Teddi King's 1954 Brunswick EP

The recent George Shearing Cool Canaries share on my other blog featured singer Teddi King during her 1952-54 tenure with the pianist.

Soon thereafter, King had an opportunity to record four songs for the Decca group of labels, issued first on Coral singles and then on this Brunswick EP.

They were the only records she made for Decca at the time, but she returned in 1959 for the LP All the King's Songs.

Teddi was a gifted singer who continued to grow as an artist throughout this period. This is demonstrated by her performances on this EP, where she elevates three little-known songs and one peerless standard.

The pleasing backings are by Dick Jacobs, who contributed to countless recordings in the 1950s.

Dick Jacobs

The EP starts off with "In the Year You've Been Gone," an affecting recital of loneliness by Larry Coleman, Don Wolf and Irvin Niles. Coleman had just come off three hits in 1953 - "Changing Partners" (Patti Page), "Ricochet" (Teresa Brewer) and "Tennessee Wig Walk" (Bonnie Lou). Teddi did not have similar success with "In the Year You've Been Gone," but it is nonetheless a good song.

"I'll Never Be the Same" is the only standard in the set. It's a superior number by Matty Malneck, Frank Signorelli and Gus Kahn. Dating from 1932, the song began life earlier as an instrumental called "Little Buttercup," before Kahn added the lyrics and Ruth Etting sang them.

Songwriter Wally Gold had not had any big hits before his "My Funny Little Lover," but he was to have much more luck later with "Because They're Young," "Good Luck Charm," "Half Heaven, Half Heartache" and "It's My Party," all quasi-rock tunes that are much different from the ballad that Teddi recorded,

"The Dragon" is a contrived concept by Gladys Shelley, a prolific composer whose best-known works range from 1940's "How Did He Look?" to 1958's "My, My, How the Time Goes By."

None of these authors had any reason to be upset with the meticulous performances on this record by King and the band. Teddi was a supreme professional.

The main blog will present a collection of her RCA Victor singles in the relatively near future.

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