It was when I was preparing the post of the Ray Charles Singers' Cadence recordings that I had the idea of featuring one of the singers on the set. That person is Dorothy Evans - better known as Dottie Evans on seemingly innumerable Enoch Light budget records of the 1950s, which will be the focus of today's proceedings.
Dottie was a wonderfully versatile singer, able to tackle ballads, rhythm numbers and novelties with equal aplomb. She had excellent intonation and diction, and a lovely vocal quality. She's just fun to hear.
About Dottie Evans
| The Murphy Sisters |
Thereafter Dottie made her name as a studio singer, available for radio and television work, for jobs with such groups as the Ray Charles Singers, and for ads. In the 1960s, she made three LPs with folk singer Tom Glazer that were part of a six-album set known as "Ballads for the Age of Science." The songs by Hy Zaret and Lou Singer explained science concepts to children.
Sister Marge - also a skillful and appealing singer - made a quite a few budget records under the name Margie Murphy. She worked with Enoch Light's labels, as did Dottie, whose career we examine below.
The 1954-58 Budget Recordings
The Dottie Evans recordings in this set come primarily from the "18 Top Hits" label, which was one of Enoch Light's portfolio of budget marques, the best known of which may have been Waldorf Music Hall. 18 Tops Hits was exclusive to the Woolworth dime store chain. All this was before the impresario and former bandleader went upscale and started the Command label. Some of today's selections also appeared on the Bell label, which Light did not own, to my knowledge, so perhaps he leased some recordings to or from that operation.
| Enoch Light the bandleader |
Light's stock-in-trade was high quality budget cover recordings of the top hits of the day. He had a retinue of multi-talented studio singers - among them Artie Malvin, Loren Becker and of course Dottie and her sister Margie.
Most of Dottie's records have backing by Enoch Light and orchestra, although sometimes the bandleader is not named. Vincent Lopez and Jimmy Carroll also appear on a few records.
These records come primarily from Internet Archive 78s. Most of them cleaned up well; a few are a little scratchy.
Merrill also came up with "Make Yourself Comfortable," a success for Sarah Vaughan, and a record I bought when I was five. (I started young.) Dottie is just as welcoming as Sarah.
The marvelous "When You Wish Upon a Star" is by Leigh Harline and Ned Washington, written in 1940 for Disney's Pinocchio. I suspect that Evans' record was stimulated by a new TV show, Walt Disney's Disneyland, which began in 1954 and used the song as its theme.
"Suddenly There's a Valley" is by Chuck Meyer and Biff Jones, and became a major hit for Gogi Grant on the Era label. It's one of the uplifting, quasi-religious songs that were popular at the time. Gogi's version can be found on my other blog.
Not well remembered - at least by me - is "You Are My Love." Jimmie Nabbie wrote it for Joni James, who apparently did well with it.
Another song that has not persisted in popularity is Kim Gannon's "Croce di Oro (Cross of Gold)." Patti Page had the hit with it in 1955-56.
"Cry Me a River" is an unusual song in that it was written by Arthur Hamilton for Ella Fitzgerald to sing in the film Pete Kelly's Blues, but not used. It was recorded a few years later by Julie London at the urging of Bobby Troup, who would later become London's husband. The song made her career. Evans' emotive version is accomplished as well.
"Mr. Wonderful" is by Jerry Bock, George David Weiss and Larry Holofcener, written for the Broadway musical of that name starring Sammy Davis, Jr. (Olga James sang the number on stage.) Teddi King put out a popular version of the song in 1956 - her version is in this collection of her Victor singles.
One of the biggest hits of 1956 was "The Wayward Wind," which was Gogi Grant's other big success along with "Suddenly There's a Valley." In a post on my other blog about Gogi, I noted that, "'The Wayward Wind' is a second cousin lyrically to Lerner and Loewe's 'Wand'rin' Star' from the Paint Your Wagon score."
For a while there, songs by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans seemed to pop up in every other film that Hollywood released. One of their best items was "Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)," which formed part of the plot in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much. Doris Day sang it in the film, it became a very popular Columbia single and won an Oscar.
The lovely "Graduation Day" is a Joe and Noel Sherman song that did nicely for the Four Freshman and the Rover Boys. I missed it the first time around and learned it from the Beach Boys' Freshmen-esque recording.
Jack Fulton and Lois Steele wrote "Ivory Tower," which hit for Cathy Carr, Gale Storm and Otis Williams (separately, not together).
The Ethel Merman vehicle Happy Hunting spawned "Mutual Admiration Society." For a while there, this Harold Karr-Matt Dubey was inescapable whenever two singers showed up on the same stage (assuming they didn't want to do "Me and My Shadow"). La Merman was joined by Virginia Gibson for the Broadway duet.
Moving to 1957, the song "Old Cape Cod" by Claire Rothrock, Milton Yakus and Allan Jeffrey put the Massachusetts peninsula on the map, as it were. Patti Page's voice was the vehicle.
Enoch Light also put out LP compilations in the late 50s, one of which contained the songs from My Fair Lady. Evans sang "I Could Have Danced All Night," which was a hit for Sylvia Syms and can be found in this Syms collection. Lerner and Loewe were the songwriters.
Light also issued a Show Spectacular album in 1958 with a various showtunes. From that collection we have Dottie singing "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" from Finian's Rainbow, the handiwork of Burton Lane and Yip Harburg.
Hope you enjoyed this tribute to a fine, albeit overlooked singer.