day to sing in Calamity Jane, and it would be hard to top her legendary performance, but Foster comes close, aided by Gordon Jenkins' backing.

The Camden EP

The final batch of Foster performances are from a late 1954 EP that RCA issued on its Camden budget label. "Today's Hits" was a catch-all title that the company used for extended-play cover versions of the then-popular tunes. These were presumably RCA's method for counteracting the cheapo labels that had tried to succeed in the low-price niche.

We've had three such EPs on the blog before: 1955 and 1956 entries from another big-band fugitive, Bob Carroll, plus a Gisele MacKenzie disc that also dates from 1955.

Foster's EP starts with "I Need You Now," little remembered today but a number one hit for Eddie Fisher in 1954. "Count Your Blessings," in contrast, is a beloved evergreen introduced by Bing Crosby in White Christmas. I can't imagine anyone being unhappy with Foster's sensitive cover.

"Papa Loves Mambo" was a major hit for Perry Como. Foster's version shows off his fine sense of rhythm. The song "Teach Me Tonight" entered the charts several times in the early 50s; the song's appearance here was probably inspired by the Janet Brace or Jo Stafford recordings, or both.

The anonymous backing on the EP is by a small combo or combos.

I hope this has been a good introduction to a talented artist. The singles were remastered from lossless needle drops on Internet Archive. The EP is from my collection.

Also featuring Foster, I also have two Camden LPs from 1957 with the hits of the day, along with two albums of Broadway show tunes done by producer-arranger Dick Jacobs for Coral late in the 1950s. I may share these at a later date.

Billboard ad, January 1, 1955