Original released on LP Columbia
CL 1327 (mono) / CS 8133 (stereo)
(US, 1959)
Lola
Albright is much better known as an actress than a vocalist. She enjoyed her
greatest fame in the late-'50s and early-'60s television series "Peter Gunn",
playing Edie, the private detective's on-again, off-again love interest.
Albright also appeared briefly in the '60s primetime soap opera Peyton Place,
temporarily replacing the lead star Dorothy Malone for a few months when Malone
became ill in the fall of 1965. This crossover album
shows that Albright's considerable charm and talent were strong enough to merit
her (sadly short-lived) recording career. Albright has a sexy, breathy, and
jazz-inflected vocal style that is comparable to Peggy Lee and Julie London,
and Henry Mancini's cool West Coast-style charts complement her low-key voice
perfectly. One of the real pleasures of this album is hearing the vocal
versions to so many of the songs from Mancini's hugely successful "Peter Gunn" instrumental album mixed in with the usual supper-club suspects. With the noted
exception of the title track, none of these Mancini vocal versions went on to
become widely recorded, which is probably explained by their beatnik
eccentricity (molded to fit the black-turtleneck, bongos, and espresso style of
Mancini's music). The most eccentric of these is saved for last, as Sammy
Cahn's lyric for "Sorta Blue" casts Albright as a depressive cooing
about how her melancholia is so deep that even booze and drugs can't lift her
dashed spirits. This album is a time capsule for sure, but it's a great one and
it deserves to be reissued on CD, just as Lola Albright's acting career merits
a second look. (Nick Dedina in AllMusic)