Dick and Kiz Harp were a charming act who built an enthusiastic following in Dallas in the late 1950s. To a degree they were inspired by Jackie and Roy - the lead singer was Kiz; the pianist and secondary vocalist was Dick - but they did not sound all that much like the more famous duo.
But before I go into their music, let me tell you first that their story has a tragic ending. Kiz died of a cerebral hemorrhage in December 1960, at age 29.
Dick and Kiz had recorded two live LPs for the small 90th Floor label in spring 1960. The first LP was a success; the second was issued after Kiz' death. This post presents both.
Dick and Kiz Harp at the 90th Floor
"The 90th Floor" wasn't just a label; it was the Harps' Dallas nightspot, named for the Cole Porter song "Down in Depths (on the 90th Floor)" beloved of cabaret performers. Far from being a penthouse, the club was a converted warehouse.
The liner notes talk of Dick and Kiz developing a celebrity following including the likes of Tony Bennett. This may be true, but it may be embellished. Back then Dallas was not the metropolis it is now; the Dallas-Fort Worth population then was about a fifth when it is today. I will note, however, that the fine singer Sylvia Syms was a fan and wrote notes for this LP: "I make no bones about my admiration and respect for them as great humans and as artists."
The program starts, inevitably, with "Down in the Depths (on the Ninetieth Floor)." The second song is less known, although it has been recorded a number of times - "Inchworm," which Frank Loesser wrote for Danny Kaye and the 1952 film Hans Christian Anderson.
The pair then duet on "Too Good for the Average Man," my least favorite song from one of my favorite scores, Rodgers and Hart's On Your Toes. Its lyrics were clever then but are decidedly dated now. The duo redeem themselves with "Angel Eyes," the Matt Dennis-Tom Adair classic.
The welcome
"You Are Not My First Love" is one of Bart Howard's best and best-known compositions, surprisingly not included in the
Portia Nelson compilation I posted earlier this year. The song's initial recording was by Mabel Mercer for her first Atlantic LP, in 1952.
"I Like It That Way" is a moody song that Kiz puts across nicely. I know nothing about it, but the performance does display her main influence - not Jackie Cain (or Jeri Southern, as Cash Box suggested in a review of the LP), but Carmen McRae. That's not a bad thing - McRae is a huge favorite of mine.
We're in more familiar territory with the Jerome Moross-John Latouche song "Lazy Afternoon," from The Golden Apple. Many people, including me, consider it one of the finest songs of the 1950s. The Harps take it very slowly, which works admirably.
We are back with Frank Loesser, Danny Kaye and Hans Christian Anderson for the next song, "Ugly Duckling," done effectively as a duet.
The songwriting team of Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf were in their prime for "There Are Days When I Don't Think of You at All," which the Harps may have learned from Wolf's first LP, Wolf at Your Door, released in 1956. It's not one of the songwriters' greatest, but is well served here.
Frank Loesser returns for an encore with perhaps the most frequently recorded song from his most elaborate score - "Joey, Joey, Joey" from The Most Happy Fella, also from 1956. The song was introduced on stage by pop singer Art Lund, who had quite a run of success on Broadway. The verses are handled by Dick, who is only adequate as a singer, with Kiz intoning the "Joey, Joey, Joey" refrain. It's a good arrangement.
Bernie Hanighen and Marvin Wright wrote "Thanks for You" in the 1940s. Dick and Kiz may have picked up the song from June Christy's 1955 recording.
The final song is another relatively unknown but appealing item - "Too Much in Love" by Kim Gannon and Walter Kent. This was introduced in Jane Powell's first film, 1945's Song of the Open Road, but she didn't sing it; Jackie Moran did, which is suppose was preferable to allotting it to one of the leads - W.C. Fields, Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen. Good song, nice performance.
Again! Dick and Kiz Harp at the 90th Floor
The second album, Again!, was taped at the same session or sessions as the first LP, and for the most part is as enjoyable, with its mix of common and lesser-known songs.
The first song was not yet a popular success when they recorded it under Bart Howard's initial title, "In Other Words." It wasn't until a few years later that he renamed it "Fly Me to the Moon." Dick plays an introductory chorus, then Kiz presents the seldom-heard but welcome verse. A smooth performance.
Next, the duo yokes together two songs written in faux-antique English. "Thou Swell," the better known of the two, is by Rodgers and Hart. "Dearest, Darest I" is a relatively unknown Burke and Van Heusen song. Unlike many of their songs, it wasn't introduced by Bing Crosby; rather it comes from a Jack Benny-Fred Allen farce called Love Thy Neighbor. I haven't been able to determine who sang it in the film - it may have been Mary Martin or the Merry Macs - but Ray McKinley with Will Bradley recorded it in 1940, as did others. I like the Harps' arrangement; it's an imaginative way to vary their program.
"Winter Warm" is an early Burt Bacharach-Hal David song and a lovely one, introduced by Gale Storm in 1957 in a sincere version from a singer I don't usuall like. Kiz's reading is cooler, but better sung.
One of the lesser-known Cole Porter songs is next - the rollicking "Great Indoors" from his 1930 show The New Yorkers, where he extols the virtues of not escaping the city's summer heat for the country. Kiz is perfect for this type of material.
Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger wrote the gorgeous "If I Should Lose You" for the unlikeliest vehicle - the 1936 film Rose of the Rancho, where it was sung by Gladys Swarthout and John Boles. Swarthout, who plays the role of Rosita Castro appears en travesti as the leader of a band of vigilantes fighting the outlaws who want to take over her land. (None of this has anything to do with Kiz' sterling reading of the song, of course.)
The next cut is perhaps the only misfire on either LP.
"Fugue for Tinhorns" is one of Frank Loesser's finest songs. The composer liked intricate creations - such as "Ugly Duckling" above - and this trio for racetrack gamblers is nothing less than genius, as can be seen and heard in the
filmed version with Stubby Kaye and Johnny Silver of the original Broadway cast. The idea of allotting the song to one professional singer and two musicians was not as inspired. The album compounds the error by including a breakdown take, which might have been amusing live, but is tiresome on a record. Fortunately you can drop it from your playlist.
"The More I See You," one of Harry Warren's finest creations, is in good hands with the Harps. The song was introduced by Dick Haymes in the 1945 film Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe.
I don't care for the arrangement of the exhilarating "Trolley Song," another 1945 creation, this one by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane for Judy Garland and Meet Me in St. Louis. The cluttered chart gets in the way of the adrenaline rush that should be conveyed both by the trolley and such lyrics as, "I started to yen, then I counted to ten, then I counted to ten again."
"God Bless the Child" is too much of a nightclub version of an affecting song made famous by Billie Holiday.
"Let Me Love You" is one of Bart Howard's most familiar songs, particularly popular in the 1950s and 60s. Mabel Mercer introduced it on her second Atlantic LP. The arrangement has a spot for a fluid Dick Harp piano solo, accompanied by him moaning a la Thelonious Monk.
Perhaps Kiz's finest performance on this set is the best known Fran Landesman-Tommy Wolf song, "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most."
The Harps conclude the program with an unexpected turn to Rodgers and Hammerstein - "A Wonderful Guy" from South Pacific, surely Kiz' tribute to Dick, just as these LPs were his tribute to her.
These transfers come from my own collection (for Again!) and the Internet Archive, as remastered by me. The sound is close but truthful, although the piano tone can be aggressive. Both pressings were mono, enhanced by ambient stereo processing.