Tony Martin Strolls Through Melody Lane

I recently transferred this fine Tony Martin album for friend and fellow collector John Morris, so why not share it here as well.

This 1956 double EP is equivalent to a 10-inch LP. The album also exists in a 12-inch version with a few extra songs, but I don't have that edition, alas. What's here is very good, though.

Tony Martin

Based on the song selection, (A Stroll Through) Melody Lane might just as well have been called (A Stroll Through) Memory Lane. The oldest song is from 1917 and the newest from 1931.

The songs, however, weren't that old when Martin recorded them. These sides were drawn from Martin's 1939-42 sojourn with the Decca company, a fact that is not mentioned on the LP. Rose Room, California and Avalon come from his first recording dates for Decca, in March 1939. I can't find any evidence that A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody, Cuban Love Song or Beautiful Ohio were ever released as singles, but that may be an oversight on my part.

The conductors on these sides were the veteran Abe Lyman, the youthful David Rose and Dick Winslow, who was mainly known as an actor (at least I think it's the same fellow).

Postwar, Martin signed with Mercury and then RCA Victor. You can find his Mercury Dreamland Rendezvous LP here on this blog, in a newly remastered version. From RCA, we have his Desert Song album, done with Kathryn Grayson. Both are very good - Martin lost little of his voice's luster as time went on.

Christmas in 1954

Here is what Christmas sounded like in 1954 - at least if you confined yourself to the products that the RCA Victor recording company had on sale that year.

And quite a pleasant sound it was, with RCA's biggest stars in mostly familiar fare, which actually had been released as singles and on other LPs in earlier years.

One highlight is Perry Como's fine version of "White Christmas," which he manages to make personal, even though as a vocalist he is descended from the immortal Bing, the song's originator.

Dinah Shore offers "Happy Christmas Little Friend," welcome perhaps because the song is not overplayed like most traditional holiday material. Life Magazine commissioned this particular song from Rodgers and Hammerstein, but it nonetheless never entered the popular repertoire.

Tony Martin is excellent in "Silent Night" - one of his best records. And Eddy Arnold's country hit "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S" is appealing even though it is a corny alphabet song. Blog favorite Ralph Flanagan adds a Miller-styled "Winter Wonderland" that I much enjoyed.

The low point is the Three Suns' four-square rendition of "Silver Skates," which evokes the roller rink more than the ice house. Also, I could live without Eartha Kitt's overplayed "Santa Baby" (and the Madonna clone version, for that matter).

All in all, though, a fine record. The sound is very good, as usual with RCA Victor products.

Fran Warren - RCA Victor Singles

I've been a fan of Fran Warren's singing since hearing her record of "A Sunday Kind of Love" with Claude Thornhill's band many years ago. So much so that I started collecting both the singles she made with the bandleader, and her later solo efforts on RCA Victor, M-G-M and other labels.

Today we'll examine some of the singles that RCA recorded with Warren, who passed away a few weeks ago. The singer joined RCA in 1948, shortly after leaving Thornhill's employ. Victor had high hopes for her; one of her first releases for the company was of two songs from Irving Berlin's new show, Miss Liberty, which RCA promoted with a publicity shot with Berlin himself. Warren went on to record some 60 sides for Victor in the space of three years, before she was let go.

This post concentrates on some of the less frequently seen RCA recordings, and includes four of the duets Warren made with Tony Martin during this period. All the solo sides are taken from unplayed store stock and have excellent sonics.

Following are a few words on each of the selections.

We start with "There's No Getting Away from You," which is from a 1948 musical, As the Girls Go, by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh. Even though it's forgotten today, the show ran for over a year on Broadway. Fran was added to the cast of the show during the run, replacing Betty Jane Watson in a leading role and singing this song.

"Now That I Need You" is a Frank Loesser song from the 1949 film Red, Hot and Blue, intro'd there by Betty Hutton.

"You're in Love with Someone" is from the Crosby film vehicle Top o' the Morning. Its flip side, "Envy", is a proto-lounge rhumba.

These first four sides all have good, but anonymous backing.

Next we have four songs with veteran crooner Tony Martin, which are backed by Henri René, an RCA staff arranger-conductor.

Irving Berlin's gorgeous waltz "Together" gets an intimate reading by the pair, who turn this song of regret over lost love into a straightforward love song. The flip, "Speak a Word of Love", is indifferent but pleasant.

Next up is Warren's second biggest hit, "I Said My Pajamas (and Put on My Prayers)", a silly novelty of love-intoxication that could only be from mid-century America. Martin - in his late 30s - must have loved the juvenile lyrics. On the other side is "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You", an early crossover country hit written by Scotty Wiseman of Lulu Belle and Scotty.

René continues providing the backing for the dramatic "Don't Say Goodbye", another rhumba, and "Ho Hum, It's Spring", a characteristic 50s confection ("daffodils are daffodilling, butterflies are butterflying") which Fran does beautifully.

"Cloudy Morning" is an unusual but lovely song that shows off Warren's sensuous lower notes. Arrangement is by Charles Naylor, although René conducts, as he does on the flip side, the waltz "When We're Dancing", which has a Hugo Winterhalter arrangement.

Winterhalter takes over the baton from here on out, and is at the controls for "Hands Off My Heart", a standard ballad done well by Fran, who treads carefully with the melody line, which has a few tricky patches.

The other side is a cover of Ruth Brown's R&B hit, "Teardrops from My Eyes". Pop singers seldom do justice to this kind of shouting rhythm song, but Warren handles it as well as most.

The overwrought "I Love You Much Too Much" is next, backed by "Don't Leave Me Now", an OK ballad that Fran does extremely well. She wasn't getting great material at this time.

To that point we have "Here Comes the Springtime and There Goes My Heart!", a bouncy Meredith Willson product that would be tolerable except for the "ho-dalee, hi-dalee, hay" business.

Things improve on the other side with "When Does This Feeling Go Away?", which Hugh Martin wrote for the 1951 show Make a Wish, where it was introduced by Stephen Douglass.

"January, February, March" is a giddy, galloping, lovestruck novelty. It's a wonder that Fran didn't lose her breath.

The final song is an oddly old-fashioned arrangement of a love song called "Any Time at All". Its celesta accompaniment and do-do-do-ing vocal backing could have been lifted from a Sinatra recording from the mid-40s. That's not to say I don't love it - it's great.

These 20 songs show off the various facets of Warren's art, including her ability to connect with a variety of material, and her smoky vocal quality, possibly influenced by the Camel cigarettes she endorsed (see below). This period was probably the high point in her career, although she went on to be a well-respected artist for many years.

There are four more RCA sides available on my other blog, where I also will post her first record, made with Charlie Barnet's band, in the near future.

Christmas with the Crooners

A 1953 Julius LaRosa EP leads off tonight's share of Christmas records by some of the popular crooners of the postwar era, which also includes a passel of unusual songs by other singers.

The EP came out shortly after LaRosa's infamous on-air firing by American TV host Arthur Godfrey (a man who struck me as creepy even back then, when I was barely out of diapers). Julie has a reputation among vocal aficionados that is far greater than his popularity, and this record shows why. He performs these songs beautifully (a tendency to sing a little flat aside). He maintains his quality of voice even when singing loud, which is unusual for pop singers. And he is very involved in the repertoire. Excellent support by the Columbus Boychoir and Archie Bleyer. There is a small amount of groove noise on this EP - the second side was defective, but I managed to navigate around almost all the damage.

Billboard ad

We begin the assorted holiday singles with Johnny Mercer's 1946 recording of "Winter Wonderland," made with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston. This one's a little worn, but the rest of the evening's fare is in excellent shape.

We move ahead to 1950 and Frankie Laine's 78 of "Merry Christmas Everywhere" and "What Am I Gonna Do This Christmas." Also from that year is the first of two singles from that fine singer Johnny Desmond - "Sleigh Ride" and "A Marshmallow World."

Next up is "That's What Christmas Means to Me," a good song and performance by Eddie Fisher. Back to Desmond for 1954's "Happy Holidays to You" and "Santo Natale" (think "Santa Lucia").

Billboard ad

Finally, from 1955 we have Tony Martin's "Christmas in America" and "Christmas in Rio."

The songs on this set range from the overly familiar ("Silent Night") to sorta familiar ("Sleigh Ride") to sorta unfamiliar ("A Marshmallow World") to completely unfamiliar (most of the rest). Many of the non-hits are very worthwhile, and I think that makes for a good holiday listening.

Tony Martin

Here's another of the ageless pop music veterans who, like Herb Jeffries, is still with us. He is 95-year-old Tony Martin, whose career goes back far enough for him to have appeared in an Astaire-Rogers movie.

Tony's hit records and movie appearances began in the 1930s, and his vocal style, although a little dated sounding even in these late 1940s recordings, was a precursor of the romantic balladeers who were ascendant in the post-war years.

This album also allows us to revisit the work of my cover art "discovery," Fred Steffen, who did a number of odd and outrageous covers for Mercury Records way back when. This one, possibly inspired by Cot's The Storm (I know my kitsch), is tame by Steffen standards. It might even be considered attractive, if not for the obtrusive cartouche.

These are very fine records of their type, and well recorded for the time. They are wildly out of style, but I love 'em anyway.

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.