Five Big Movie Songs from 1957

Here's another one of those EPs that collate the current hits into one hopefully irresistible package. This one comes from the Columbia folks, who in 1957 had strong (or at least reasonably successful) songs from four notable films.

But wait - the headline above says five movie songs, not four. That's because the hit from the film Love in the Afternoon wasn't the theme but an ancient waltz called "Fascination" that was used on the soundtrack. So I've added that tune to the package - in three version, two from the hit record and one from the soundtrack EP.

But back to the Columbia EP. Their set starts off with the label's big hope from August of 1957 - the title song from An Affair to Remember. It was entrusted to the golden pipes of Vic Damone, who the year before had celebrated his new contract with the label by turning My Fair Lady's "On the Street Where You Live" into a big chart hit.

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"An Affair to Remember" has the soaring quality that Vic (and Percy Faith) did so well, and the record is a winner, although not as memorable as his famed rendition of the My Fair Lady anthem. The Affair music is by the veteran Harry Warren with lyrics by Harold Adamson and Leo McCarey, the film's director. In the film, Vic's singing is heard over the opening credits.

We move from Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr's affair to the Old West - Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas and the Gunfight at O.K. Corral. This legendary tale brought forth a typically robust ballad from the master Dimitri Tiomkin (see the celebration of his music here), working with the great lyricist Ned Washington.

Who else but Frankie Laine could supply the vocal? He is fantastic, but as I wrote a while back, "Laine's inimitable singing was a popular success, although the record did not become as iconic as High Noon."

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The next song is a decided contrast - for A Face in the Crowd, director Elia Kazan used folk singer Tom Glazer to provide the music, with lyrics from screenwriter Budd Schulberg. I don't believe the Hi-Lo's single of the title song was a hit, but it is nonetheless a good record.

The group had just moved to Columbia and was enjoying increasing success with its records. The vocal arrangements of Gene Puerling became highly influential, and the penetrating tenor voice of Clark Burroughs was a distinguishing feature of their sound.

The EP's fourth song is sung by the young Jerry Vale, who already had been at Columbia for several years by the time he was tasked with Love in the Afternoon's title song. The film features 56-year-old Gary Cooper romancing 28-year-old Audrey Hepburn. This had to take place in the afternoon so it wouldn't interfere with Coop's early bedtime.

The film had a title song by Matty Malneck, with Johnny Mercer lyrics, which Vale handled well on the single release. The biggest hit from the film, however, was written in 1904. More about that below.

LINK to the Columbia EP

Music from Love in the Afternoon

In Love in the Afternoon, Coop is followed everywhere by a band of gypsies (not the Hendrix band, although that would have been interesting). This troupe provides the soundtrack.

Perhaps realizing that it would have limited appeal, the Verve label put the music out on an EP, and a short one at that. Its three songs are "Love in the Afternoon," "Hot Paprika" and "Fascination." The latter was the hit from the score, written way back when by Fermo Dante Marchetti. ("Hot Paprika," like the title music, is by Malneck.)

"Fascination" caught the public's fancy, and the biggest hit was by vocalist Jane Morgan, singing new lyrics by Dick Manning.

The gypsies perhaps being otherwise occupied, Morgan's record company, Kapp, brought in a group called the Troubadors as backing. The resulting single has Jane's vocal on one side and the Troubadors whistling on the other.

Kapp presented this to the public complete with the picture sleeve below showing Coop in ascot and Hepburn in pigtails - "old chic and young chick," as I remarked when I first posted this nearly 17 years ago. 

All recordings are remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK to Love in the Afternoon EP and Fascination single

Songs from the 'My Sister Eileen' Musicals

When Ruth McKenney started writing about moving to New York with her sister Eileen, she began a multimedia enterprise that spawned New Yorker articles, a book, a play, a film, a Broadway musical, a Hollywood musical, and a television show. And perhaps some other things I've missed.

Today we'll concentrate on the musical offspring of the My Sister Eileen stories - the 1953 Broadway production Wonderful Town, and the 1955 Hollywood film issued under the original title. The two musicals had different scores - Wonderful Town by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green; My Sister Eileen by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. (Columbia Pictures apparently didn't want to pay for the Broadway score.)

Wonderful Town has sired a series of albums, including one by the original cast and another from the 1958 television production, both with Rosalind Russell as Ruth. There was no cast album from the film, possibly because the score was too skimpy. In that production, only Betty Garrett (Ruth) was known as a singer. (Yes, I realize that Jack Lemmon issued a few vocal LPs.) For me, the high point of the film is not a song but a spectacular dance duel between Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall, who were competing for Eileen.

This post is not concerned with any recordings by the original casts; rather it examines the records that appeared in the market covering songs from these musicals. Most are from Wonderful Town, but the few from My Sister Eileen are worth hearing as well.

Wonderful Town

Let's start with Wonderful Town and my favorite song from either score - "Ohio," in a heartfelt version by the superb Lisa Kirk. The work has witty lyrics by Comden and Green and a loping tune (possibly inspired by Gershwin's "Bidin' My Time") that suggests Bernstein thought that Ohio is out West where the tumbleweeds blow. Rosalind Russell and Edith (Edie) Adams introduced the song.

The Hi-Lo's (Gene Puerling, Bob Strasen, Clark Burroughs, Bob Morse)
and Lisa Kirk

"A Quiet Girl" is a hymn-like Bernstein creation here in a uncharacteristically restrained - and very beautiful - reading by the Hi-Lo's. Frank Comstock suggests the composer's debt to Aaron Copland in his arrangement. This song was done first by George Gaynes as Bob Baker, Ruth's eventual love interest.

In Wonderful Town, Eileen betrayed her feelings for Frank in the excellent and unaccountably neglected "A Little Bit in Love." Here we have the talented Sandy Stewart several years before her big hit "My Coloring Book." The song comes from an Epic EP devoted to songs from the score.

Sandy Stewart and Lena Horne

The most popular song from either musical was possibly "It's Love," here in a typically polished version from the great Lena Horne. Edie Adams and George Gaynes introduced it.

One of Bernstein's most felicitous inspirations was the "Wrong Note Rag," near the end of the Wonderful Town score. Pianist Jack Fina, who made his name with Freddy Martin, has some fun with the piece, although he seems almost pained by the wrong notes.

Jack Fina and Arthur Fiedler

Finally, we have a medley of the Wonderful Town songs from the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler. The conductor was more attuned to musical humor than Fina, and he nails the manic quality of the "Wrong Note Rag." Arranger Dave Terry comes back to it a few times in this exceptionally well-done compilation. It comes from the LP Curtain Going Up, available newly remastered on my other blog.

My Sister Eileen

We switch to My Sister Eileen for "There's Nothin' Like Love," here in a effective arrangement by Ralph Flanagan that features baritone saxophonist Stan Webb and the smooth vocalist Johnny Amaroso, who also played trumpet in the band. On film the singers were Bob Fosse (Frank) and Janet Leigh (Eileen).

Art Mooney and Johnny Amaroso

Next, some old-style corn called "Give Me a Band and My Baby," just the thing for Art Mooney and his crew, who specialized in such material. The bandleader's biggest success was "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" in 1948. His hits in 1955 were "Honey-Babe," a march from the film Battle Cry, and "Nuttin' for Christmas," the lament of a juvenile Barry Gordon.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Finally, Sammy Davis, Jr. does wonders with the Styne-Robin "It's Bigger Than You and Me," a crass tune that the vulpine Bob Baker (Jack Lemmon) croons to Ruth (Betty Garrett). With Davis, arranger Sy Oliver provides a brassy introduction, followed by Sam embarking on some jaunty vocalese that sets the tone for the number.

These selections were cleaned up from my collection and Internet Archive.

About the McKenneys

Ruth and Eileen McKenney

Ruth (1911-72) and Eileen (1913-40) McKenney grew up in East Cleveland, Ohio. Ruth wrote her stories for The New Yorker in the 1930s. They became a book in 1938. She was more multi-dimensional than the film suggests, being socially aware and a member of the Communist Party for quite a few years.

Eileen moved to the West Coast in the 1930s and worked as a Disney artist. She married the writer Nathanael West (Miss Lonelyhearts, The Day of the Locust). She and West were killed in an automobile accident a few days before the play My Sister Eileen opened on Broadway.

Ruth's daughter believed her mother never quite recovered from Eileen's death.

LINK