A Tribute to Pat Friday

Although she was virtually unknown, Pat Friday is my favorite among the vocalists who appeared with Glenn Miller during his abbreviated career - except she never actually "appeared" with him. Friday dubbed Lynn Bari's singing voice for both of Miller's films - Orchestra Wives and Sun Valley Serenade - resulting in superior versions of "I Know Why (and So Do You)," "At Last," "Serenade in Blue" and "It Happened in Sun Valley." But she never otherwise sang with Miller's band.

I got to know the soundtrack recordings from the album that appeared on 20th Century-Fox records in about 1960. Friday's vocal quality and command appealed to me then, and they still do now. I did a deep dive into the Sun Valley Serenade soundtrack recordings a few years ago on my other blog.

Capitol News, February 1945

Helen Patricia Freiday, born in Idaho in 1921, first came to notice as a vocalist on Bing Crosby's radio show, which led directly to the Miller dubbing assignments. She was a modest person, who seemingly did little to promote her great talent, but nonetheless became a regular on the Roy Rogers and Victor Borge radio programs, while making a few records for Decca and for the small Enterprise label. She also appeared on radio with Jack Webb, pre-Dragnet. Webb apparently adopted her surname for his Sgt. Friday character in Dragnet.

I haven't been able to locate the four Decca sides, but Internet Archive yielded needle drops of six songs made for Enterprise in about 1946. One of those records is her commercial recording of the Lecuona-Ruby song "Mi Vida," which she dubbed for Vera-Ellen in the film Carnival in Costa Rica. The version on the film soundtrack was among the 24 Lecuona recordings recently featured on my main blog.

Also in the Enterprise collection are fine recordings of the standards "Don't Blame Me" and "It Had to Be You," with backing by the veteran Bennie Kruger. The leader's sax obbligato is far too prominent in "Don't Blame Me." Krueger also provides the accompaniment for "Mi Vida" and its flip side, "Too Late for Conversation." For the latter song, Friday's singing voice is in a much higher key than usual. I have included a repitched version of the song, but it's just as unconvincing.

The other songs are "Pin Marin," a good novelty number which Friday handles with just the right amount of personality, and the effective torch song "Tonight I'm Alone." Here the backing is by the Song Spinners, an organ and accordion combo.

The UK Glenn Miller site has an illuminating interview with Friday, where she recounts her brief career. She seems to have left the music business behind in about 1950 for a career in finance. Little detail is provided, but it seems as though she and her husband did very well. She died in 2016.

Billboard ad, August 31, 1946

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