Elliot Lawrence, the Sixty Minute Man

Elliot Lawrence, the big band leader turned Broadway maestro, had a long and distinguished recording career that took a quick turn into country music and R&B covers during his short stint on the King label in 1951.

His few releases for that company include a cover version of the Dominoes' giant hit, "Sixty Minute Man," and a song with King's big country star Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas, who had broken out in 1946 with "Filipino Baby."

King published Lawrence's discs in its "Popular" series. Both records in today's post included one song that was a pop cover version for a record that came out in the label's "Sepia-Blues" series.

On the left is an edited Billboard ad advertising both the original version of the highly suggestive "Lovin' Machine" by King R&B star Wynonie Harris and an incongruous cover by Lawrence and his decorous vocalist Rosalind Patton. 

The company backed "Lovin' Machine" with a country ballad, "Don't Leave My Poor Heart Breaking," sung by Patton and Cowboy Copas.

King's double-barreled method was becoming increasing common at the time - record a song for the R&B (or country) market, then prepare a separate release for the pop audience. 

This continued to be a standard approach for years to come, although the original versions would increasingly invade the pop charts without a cover record's assistance. "Sixty Minute Man" was an early example of this. It became a number one single on the R&B charts and did well in the pop market, too, while the Lawrence cover went nowhere.

For the Lawrence version, King had former band vocalist Melvin Moore take on the vocals. He had sung with, among others, Lucky Millinder, Ernie Fields and Neal Hefti and was a member of one of the Ink Spots clone groups at the time of the session. Vocally, however, he wasn't any match for the charisma of the Dominoes' bass, Bill Brown, who sang lead on its recording.

Melvin Moore and Lucky Millinder

The final number in this four-song set is "Quick," which is the only item that is at all characteristic of Lawrence's usual sound, although much brassier than the records he had just made for Decca. The writers were Lawrence and Bickley Reichner, who composed several songs together. It's a very good record with one of Patton's best vocals, sounding less mannered than she did on the band's recent Decca sides. I suspect that this may be the more representative of Lawrence's preferred style, not as sedate as his Decca records and not in a country or R&B vein either. The arranger is not known, but it may be Johnny Mandel, who was on the band's staff at the time.

This post is a companion to an item on the main blog, where I present one of those Decca LPs, College Prom, a much different experience than his King singles of just a year later.