Vic Damone's SIngles from 'Rich, Young and Pretty'

The soundtrack record for the 1951 musical comedy Rich, Young and Pretty (the title describes star Jane Powell) found a home on the main blog many years ago and is still available.

The film has a nice score by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn, and the tunes are well presented by Powell and Danielle Darrieux. (Despite being only 12 years older than Powell, Darrieux played her mother.) The glowering father was Wendell Corey, mercifully left off the soundtrack LP. (Would that the same were the case for Fernando Lamas.)

Also missing from the soundtrack album is juvenile lead Vic Damone, who certainly can sing and does so well in the film. Presumably M-G-M could not get the rights to include him in its LP from his record company, Mercury.

Mercury instead had Damone do his own versions of three songs from the score. And while Powell handles "Wonder Why" and "I Can See You" beautifully in the film, it's great to have Vic's versions on a single.

Damone also offers one song that isn't on the soundtrack LP: "How D'Ya Like Your Eggs in the Morning?" In the film, this tune is delivered by the Four Freshmen as singing waiters in a peculiar breakfast boîte where the patrons cook their own meals at their tables. Young lovers Damone and Powell endure predictable mishaps.

The Four Freshmen march away from Damone and Powell

It's actually a catchy and clever song, and racy for the period ("How d'ya like your eggs in the morning? / I like mine with a kiss."). Damone's single is highly effective.

Apparently Vic or the Mercury folks couldn't find another Rich, Young and Pretty song they liked: they backed "Eggs in the Morning," appropriately, with "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening." Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer contributed that number to Bing's Here Comes the Groom, another 1951 musical. Damone's reading, aided by the Pied Pipers, is exceptionally good.

Jane and Vic canoodle while Wendell fumes

Vic had the benefit of backings and presumably arrangements from George Siravo, a favorite around here who has appeared on the main blog several times - as has Damone. 

The singer was to be paired with Jane Powell twice more - in 1954's Athena and 1955's Hit the Deck. Vic appears on both soundtrack LPs - Athena can be found here.

The download includes many posters, lobby cards and stills from Rich, Young and Pretty. The recordings were cleaned up from originals found on Internet Archive.

A Special Gordon MacRae 78 Promoting Community Chest

Here's a circa 1950 charitable contribution in song from Gordon MacRae and his radio sponsor, the Association of American Railroads. It promotes giving to Community Chest, the forerunner of today's United Way in the US.

The disc dates from 1948-50, which is when MacRae's show, The Railroad Hour, was on the air.

You'll notice that the label says that the record was produced for the "United Red Feather Campaigns of America." The red feather was the symbol of the campaign; when you gave, you would get a red feather lapel pin in recognition. Even as a child, I received such pins for my small contributions.

The Community Chest campaigns began in Cleveland in 1913, then spread rapidly throughout the nation. Even today, the biggest contributors to the local United Way receive a "Red Feather" designation.

MacRae's song was called "Give Your Best to Community Chest," a march with music by Gus Haenschen, long-time radio and music industry figure who made many records under the name Carl Fenton. The lyricist was Bea Adams. I suspect she was the person of that name who was the creative director of the Gardner Advertising Agency of St. Louis.

The flip side of this record is the "United Red Feather March," by the Earl Paul Brass Band and Chorus. I can't tell you anything about the artist, or the Phil Davis who wrote the music.

This record is a companion to a post on my main blog focusing on the records of MacRae and Jo Stafford from the same period.

Bing's 'Welcome Stranger' - the Promo Discs and Commercial Releases

In casting Bing Crosby's latest film, 1947's Welcome Stranger, Paramount Studios tried to recreate the success of the Groaner's most recent films. First, they enlisted Barry Fitzgerald, the beloved foil from one of Crosby's most successful entries, Going My Way. Only this time, Bing and Barry would be doctors instead of priests.

Then, for good measure, Paramount cast Joan Caulfield as the love interest, as it had in Crosby's most recent film, Blue Skies. And as usual Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen were on hand to provide the songs (although the Irving Berlin catalog had graced Blue Skies).

The result was a success at the box office, but the songs are less remembered than many others written for Bing's film projects. Even Bing's The Bells of St. Mary's had a more durable hit, "Aren't You Glad You're You?", the only Burke-Van Heusen song in the score.

Too bad, because the Welcome Stranger songs are accomplished and varied - and perfectly suited to Crosby's talents and persona. Today we get to hear not only the four Decca sides recorded in conjunction with the film, but the same songs as heard on the soundtrack, courtesy of the promotional records that Paramount sent out in advance of the film's opening.

The sets lead off with the gorgeous ballad, "As Long as I'm Dreaming." Both versions are effective and affecting, but the soundtrack has a level of involvement that Bing sometimes didn't attain in his commercial recordings. The same is true of most of the other recordings, which is perhaps understandable considering that the Decca sessions were nine months after the soundtrack recordings.

The "dreamer" was a central element of Crosby's film and TV characters from Holiday Inn through to High Tor. A related aspect was the "regular guy" personality that was embodied in Welcome Stranger by the song "My Heart Is a Hobo." In this number, Bing insists that he "loves to go out berry pickin', hates to hear alarm clocks tickin'," while admitting that he "hates the stodgy guy that I am." (He apparently had to work at being irresponsible.)

"Country Style" is a square dance - far more common back then - which comes off better on the soundtrack than in the studio.

"Smile Right Back at the Sun" was a cracker-barrel philosophy piece that was a bid to replicate the popularity of "Aren't You Glad You're You?" or Going My Way's "Swinging on a Star." It didn't achieve as much success, even though it's a good song. Here the commercial recording is just as effective as the soundtrack.

The songs in both sets are well-recorded and very enjoyable. The download includes many stills and posters from the film, along with the booklet included in the 78 set (cover below). All recordings were cleaned up from Internet Archive originals.