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| Cash Box April 28, 1956 |
Decca also decided to take advantage of her versatility by issuing a string of singles containing songs that did not appear on her albums. For this post, we feature all he songs Sylvia recorded in 1956 - seven numbers.
As it happened, Syms' first Decca single was to take her to new heights of popularity. It was her enthusiastic rendition of Lerner and Loewe's "I Could Have Danced All Night," which of course came from My Fair Lady, one of the most successful musicals of all time.
Ironically, this single was backed by a song from one of the big Broadway failures of the day, a musical called Shangri-La that was based on James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon. Far from being enchanted, Shangri-La the show lasted only two weeks. That was enough time for Syms to come out with "Walk Sweet," an inoffensive song from the score by Harry Warren, Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee. (Actually, Sylvia recorded the song in March, three months before the show opened.)
(The story of Lost Horizon had no luck in the musical realm. Bacharach and David turned it into a movie musical in 1973 - another fiasco. There had been a successful non-musical film in 1937, however.)
Sylvia's follow-up to "I Could Have Danced All Night" enjoyed some popularity as well - although it was in a much different style. "English Muffins and Irish Stew" turned out to be a calypso, of all things, by those fine Trinidadians Moose Charlap and Bob Hilliard. Syms, an excellent actor, adopted a convincing accent (to me, anyway) are sailed confidently through this amusing number.
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| Ballads, calypso, R&B - Syms did it all |
The discmate for "English Muffins" provided another contrast. It was the title song from the Audie Murphy boxing saga The World in My Corner, with music by Henry Mancini and words by Roy Carroll. This is a very good song, if downcast, and Sylvia makes the most of it.
"Dancing Chandelier" returned to the giddy world of "I Could Have Danced All Night." It's a Bob Hilliard-Phil Springer tale of party-going dancers upstairs making the ceiling shake - with a happy ending. Syms is ebullient.
Sylvia again showed her range on the flip side, with a lively R&B number called "Each Day" from producers Bob Kornegay and Paul Winley. She's entirely persuasive.
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| Jack Pleis |
Finally, we have another Phil Springer song, with lyrics by the gifted Carolyn Leigh - "The Nature of Things." This is a pleasing ballad with excellent contributions by the conductor and arranger Jack Pleis, who is just as much a stylistic chameleon as Syms. He is at the helm for all these numbers, which are generally admirable.
Decca might have had its doubts about "The Nature of Things" - the label did not issue it until late 1958, on the flip side of Gigi's "The Night They Invented Champagne" (which is not in this package).
