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

Songs from (or Cut from) 'Out of This World'

Previously in this series about the musical stage, we've tried to reconstruct original cast recordings where there were none. For this post, we'll look at a show where a cast LP exists, by exploring some of the commercial recordings by the popular artists of the day.

The subject is Cole Porter's score for Out of This World, a 1950 opening that lasted for about five months on Broadway. Not one of the composer's greatest hits, and a show whose best-known number was cut before the opening.

Still and all, it offered an entertaining collection of songs that were eagerly adopted by the record companies, providing plenty of grist for this musical mill. The inspiration for my post - if "inspiration" is the right word - was the following trade ad that ran in Billboard in early 1951.

Click to enlarge

As you can see (if you enlarge the ad, that is), nine songs from the score were recorded, eight of which are in this group. ("Hark to the Song" only appeared on a transcription that I haven't found.) The ad also touts the original cast LP, which has been reissued a number of times. Ironically, it lists the cast album right below the song "From This Moment On," which does not appear on said cast LP because director George Abbott cut it in tryouts. It is surely the best known (and best) piece that Porter wrote for the score. Fortunately it came to glorious life in the 1953 movie adaptation of his Kiss Me Kate. We'll eventually get to it in this collection, along with another song that was cut. And we'll add the song "Out of This World," which came from a 1945 film and wasn't by Porter.

Cole Porter and Charlotte Greenwood

Before I get to the music, let me pay homage to the show's star, Charlotte Greenwood, a wonderful comic actor who brightened vaudeville, Broadway and the films for several decades. Out of This World, based on Plautus' Amphitryon, had Greenwood playing Juno and George Gaynes Jupiter. While she does not appear in this collection, she can be heard on the cast album.

The songs below appear in show order - until we get to the cut items, that is.

Songs from the Show

"Use Your Imagination" was popular with the record companies, if not the record buyers, attracting many of the most popular artists of the day. That said, it's a lumbering creature that didn't bring out the best from the best. My favorite is the fresh-voiced Vic Damone with a band led by Harry Geller. Vic does sound fine, but even so, more animation might not have been amiss.

Jo Stafford and Paul Weston pose in the studio

"Where, Oh Where" is given a lush arrangement by Paul Weston that sets off Jo Stafford's lovely voice very well. It was her first Columbia single (and was backed by her own version of "Use Your Imagination," not included here).

Vic and Jo are well remembered, but our next artist is less so. She was a fine singer, though, and here takes up the most popular item from the score as it appeared on Broadway - "I Am Loved" - and does it wonderfully even when compared to such competitors as Frank Sinatra. She was Evelyn Knight, who recorded a great number of songs for Decca from 1944-52 and was often heard on radio. She retired from the business in the 1950s.

One oddity is that the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists Knight as being backed by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians. However, no label credit is given to the band, and the aural evidence does not point to the Lombardo clan, for sure.

Peggy Lee

With "Climb Up the Mountain," Porter decided to dabble again in the folk-spiritual realm, which he had mined in "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," for 1934's Anything Goes. This new song is similar, and it generated only one commercial recording, that of Peggy Lee. I am an admirer of the singer, but this is an execrable record, starting with the braying band vocal and carrying on through Lee's shrill, overemphatic singing. I'd say it is unlistenable, but then I am asking you to listen to it, and for all I know you might like it!

Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra

Next, Porter tried to replicate the success of "You're the Top" with another simile song, "Cherry Pies Ought to Be You," which Columbia assigned to Frank Sinatra and the up and coming Rosemary Clooney. It's a tad abstruse, what with Porter comparing the loved one to "asphodels" and "Ambrose Light," a light tower in the waters off New York. (At the latter mention, Frank interjects, "Hey, that's a good one!", but then he was from around those parts.) Porter exercises his penchant for mildly risqué lyrics at several points, causing Frank to caution, "Hey, watch it!" when Rosie makes vague reference to Errol Flynn's sexuality. A fun record, even though the singers go out of tune at the end. (The 78 was also mastered considerably flat, which I fixed.)

Dinah Shore - nobody was chasing her

Another song from the show that was heard occasionally was "Nobody's Chasing Me," which was Juno's closing lament in the show but here improbably assigned to RCA Victor's Dinah Shore. It's another example of Porter revisiting an earlier song idea - instead of an entreaty for love, as in "Let's Do It," it's a lament for its absence: "The bull is chasing the heifer, but nobody's chasing me." Henri René accompanies Dinah with slide whistles and accordions.

Songs Cut from the Show

Now on to the songs cut from the show. First is "You Don't Remind Me," dropped during the tryouts but even so recorded by several notables, including Frank Sinatra. It's another list song, but this time a ballad, and Frank makes the most of it. Let me put in a word for arranger Axel Stordahl. This is more for his body of work, because here he and Sinatra seem of two minds about the tempo. It's a beautiful song, nonetheless.

As noted above the best known tune written for the show was "From This Moment On," recorded by several artists in 1950-1, but not achieving great popularity until it was used in the 1953 film version of Kiss Me Kate. It happens to be one of my favorites, so I've included three varied recordings from the later time period.

Dick Noel

First is a disc by the strong voiced Dick Noel, who never achieved great popularity as a record artist, but was hugely successful in the jingle field. It's a pleasure to hear his forthright singing, well suited to the material and ably backed by Decca mainstay Jack Pleis.

One oddity is that Noel has the same name as a well-known studio musician, trombonist Dick Noel, who appears on the next version of "From This Moment On," that by Les Brown's powerhouse band, with a superb chart by Skip Martin. This is exciting, but not more so than the version from the film itself.

There's also a link between Les Brown's record and the film version, because Skip Martin was one of the credited orchestrators on the film, along with Conrad Salinger, with uncredited contributions by Robert Franklyn and Wally Heglin. Any or all of them could have handled "From This Moment On." It is a wonderful chart, performed by the M-G-M Orchestra conducted by André Previn.

'From This Moment On'

On screen, the music's impact is heightened by the colorful set design and dancing. The film's choreographer was Hermes Pan, but at least some of this dance has more than a whiff of Bob Fosse about it, particularly his section with Carol Haney. Vocally, he is credited on the record label along with Tommy Rall, Ann Miller and Bobby Van. The strongest singing voice you hear is Rall's.

The download includes the audio version from the M-G-M commercial issue, along with the longer version directly from the film soundtrack. I prefer the edit because it seems better integrated and doesn't reflect the dancer's footfalls. The soundtrack is in stereo, though. (You can watch the dance on YouTube, of course.)

The Song "Out of This World"

Finally, let's discuss the song "Out of This World," which is unrelated to Porter's musical and predates it. It comes from a 1945 Eddie Bracken film of the same name, with a wonderful title song by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Bracken plays a Bing-style crooner; his singing voice is, appropriately enough, dubbed by the man himself.

Sheet music from the film, George Paxton ad and vocalist Alan Dale

Crosby's Decca disc is desultory, so I turned instead to a relatively obscure recording, that of George Paxton, who had a strong band in the brassy mid-40s manner also adopted by Stan Kenton and Boyd Raeburn. Singing is the young Alan Dale, a very good romantic baritone. The Paxton-Dale record represents the Arlen-Mercer song very well.

These records are remastered primarily from Internet Archive needle drops. The sound is generally excellent ambient stereo.

More from Jo Ann Greer and Vic Damone

Through the generosity of some good friends, we have more from the wonderful vocalists Jo Ann Greer and Vic Damone, both of whom were recently featured on this blog.

Jo Ann Greer

To add to the pile of Jo Ann Greer recordings, reader and benefactor lafong has come up with four more songs - "I Want to Be Happy," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "Put the Blame on Mame" and "What Ever Lola Wants."

Also, an old friend of mine who simply describes himself as "a Spanish admirer of the blog" has assembled 10 video clips of film songs that Greer dubbed. On the screen you will see Gloria Grahame, June Allyson, Kim Novak, May Wynn, Rita Hayworth (five clips) and Susan Kohner, but the voice you hear will be Jo Ann's.

Many thanks for these thoughtful folks for passing this material along! Links are in the comments.

Vic Damone

My friend Ernie, the indefatigable Christmas record blogger, found time to send over four more Vic Damone Christmas songs not in my recent post. These are from two various-artists holiday LPs and one from the US Army Reserve. All four songs are excellent.

Ernie posted a link to these numbers in the comments to the original post; you can find it there or in the comments section here. Thanks again, pal!

Sounds of the Season with Vic Damone

As far as I know, the exceptional singer Vic Damone didn't produce a Christmas album until 1981, relatively late in his career. So I decided to fill the gap by assembling Damone's seasonal recordings from his early years with Mercury through to a group of 1965 LP cuts.

I have to confess that I have defined "seasonal recordings" broadly, taking my cue from my pal Ernie, who has (and shares) more Christmas recordings than anyone I know. (Please check out the holiday offerings from Ernie - and my good friend Lee as well.)

This means I included a few numbers that strictly speaking are not Christmas songs. They do, however, include "December," "Angels" or "Bells" in the title, and fit in well with the genuine holiday selections.

All told, the collection makes a attractive playlist of 13 songs derived from the holdings at Internet Archive and from my collection.

Below are a few words about each number, as usual presented in chronological order of issue.

Damone's career took off when he was still in his teens, and he signed with Mercury Records when he was just 19. It wasn't long before the label had him record his first holiday single - "Silent Night" and the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria." The so-called "Mercury Chorale" simulates a heavenly choir and the young Damone sounds suitably angelic. Tutti Camarata conducted and presumably arranged.

Later in the year, Mercury had Vic try out two current tunes. One was "Spring in December," an Italian song by by Vittorio Mascheroni and Gian Carlo Testoni, with English lyrics from Harold Rome. The other was "The Serenade of the Bells" from Kay Twomey, Al Goodhart, and Al Urban. Glenn Osser conducted. Both are enjoyable songs that became hits, although not so much for the young Damone. His versions are well worth hearing though.

The Mercury Chorale return for our next selection, Franck's "Panis Angelicus," as conducted by Mitch Miller. This was an early 1948 recording presumably issued in time for Easter, although the hymn was actually written for the Feast of Corpus Christi. As always, Damone's singing is strikingly lovely.

For the 1948 holiday season, Mercury had Vic take a shot at "White Christmas," which he does very well, with the assistance of an anonymous orchestra and choir. The backing was a more unusual selection, "Christmas Morn," by Hilliard, Lehman and Travers. Hilliard is presumably Bob Hilliard; not sure of the other two, but this may be a reworking of an older composition. It's an interesting song (Billboard proclaimed it as "not as bad as these things usually are") and Damone does it well, if a trifle cautiously. (It isn't easy to sing.) He sounds more like Bing than usual on this record - or more to the point, Bing's disciple Perry Como, who gave Vic his first break.

FYI - Mercury packaged three of the songs above with seasonal specialties from Frankie Laine and Eddy Howard for an LP you can find here.

Jumping ahead to 1950, the label had Vic do a version of one of the new Christmas songs for that year, "It's a Marshmallow World" from Carl Sigman and Peter DeRose. It's a jolly tune attempted by many of the bards of the time. The most popular version was from Crosby, but my favorite is by Johnny Desmond.

"Music of the Angels," also from 1950, is "Blues in the Night" in a a less cynical, more pious vein, with the accompaniment of a simulated heavenly host. The bandleader was George Siravo, called "Sirabo" on the label. (Mercury had a talent for this: it identified Ralph Marterie as "Ralph Martiere" on the "Marshmallow World" label and Glenn Osser as "Glen" Osser on "Spring in December.")

I don't have anything else for you until Damone's move to Columbia records in the mid-50s. In 1956, Vic was Young Scrooge in the televised production of The Stingiest Man in Town, with a score by Fred Spielman and Janice Torre. I posted the Columbia cast album of this musical back in 2011, and it's still available. Damone's two numbers are soaring operetta-style arias shared with the excellent Patrice Munsel, but neither have any seasonal flavor.

The following year, there was a televised musical adaptation of Junior Miss, which is set at Christmas. The Burton Lane-Dorothy Fields songs only rated an EP of cover versions by Columbia artists, with Damone handling the title song (which has no holiday content). I posted the EP many years ago; it is still available here.

In 1957, Damone produced another bell song - "The Legend of the Bells," with the ubiquitous celestial choir accompanying a supernatural tale of chimes and a mission. It's a nice if contrived outing that Vic makes great. The credits are "Vic Damone with Marty Manning," who must have been busy singing all the choral parts and playing all the instruments.

We again jump ahead, to 1965 when Damone recorded three Christmas songs. Two - "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" - were for a high quality album put out by the Firestone Tire Co., one of a series in the 1960s. The latter number is a brilliant Martin and Blane song written for Judy Garland and the 1945 film Meet Me in St. Louis. Damone is superb in both. Irwin Kostal, who won an Oscar for scoring The Sound of Music film adaptation that same year, arranges and conducts.

Our final selection is taken from the 1965 television show The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood, which starred Liza Minnelli as the title character, Cyril Ritchard as the Wolf and Damone as a Woodsman, the good guy in this tale. You can see all of them on the cover above, along with The Animals peeking out on the right.

"We Wish the World a Happy Yule" provides a brief coda to the proceedings. Most of the number is done by Minnelli, sounding like a combination of Shirley Bassey and Barbra Streisand, an unusual approach for Red Riding Hood, I'd say. Damone does get to sing a stanza and Ritchard makes a token appearance. It's pleasing tune by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill. Too bad it's not longer.

It's also too bad I don't have more Damone to share with you, but what's here is good! Hope you enjoy the songs and the holidays.

Addendum - Ernie has come up with a few more Damone holiday songs for us to enjoy. Please see his group of comments right below my first comment. His second link is the one that works. (It superseded his first link.) Thanks, pal! 

The Popular Lecuona

My recent post of a few Morton Gould recordings of the music of Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963) led me to seek out recordings that would demonstrate how the Cuban composer’s music became popular in America during the 1930s into the 50s.

This post is the result. It compiles 24 versions of Lecuona’s most popular compositions, drawn from 78s and soundtrack recordings. These include different interpretations of the songs that Gould orchestrated: "Andalucía" ("The Breeze and I"), "Malagueña," "La Comparsa" and "Jungle Drums."

Alfredo Brito

Perhaps the first Lecuona melody to become popular in the U.S. was his 1929 composition "Siboney.” (Siboney is a town in Cuba, and by extension can be understood to refer to Cuba itself.) The song gained notice in 1931 via a record by Alfredo Brito and His Siboney Orchestra, the first item in our collection.

Many artists have since recorded “Siboney,” often with the English lyrics written by Dolly Morse that have nothing to do with Lecuona’s original words. Bing Crosby recorded the English version in 1945 with Xavier Cugat and his Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. Cugat was prominent in America at the time and recorded many Latin songs, but nonetheless his was not considered an “authentic” Cuban band, even though he spent much of his youth in that country.

The young Cugat. He later grew hair.

Cugat in fact popularized the second Lecuona composition in the set, "Para Vigo Me Voy” (“I’m Going to Vigo,” a town in Spain), which became known as "Say Si, Si" after acquiring Al Stillman’s English lyrics. Cugat recorded it in 1935, the year of its composition. The English version became a hit in 1940, with the Andrews Sisters having the best-selling disc. The download includes both the Cugat and Andrews records.

The next song, “Jungle Drums,” was called “Canto Karabali” by Lecuona when he published it in 1933. I believe “Karabali” refers to African slaves brought to Cuba from a particular region of Africa. Both versions in the playlist come from 1939, the first by Artie Shaw and his band, the second from Cugie again, with an unlikely vocal by Dinah Shore, making one of her first appearances on record. Dinah presents the English lyrics written by Carmen Lombardo, of all people. “Jungle Drums” went on to become one of the theme songs of the exotica movement of the 50s.

“The Breeze and I” is one of Lecuona’s most recognizable and enduring melodies, originally published as “Andalucía” in 1928. With Al Stillman’s new English lyrics, the song became an American hit in 1940 through the single version by Jimmy Dorsey’s band, with a vocal by Bob Eberly. This is another Lecuona song that is still heard today.

Jimmy Dorsey and Bob Eberly

After “The Breeze and I” and “Say Si, Si” became hits, Lecuona wrote the title song for the 1942 film Always in My Heart, which starred Kay Francis and Walter Huston. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, losing to "White Christmas." Dorsey and Eberly, recognizing a good thing, recorded a version with Kim Gannon’s English lyrics, and it became a hit as well.

One of Lecuona’s most popular melodies, "Malagueña" (that is, a type of dance from Málaga, Spain), comes from his 1933 Suite Andalucía, to which he added lyrics in Spanish. Our first interpretation comes from Del Campo and His Orchestra, with a piano solo by arranger Jose Esteves. Luis Del Campo was a former Cugat singer who formed his own band in the 1940s, continuing until his death in 1950. This record, from about 1947, appeared on the short-lived Coda label.

Dorsey and Eberly struck again in 1942 with a vocal version of "Malagueña" called “At the Cross-Roads,” with English lyrics by Bob Russell.

It’s been said that Lecuona lifted the melody of "Malagueña" from a section of Louis Moreau Gottschalk’s 1851 composition Souvenirs d'Andalousie. I think it’s more likely that both Lecuona and Gottschalk were drawing upon the same indigenous melody.

Next we have a record by the Lecuona Cuban Boys, confusingly named because the group did not include Lecuona himself. He did, however, start the group in the early 1930s after seeing the success that Alfredo Brito was having with his music. The song “Panama” comes from a 1937 Columbia album by the group.

The Cuban Boys also contribute a rendition of one of Lecuona’s best-known melodies, “La Comparsa,” taken from their early Victor album Melodias Cubanas, with a piano solo by Armando Oréfiche, the group’s leader. I've also included a 1946 recording of "La Comparsa" from Camilo Lentini and His Latin-American Orchestra on the Pan-American label. Lentini was active in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s.

Hollywood called on Lecuona once more for a title song for the 1946 film One More Tomorrow, an Ann Sheridan-Dennis Morgan-Alexis Smith love triangle in which Morgan has to choose between his principles and his rich friends. (In other words, it has a plot you have seen a hundred times.) The version of the song in the playlist comes from Tex Beneke’s revived Glenn Miller Orchestra, with a sensitive vocal by Artie Malvin, who later became the king of the budget-label cover records.

Also in 1946, Lecuona provided the music for Carnival in Costa Rica, a musical starring Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen. I am particularly fond of the music from this film, so I have included the main songs directly from the soundtrack and from Haymes’ Decca recordings.

Vera-Ellen’s singing voice was dubbed by Pat Friday, a superb vocalist who appeared on several radio shows, did some film dubbing and made a very few records, including a version of Carnival in Costa Rica's “Mi Vida." My other blog will soon have a post of the few 78s she made in 1946 for the small Enterprise label.

Dick Haymes and Vera-Ellen in Carnival in Costa Rica

In this collection, we have soundtrack versions of “I’ll Know It’s Love” (Friday solo and Haymes/Friday reprise), “Mi Vida” (Haymes/Friday duet) and “Another Night Like This” (Haymes solo). Also included are Haymes’ Decca 78s of “Another Night Like This” and “Mi Vida,” which have backing by Gordon Jenkins.

The Lecuona Cuban Boys return with a 1946 single on the Majestic label – “Rumba-Bomba,” with a Manyo Lopez vocal, and “Maracas,” vocal by Ernesto Ojea.

Lecuona’s music continued to be popular into the 1950s. The playlist concludes with two versions of “The Breeze and I” from that decade. The first is a Vic Damone vocal recording, which became a hit in 1952. Finally, there is a George Shearing instrumental from 1951 that demonstrates the influence of Shearing’s sound on the exotica bands that were soon to emerge.

The sound on these records ranges from good to excellent. Most were sourced from lossless needle-drops on Internet Archive.

Remembering Two Great Singers

I was sorry to hear about the death Sunday of a great singer, Vic Damone, who has appeared on this blog as many times as any artist. While I have nothing new prepared to mark Damone's passing, I do want to take the occasion to honor another talented vocalist who died in the recent past. Marlene VerPlanck never achieved the renown of Vic Damone, but she was nonetheless a supremely talented singer who made many fine records.

Marlene VerPlanck

VerPlanck started recording early, with a solo LP under the name Marlene for the Savoy label in 1955, when she was 21. That effort was reissued on CD a number of years ago. She did not record again under her own name until the late 60s, with two records on her own Mounted label. Then she was not heard from until 1979, when she signed with the Audiophile label, where she recorded for the balance of her career. Audiophile has also reissued her Mounted recordings.

VerPlanck was in demand as a singer even when not busy under her own name, first as a vocalist with some of the remaining big bands, then as a member of a cabaret act, the John LaSalle Quartet, and notably as one of the most in-demand studio singers. If you are as old as me (and I hope you are not), you have heard her voice - taking on the Campbell Soup tagline ("M'm, m'm good") and Nationwide Insurance's motto ("Nationwide is on your side"), among many others. Her perfect diction and intonation allied to an innate warmth made her a highly successful representative for these brands.

Today I wanted to share what I believe is her second recording. In it, she appears as a member of the John LaSalle Quartet, which also included Hugh Martin and Bill Smith. This LP, dating from 1959, is titled Jumpin' at the Left Bank, even though it was surely taped in the studio, not at the New York night spot where the group was appearing. The Left Bank was owned by Dick Kollmar, an actor, producer, radio personality and husband of columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, both of whom are name-checked on the LP.

It's a good record by a fine group, with interesting arrangements by Billy VerPlanck, Marlene's husband. The quartet went on to record another album for Capitol, and LaSalle did a solo LP for Columbia a few years later.

You can learn more about VerPlanck via a detailed New York Times obituary and a knowledgeable Marc Myers appreciation.

Damone Special - April in Paris Plus Bonuses and Remasters

Vic Damone has become something of a sub-specialty of this blog, most recently with a collection of his Silvertone Record Club recordings.

At that time I speculated that the Silvertone sides were produced by Mercury, the singer's main label, and in fact almost all of the many Damone tunes on this blog originated with that Chicago diskery.

Today I add to the pile of Mercury LPs with a transfer of a 10-inch album from circa 1953, April in Paris. Six of the eight songs therein derive from 1951 sessions with blog favorite arranger George Siravo. A seventh comes from a 1951 date with George Bassman, and the remaining item is with Glenn Osser and comes from 1947.

As a bonus, I've included an EP with three songs that didn't appear on LP and a 78 with two additional non-LP tracks.

The EP is This Is the Night, with three 1947 songs with Glenn Osser arrangements, along with "My Heart Is Breaking" from 1952, with Joe Lipman backing. The latter also appears on the LP Amor, which I have transferred previously and which is being reuploaded today (see below).

The bonus 78 comprises "Good Morning, Morning Glory" and "Goodbye for Awhile," which come from one of the 1951 Siravo sessions.

To summarize, here are the tracks, arrangers and dates:

01 You Belong to Me (George Siravo) 1951

02 Funny (George Siravo) 1951

03 My Funny Valentine (George Siravo) 1951

04 Easy to Love (George Siravo) 1951

05 April in Paris (George Siravo) 1951

06 Far Away Places (Glenn Osser) 1947

07 Operetta (George Siravo) 1951

08 Jump Through the Ring (George Bassman) 1951

09 Everyone But Me (Glenn Osser) 1949

10 Let's Fall in Love (Glenn Osser) 1949

11 This Is the Night (Glenn Osser) 1949

12 My Heart Is Breaking (Joe Lipman) 1952

13 Good Morning, Morning Glory (George Siravo) 1951

14 Goodbye for Awhile (George Siravo) 1951

Damone sounds great throughout this collection, and is at his most Sinatra-like in the 1951 Siravo dates. "Good Morning, Morning Glory" even apes the approach Frank was taking with novelty material at the time under the heavy hand of Mitch Miller. The sound is good for the most part, with the exception of some peak shatter in "Easy to Love" and a bit of 78 surface gravel on "Goodbye for Awhile."

Mercury's cover, as often is the case with the label, is adorably dorky, with Damone's disembodied head poking out from under a "boulangerie" sign. (They had the good sense to not have it say "charcuterie.")

Reups/remasters

I've remastered and reuploaded the four Damone 10-inch solo LPs that have appeared previously on this blog. The sound is generally much improved over the original incarnations. The links below lead to the original post. Download links can be found in the comments there and in the comments to this post as well.

Amor

Ebb Tide

Vic Damone (MG25028)

Vic Damone (MG25029)

Vic Damone for the Silvertone Record Club

Young Vic Damone

Vic Damone recorded for a number of companies during his long career, but his early efforts were mainly but not exclusively for Chicago-based Mercury records. He joined that label in 1947, just a few years after it began, and quickly became one of its most important artists.

But perhaps even before the silky-voiced young baritone was recording for Mercury, he was a featured artist for another Chicago institution - Sears, Roebuck and Co. Damone was one of the main attractions of the "Silvertone Record Club," a high-toned pop and light classical label that Sears operated from 1946-49.

I believe that Sears contracted with Mercury for its Damone output - and possibly other selections. He is backed by such arrangers as Glenn Osser and Tutti Camarata, who also helmed his Mercury output during the same period. Many of the songs first issued on Silvertone show up in his Mercury discography as well. It seems likely that the masters reverted to Mercury after the Sears imprint went under.

This post brings together the majority of Damone's Silvertone recordings. The first eight are from an LP issued on the Hollywood budget label in the 1950s (cover below). The sound on these sides is relatively good, with my usual reissue complaint that reverb has been added to "modernize" the sonics. Not much I can do about that, but I could and did fix the pitch, which was distinctly sharp.

The balance are from two Silvertone 78s in my collection. These 78 transfers are not as bright sounding than most of my efforts, to minimize some audible needle damage that is endemic to these early vinyl pressings. Vinyl 78s sounded great when new, but did not stand up well to the two-ton tonearms that were normal on contemporary record players.

So why transfer these if some can be found on Mercury issues? First, because the majority come from 12-inch masters, and I believe that Mercury shortened them for subsequent release. Second, not all of them were re-released. And most importantly, they are fine examples of Damone's balladry, and thus enjoyable in and of themselves.

Let me mention that the last song in the collection is a Ted Dale instrumental with no vocal. I included it only for the sake of completeness - it is the flip side to Damone's vocal on "I've Got You Under My Skin."

LINK

Note (January 2024): these recordings have now been remastered in ambient stereo for better sound. Also, I've now completed the Silvertone set with three additional sides that can be found on my singles blog.

Christmas with Damone, Laine and Howard

Let's kick off the holiday season with a 10-incher featuring blog favorites Frankie Laine and Vic Damone and new friend Eddy Howard.

The recordings are all from 1947 and 1948, then compiled into this LP in 1951, I believe.

Damone's version of "Silent Night" first came out on a 12-inch 78 in 1947, later cut down to 10-inch format for jukeboxes. His excellent version of "White Christmas" and the obscure "Christmas Morn" are from 1948. The latter has a difficult melody line, which gives Vic some trouble.

Laine's coupling of "You're All I Want for Christmas" and "Tara Talara Tala" are also from 1948. Frankie is sincere, but in truth these readings do drag a bit.

Eddy Howard may not be familiar to many of you; he is not nearly as well remembered as Laine or Damone. Howard started out as a band vocalist, then moved on to fronting his own band in the 1940s. The three items here were recorded for the small Majestic label in 1947, then swept up by Mercury when Majestic fell to pieces. Mercury reissued the sides in 1948.

Howard was a sensitive singer, but he tends to croon in a head voice, a mannerism I find annoying. Nonetheless his versions of the songs "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "The Christmas Song," then new, now standards, are well done, and nicely played by his band. "Dearest Santa" is a sentimental item in the vein of "The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot," only this time around the unfortunate orphan is a girl.

The sound on the items recorded by Majestic is very good, those originating with Mercury less so. Mercury's processing and pressings leave something to be desired, as usual, but the results still are reasonably good.

Have a fun holiday season, everyone!

1948 trade ad featuring all these sides

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