Frankie Laine Promotes His Latest LP and Singles

In early 1951 Columbia Records was able to wrest the dynamic singer Frankie Laine away from Mercury. This was mainly because Columbia had recruited Laine's producer, the prodigious hitmaker Mitch Miller. The bigger label's marketing prowess also might have been a factor.

In only a few months, Frankie and Mitch were churning out hits ("Jezebel," et al) and also a 10-inch LP that didn't include Laine's singles of the time, and that had him singing if not subtly at least at a lower volume than his single releases generally displayed.

To plug both the LP and singles, Columbia had the vocalist and producer tape a two-sided promotional record that is the subject of today's post - which is a companion to a post on the main blog about Frankie's One for My Baby LP.  For the two programs below, I've added appropriate songs from Laine's Columbia output as a DJ might have done some 70 years ago.

A Frankie Laine - Mitch Miller Program

The first side of the promo record contains the voice tracks for a 15-minute show with Laine and Miller introducing three songs from the singer's new Columbia album - "Tomorrow Mountain," "To Be Worthy of You" and "One for My Baby."

As those things generally were, the scripted banter is stiff, but it does reveal that Frankie relied on Mitch to help select the songs and that they tried to make the material diverse. At that they succeeded, with only the title tune and "When It's Sleepy Time Down South" being standards.

Beyond that, Frankie gives kudos to bandleader Paul Weston and pianist Carl Fischer - and their work is predictably polished and professional throughout the album.

The download includes the three songs from the LP along with their intros.

Frankie Laine and Mitch Miller

Greetings from Frankie Laine

The second side of the promotional single has Frankie delivering four record introductions, two "singing salutes" and one spot offering an autographed photo.

These spots were designed to be used whenever the DJ had an appropriate record - presumably Laine's - ready to air. They are generic - no specific cut is mentioned, although one does make reference to Christmas.

I've turned the spots into a second program lasting about 17 minutes by sequencing the salutes and intros with Laine's singles of the time. The result demonstrates the diverse materials he was recording - both the blockbusters like "Jezebel" and the delightful duets with Jo Stafford.

For some reason, Columbia had Frankie begin all his intros in the same way - "Hiya DAD! This is Frankie Laine." Hiya DAD" must have been a Laine catchphrase - Mitch refers to him as Dad in the program above. Even so, it's annoying.

The "singing salutes" that begin and end the program both include a snatch of Laine's theme song, his  first big hit, "That's My Desire."

Cash Box, April 21, 1951

Now for the song selections.

"Jezebel" was a huge hit for Laine right off the bat, as well as the first success for songwriter Wayne Shanklin, who later was to pen "Chanson d'Amour" and "The Big Hurt." This was Frankie at his most unbridled, and the public wanted more.

In response, Laine, Miller and Columbia came out with "Jealousy," a similar tale of temperament, using Jacob Gade's 1925 tango melody and a 1930 set of lyrics by Vera Bloom.

Billboard, November 3, 1951

The two duets with Jo Stafford provide a welcome contrast. One is the light-hearted and deftly sung "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening" - the Johnny Mercer-Hoagy Carmichael tune introduced by Bing and Jane Wyman in Here Comes the Groom. Frankie and Jo sing somewhat different lyrics than Bing and Jane. It's not clear where this special material came from, but it is a welcome addition to one of my favorite songs of the era.

The second duet is "Christmas Roses," an enjoyable uptempo song done beautifully by the pair. It was from the team of Hy Zaret, Joan Whitney and Alex Kramer, who earlier wrote the wonderful "It All Comes Back to Me Now." Unlike the rest of the songs in this set, this was a 1952 release.

The final number is "Snow in Lover's Lane," an obscure song by Al De Vita, Jerry Ball, Fred Kelly and Jerry Kanner. I believe Frankie may have introduced it - his face is on the sheet music, at least.

It makes for an entertaining program - "Hiya DAD" aside - in vivid sound. All tracks were refurbished from originals found on Internet Archive.

Gordon MacRae on Apollo

Most recently we have heard from vocalist (and future film star) Gordon MacRae in his early Musicraft recordings, dating from 1945. Today we examine two 78s he made for the Apollo label in 1947, just before he joined Capitol, where he did his best-known discs.

Apollo was only a few years old at the time, and was known primarily for gospel and R&B releases, although it also had a pop line. The catalogue featured a few releases by the young Dean Martin, made at about the same time as MacRae's efforts for the label. All this was shortly before Apollo was to sign its biggest star, Mahalia Jackson. 

MacRae's selections for the label were all songs that had achieved some popularity at the time, three on the charts and one on Broadway.

Gordon MacRae

His first coupling was "Heartaches" b/w "If I Had My Life to Live Over." The former, written by Al Hoffman and John Klenner, dated from 1931 but had been revived in 1947 as an instrumental by bandleader Ted Weems.

"If I Had My Life to Live Over" is another oldie, written by Moe Jaffe, Larry Vincent and Henry Tobias in 1939. Larry Vincent and the Feilden Foursome revived it in 1947 with some success. Vincent was the owner of the Pearl label, which primarily issued party records.

MacRae includes the verse on both the above songs.

"I Want To Be Loved (But Only By You)" was a new song that Savannah Churchill wrote and recorded for Apollo. It was to hit number one on the R&B charts. MacRae's effort was presumably a cover for the pop market. (This is not the same song as "I Wanna Be Loved," a 1933 effort by Johnny Green and Eddie Heyman that may be more familiar.)

The backing for Savannah Churchill's composition was "Old Devil Moon," a great song by Burton Lane and Yip Harburg from the current Broadway hit Finian's Rainbow.

MacRae is in good voice and generally does well, although he seems uncomfortable with "I Want to Be Loved." The singer displays more of a Bing influence here than on the Musicraft sides, where he sounded more like Dick Haymes.

Leading the band on both records was tenor saxophonist Jerry Jerome, who had played with Glenn Miller, Red Norvo, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw. The backings on the first two songs were lush in the manner of the time, including strings. The arrangements on the second coupling were less elaborate, with the chart for "I Want To Be Loved (But Only By You)" an odd amalgam of R&B and Dixieland. Jerome was presumably the tenor soloist on that number.

Jerry Jerome had an usual physique

Bobby Short's First Records

The great cabaret singer-pianist Bobby Short (1924-2005) started issuing LPs in 1955, with his first Atlantic release. But a few years earlier the small and short-lived Trend label issued his first records - one single and then one EP, which included the single.

Today's post is devoted to the fruits of that 1953 session, where he was backed by the band of the 23-year-old Buddy Bregman, who also may have been making his debut on records.

Short, who was 29 at the time of the Trend date, had been on stage for two-thirds of his young life, having started in shows at 11. His first recording session had been for the National label in 1944, but those sides were apparently never issued.

With his considerable experience, it is not surprising to find that the singer we hear on the Trend sides sounds very much like the artist who became increasingly familiar to cabaret enthusiasts as the years went by.

His song selection would not be out of place on any of his later albums, either. It starts off with "Let There Be Love," the biggest (only?) hit by Lionel Rand and Ian Grant, dating from 1940. This is a perfect vehicle for Short, whose phrasing makes a meal, so to speak, of such passages as "chile con carne and sparkling champagne." His strong but flexible sense of rhythm keeps it from seeming affected.

Next comes perhaps the most interesting song on the EP, "Sunday in Savannah," again the greatest hit of the obscure songwriter Hugh Mackay (also spelled MacKay and McKay). This slice-of-life-down-south song is so reminiscent of the work of Willard Robison that the original Trend 78 attributed it to him.

My guess is that Short learned the song from the first, 1952 LP of fellow cabaret singer Mabel Mercer, who did attribute it correctly. Regardless, it's a strikingly good composition that was later revived by a number of singers, notably Nina Simone. Here, Bregman's band is joined by the Jud Conlon Rhythmaires, who had accompanied Bing Crosby for several years. They don't add anything to the proceedings, but that's not Short's doing, as far as I know.

Short was known for his good taste, and he continues to show it with his third selection, "Taking a Chance on Love," a Vernon Duke-John Latouche-Ted Fetter song introduced by Ethel Waters in 1940's Cabin in the Sky. (Waters' memorable film version can be seen on YouTube.)

The composer of the final song, Bart Howard, was a cabaret pianist who once was Mercer's accompanist. "Let Me Love You" was on Mercer's third LP, but I believe that Short's EP had already been recorded by then. Howard was a talented songwriter. You can also hear "Let Me Love You" in Marian Bruce's interpretation here, and Howard's "My Love Is a Wanderer" performed by Shannon Bolin via this link.

The Trend and Kapp EPs

I mentioned that Trend was a short-lived label. Its catalogue was bought by the Kapp label, which reissued the Short EP in about 1957. My transfers of "Let Me Love You" and "Taking a Chance on Love" come from the Kapp release. The other songs are derived from a Trend 78 found on Internet Archive, which I used because it has better sound than the EP.

Note: This is newly available in excellent ambient stereo sound.