Vic Damone and Patti Page Chat and Sing

By 1948, Patti Page and Vic Damone, both 20 years old, had emerged as stars for the young Mercury record company. Each had enjoyed a hit or two - Patti with "Confess" and Vic with "I Have But One Heart," among other songs. So the label decided to put them together for a few numbers. 

For promotion, Mercury sent a special record to disk jockeys that contained a scripted dialogue between the two, laboriously called "Patti Page and Vic Damone Interview Each Other for Your Radio Show." This post brings you that three-and-a-half minute conversation, along with the four sides that it was designed to promote.

The first record paired "Isn't It Romantic" with "Say Something Sweet to Your Sweetheart." The former is a wonderful Rodgers and Hart song written for Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald to introduce in the 1932 film Love Me Tonight. The Damone-Page duet was stimulated by the 1948 Veronica Lake-Billy De Wolfe musical Isn't It Romantic, which reintroduced the song but otherwise had tunes by Livingston and Evans. Vic is fine here, but Patti tends to sing not to him but to the microphone.

Patti and Vic gyrate and sing

"Say Something Sweet" is a strikingly old-fashioned soft-shoe from Sid Tepper and Roy Brodsky - not unpleasant, actually, although Vic tries too hard.

This record was a fairly early example of overdubbing, with the orchestral backings pre-recorded by English bandleader Eric Robinson. It came out in October 1948, and did achieve some popularity.

Damone and Page were back in the studio in December for a session led by Mercury A&R chief Mitch Miller. The first song is "You Was!", written by bandleader Sonny Burke with lyricist Paul Francis Webster. It's a number that was popular with the record companies - Doris Day and Buddy Clark recorded it, along with Peggy Lee and Dean Martin, and several others.

The flip side was "Yes, Yes, Yes!", with Damone sounding a great deal like Sinatra. Page is fine here, and the harmony passages are good, but Vic struggles with the melody line. I can't tell you much about this particular song, but I did look to see if there were other songs with the same title. I discover two different tunes titled "Yes, Yes, Yes" with no exclamation point (Larry Fotine and Walt Solek), "Yes! Yes! Yes!" with three exclamation points (Blind Blake and His Royal Victoria Calypsos), and the final variation, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" with four (Joe "Fingers" Carr).

The promo record came out a bit after the release of the second single - during the conversation, Patti and Vic make reference to the weather getting warmer, so late winter or spring of 1949.

Cash Box, January 22, 1949