Obscure & Neglected Female Singers Of Jazz & Standards (1930s to 1960s)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Ridin'High, Sep 4, 2016.

  1. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Ethel Azama was a Hawaiian-born singer of Japanese descent who recorded two LPs, one of them belonging to the cool school and conducted by Marty Paich, the other belonging to the world of exotica and produced by Martin Denny.

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    Both of them have made it to CD in twofers that combine them with albums by male artists (Jesse Belvin, Tak Shindo):

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    From the lounge album, here is one of its exotica arrangements: Mountain High, Valley Low » . As for the cool school album, one of its tracks can be heard below. Independently of how much you might enjoy Ethel's singing, Paich's alternatively cool and hot arrangements are reason enough to listen and enjoy!

     
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  2. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

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    Swedish singer Alice Babs is reputed to have recorded over 800 masters, out of which a fair number falls under the categories of American jazz and pop standards. In the United States, she is perhaps best known for her multiple collaborations with Duke Ellington -- particularly on his Sacred Concerts. Across the European continent, her name probably kept registering for many years under the "Eurovision" category; she was that contest's first Swedish competitor. In her native land, she must still be remembered as the only non-opera singer to be appointed Court Singer by the country's monarchy. (She did sing opera, though. And folk songs. And Elizabethan poetry. And so forth.)

    With a very large vocal range, a smooth sound, an above-average sense of time, and a totally unexpected virtuosic skill (yodeling!), this was one gifted singer. Ellington admired Alice's singing so much that he requested that she sing at his funeral. (And she did.) A fab Babs by any name.

    Here you have the Duke introducing her interpretation of "Take Love Easy." If you choose to watch the entire clip (as you should), don't be scared away by the segment in Swedish around 3:50. You will be listening to more Alice in about 20 seconds.

     
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  3. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Carole Carr was a British pianist-singer who recorded just one LP, and she did so in American land. The 1959 album has a puny, fun title: Imported Carr, American Gas! In this brief but very 1950s film from the Pathe company, you can see her not only on the piano but also displaying the aircraft figures that she loved collecting: Carole Carr (1955) » . Had Carr made a second LP, perhaps the title would have been a pun about her and jets or airplanes!

    At home, Carole cultivated a relationship with the BBC network, hosting her own radio show (Twelve O'Clock Spin) and her own televised program (Carole's Country Club). I have read that she was actually the first singer to appear on British TV, both when it was only b&w and when it shifted to color, but I do not know how true any of that is.

    Before her BBC work on TV and radio, she had been a big band vocalist with one of the nation's best-known orchestras (Geraldo's), recording many big band vocals that have come out on CD. The LP hs made it to CD, too.

    Coming from a family in which there already was at least one music performer (her grandfather, a tenor who had traveled the country as part of an English variety act), Carole faced sibling competition from her sister, another pianist-singer who went to record on LP as well. But this post is all about Carole Carr ; we'll talk about her Carr-less sibling next.

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  4. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

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    Sisters Dorothy Carless and Carole Carr were both British singer-pianists who worked extensively for the BBC, and who had been big band vocalists with, among others, Geraldo's orchestra. Since Dorothy strikes me as the most talented interpreter of the two, I was surprised to read that Carole was still remembered after the 1950s and 1960s in Europe, while Dorothy was nearly forgotten. If true, the reason for their respective turns of luck might have been partially geographical: Carole stayed in the United Kingdom and worked regularly on television there, while Dorothy moved back and forth between the US & the UK (eventually settling, I read, in the US), and did not have the opportunity to do TV work on a regular basis here.

    She did take advantage of the opportunity, however, to make more records than her sister: three of them, each with plenty to recommend. In the one above, she accompanies herself on piano. No, she does not sing "Something Cool" (that's the first song that comes to my mind when I look at that cover) but she does sing "One for my Baby" as if she were drunk, while still managing to sound thoroughly musical.

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    In the other album above, the Barney Kessell Trio accompanies her throughout a selection of intimately sung standards. Here is an interesting detail about HiFi, the label on which both albums were originally recorded: their back covers identify by name the brands of microphones, tape and tape machines used.

    Last (though chronologically her first), below is a 10" LP that is a tribute to two composers. One side is dedicated to the work of Kurt Weill, the other to the melodies of Harold Arlen.

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    Last edited: Oct 19, 2016
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  5. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

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    As indicated by its title, this Alice Darr LP is a concept album in the vein of Frank Sinatra's Only the Lonely. Accompanied just by Mundell Lowe on guitar and George Duvivier on bass, she sings in a mellow and intimate manner that carries hints of Carmen McRae, though Alice's tone is warmer.

    The album's program consists of completely new, never before recorded songs, half of which are by a Joan Moscatelle. For both Darr and Moscatelle, this was a debut album. Leaving aside any positive or negative opinions about the quality of the songs, the results were tasty.

    Alice also played snare drums and might have been better known as a pianist. Her father was a local jazz saxophonist and pianist who was still performing in the Maryland region at the age of 91. She managed to make it bigger than he did in the music industry, recording two albums, traveling abroad, and performing on TV shows such as Ed Sullivan's. Unfortunately, the female pianist developed crippling arthritis in her later years. But here she is at an earlier and perhaps happier time, next to Dean Martin:

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    I Only Know How to Cry dates from 1962 and carries quite some pedigree. It was released on Charlie Parker Records and produced by Phil Ramone. Mundell Lowe not only played guitar on the tracks but also arranged the entire album.

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    The second LP, which I don't have, might feature Alice on piano only. Released in France in 1972, it seems to have been recorded live at a club:

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  6. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    I came across her in connection with a song by the Swed-Danes, and was curious about a possible cd purchase, though nothing available at the time seemed to appeal to me.

    But your post reminds me I do have a Bear Family cd of Anita Lindblom. Not on the cd, but a curiosity I just found on You Tube.

    Anita Lindblom - Balladen om den blå baskern (1966) »
     
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  7. bodine

    bodine Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington DC
    The irrepressible Ivie Anderson.
     
  8. Stu02

    Stu02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    its a cold rainy night in Toronto so perfect for the first fire of the year and a 50's jazz singer. I picked this up in Montreal a year or so ago and love it . Dolores Gray - Warm Brandy. ( Im drinking scotch apologies ) Her particularly smouldering low voice makes for a perfect pairing with a fire....The second side in particular with You go to my head , D0 do do, Speak Low and Don't blame me flows so gently and has an understated rich presence, highlighted with lovely small band accents , guitar, sax, vibes in front of a very subtle orchestra...almost like a small combo with strings even though I think its a larger orchestra...
    apparently she was a comedy singer !#@* before this record....as with a lot of these records from the 50s they really market the sex appeal on the cover [​IMG]
     
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  9. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Hadn't heard her before. She has a deep voice, doesn't she? Something else that caught my attention, as I listened to this version of "The Ballad of the Green Berets," is how similar the music sounds (at least to me) to "Little Drummer Boy." I had to go and check the original American version, to which I had previously listened maybe just two or three times. The similarity to "Little Drummer Boy" is also in that original, due to the marching tempo, but it's not as overt as in the Anita Lindblom version ...
     
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  10. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    I don't speak any Swedish, but I'm guessing she's singing about the Blue Berets, the UN forces? And from Sweden in the 60s (a hotbed of anti-Viet Nam War sentiment) that would make sense. Just a thought.
     
  11. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Neither do I ...

    I googled it, and this entry from Wikipedia came up:

    "The Swedish version "Balladen om den blå baskern" is a salute to the Swedish soldiers serving in the United Nations' peace-keeping forces (the Blue Berets). It was sung by Anita Lindblom."

    So, it seems that you were absolutely right.

    For anyone who might be confused and wondering: we are referring to cover versions of the mid-1960s American hit "The Ballad of the Green Berets," sung by SSgt Barry Sadler.

    The Wiki page also states that the song was a hit in Germany as well, in not one but two cover versions. One of them: Heidi Brühl 1966 - Hundert Mann und ein Befehl »

    More American-centric ears have Dolly Parton as an option as well: Dolly Parton - The Ballad Of The Green Beret »
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2016
  12. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

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    Leny Eversong was a Brazilian vocalist who frequently sang in not only Portuguese but also French English. Her biggest hit was "Jezebel," which Frankie Laine originally took to the top of the charts in the United States. She mined Laine's repertoire of hits quite bit, singing also numbers such as "Granada" and "Jalousie."

    Within native land, Leny's career actually went back to the 1930s. During the 1960s and 1960s, that career would go on to include chapters in both France and the United States. From the American phase, check her out in this photo, ready to knock out Elvis Presley, no doubt with Ed Sullivan's goading and approval!

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    Kidding (in case it wasn't clear)! And kid we must, while we can. The next paragraph won't be a joke.

    Some time in the 1970s, her husband went out to buy cigarettes and never came back. She is said to have gone nearly insane in the aftermath, and to have never fully recuperated from the blow. Her bank assets, presumably shared with the husband, were frozen. As if all that weren't enough, I'm reading that her son, with whom she sometimes performed, had to spent some time in jail, on an alleged drug charge. She never recorded again. Physically characterized during her lifetime for her girth (and for her dyed white hair), Leny passed away in the 1980s, after going through a battle with diabetes similar to Ella Fitzgerald's (plus cardiac problems and mental unrest) ... Unlike Ella, though, Leny is said to have died in poverty and oblivion.

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    The two Leny albums that I have (the one on Coral above and the one below, released or re-released on Seeco) are the only LPs of hers which I know to include a large numbers of songs in English. On the plus side, she has a good handling of the language. On the more iffy side (and speaking in a very general manner), her singing style has long gone out of favor in American land. She has a booming, potent voice, and likes to belt out. But the particular performance that I'm picking (from the Seeco album) is relatively less EthelMermanesque, more swinging:

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    Last edited: Oct 23, 2016
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  13. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

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    This is the only solo LP of Rhonda Fleming, who was primarily known as an actress. She did not achieve top star fame, but she did star in quite a few films, and she got around, performing next to the big names. She was the leading lady for the dueling pair of Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and also for Bing Crosby in his vehicle A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The lady also had important parts in classics such as the film noir Out of the Past and Hithchock's Spellbound.

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    In addition to her solo LP, we can also hear Rhonda as a member of the above-seen all-female-star gospel group. (If memory serves, she joined after the departure of member Della Russell.) She is alive today, at the age of 93.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2016
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  14. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    I was listening to my latest memory stick comp for the car - mostly from 50s Time-Life cds - and Joan Weber singing Let Me Go Lover came on (followed by Teresa Brewer's version).

    If my Search here is correct, Joan Weber hasn't been mentioned yet. Powerful voice on this one, GONE. Is she worth exploring?

     
  15. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Just listened to the clip; powerful voice indeed ... Well, she does not really qualify for this thread, because she was not a singer of jazz and standards. But, leaving that merely technical matter aside, I'm more than happy to hear her mentioned, and to maybe discuss her for two or three posts. There isn't much to explore, though. All she got to record was a handful of singles (maybe not even five)! Pregnancy and her husband's control of what was an incipient career prevented her from really branching out when the iron was still hot. Later on, she was saddled with a mental illness.

    Here's the story of her fleeting success. The debuting nineteen-year-old Joan became an overnight sensation when Columbia's Mitch Miller heard and picked her to record "Let Me Go Lover." He managed to plug the record ad nauseam by having it be included numerous times on a TV show. That happened back in the mid-1950s, when the tube was still relatively young. Hit like a hammer with the number, TV viewers went gaga over it, and the song immediately became the #1 hit in the nation. All the other record labels promptly enlisted one member of their respective rosters to record the song (including Teresa Brewer at Coral), and some of those cover versions hit the charts, too. But, in terms of popularity, none of them held a candle to Joan Weber's version, which is reputed to have been the first TV-based hit ever.
     
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  16. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    Very interesting. There's actually a cd with 15 tracks on it, and some of the titles are intriguing.

    1. Marionette
    2. Let Me Go Lover
    3. It May Sound Silly
    4. Call Me Careless
    5. Lover - Lover (Why Must We Part)
    6. Tell the Lord
    7. Don't Throw My Love Away
    8. Anything, Everything for Love
    9. Rock Talk
    10. Goodbye Lollipops, Hello Lipstick (I'm Not a Baby Anymore)
    11. What Should a Teen Heart Do?
    12. Gone
    13. A Love That's a Lie
    14. Who'll Be My Judge
    15. Saturday Lover - Sunday Stranger

    The reviews on Amazon are also striking. Could she have been a rival to Connie Francis?
     
  17. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    Joan Weber - I looked up Rock Talk on You Tube with no result, but this did turn up. Yikes!

     
  18. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Ha to the "yikes."

    Thanks for pointing out the Amazon page. The CD featuring the above-shown 15-song track program claims to contain her complete recordings, I see. That's a few more than what I thought; I really believed that 10 songs, or 5 singles was already a high amount for her. (Still, a small output, 15 titles.)

    I can't say that I would ever be a fan, because what she sings is not my bag -- not do I have much use for that "Let Me Go Lover" song, either. But her fate and truncated career does make me curious. Some of the customer reviews on that Amazon page have interesting information. I'll quote a few, just for the benefit of anybody here who might be interested any further.

    Jim Andrews says: She didn't perform the song live or appear on camera on "Studio One." The record was played six times as part of the story. Her name wasn't even revealed until the credits crawl at the end of the program. She DID have problems traveling while pregnant. She came to St. Louis and appeared on Gil Newsome's T.V. show on KWK-TV. I was a kid in radio and T.V. and was there and can tell she was in great discomfort and also great discomfort over her appearance. She really should not have been traveling. "It May Sound Silly" was a strong followup to "Lover" but Columbia just let it lay there. Weber had little performing experience or history and I think there were as I remember problems in the marriage, though her husband did travel with her and even appeared on T.V. with her. I was told Miller didn't like what he saw and that was that. It's truly a crime the way she was treated.

    A customer says: After Joan Weber shot to #1 with "Let Me Go, Lover," possibly the most-covered hit record of all time, there is no reason she could not have gone to a lasting hit-filled career. The followup, "It May Sound Silly," was terrific and the McGuire Sisters landed a hit with it. But the record slipped out with no promotion or attention. I've been told by disc jockeys who should know that the problem was Weber was pregnant at the time of "Let Me Go, Lover" and not in good condiition for touring or performing and that her marriage was going through difficulties. And that, for who knows what reasons, Mitch Miller was not ready to invest money and time in a career for her. The rest of her career at Columbia, which was a product of her intiial contract rather than any interest in giving her success, involved her recording some really low-quality songs and trying all sorts of singing styles. There is no evidence of her ever getting any coaching for performing. She over-emotes, over-phrases and sings too close to the microphone and sobs to show emotion. All that easily could have been corrected. There was one more great record, Ferlin Huskey's terrific song, "Gone," and it got radio play but again Columbia just neglected it until it died on the vine. Weber ended up a restaurant hostess and a tragic figure. I've always thought it criminal that nearly 50 years after "Let Me Go, Lover" she never got an album, never got a C.D., as her work on Columbia is truly interesting and off-beat, for all the right and all the wrong , reasons. She certainly did not deserve the shabby treatment she got and certainly did not deserve musical oblivion. "Let Me Go, Lover," "Marionette" and "Gone" are reason enought to have this long, long overdue C.D.

    George O'Leary says: ... Born on December 12, 1935 in Paulsboro, New Jersey, she was just 18 when brought to the soon-to-be-famous Brill Building in NY City where she impressed producer and orchestra leader Charles Randolph Greane, husband of Betty Johnson. He, in turn, brought her to the attention of Mitch Miller, then A&R chief at Columbia Records who, in developing music for a CBS-TV Studio One production, had been playing around with a song first cut the year before by Georgie Shaw under the title Let Me Go, Devil. After changing the lyrics and title to Let Me Go, Lover he had her record it with Jimmy Carroll and his orchestra in time for the November 15, 1954 show, and after it was featured no less than six times during the airing the demand went through the roof. With Marionette on the flipside, a Columbia single release shot to # 1 on the Billboard Pop Top 100 and stayed there for four weeks, spending 16 weeks in total on the charts well into 1955 ...

    K. W. Grossman says: Joan Weber was a viable and talented artist whose carear was thrown away by the music industry in favor of other artists that were already "on their way and proven" (The McGuire Sisters, Doris Day, Teresa Brewer. to name two). Some of these artists were rerecording Joan's efforts in the same time frame and, therefore, redirecting her impact. Much has been made of her being pregnant at the time, but this is not the real reason. Nor was her not being able to tour for several months the real reason. After all, she had a #1 hit after she had performed this hit live on TV ,Studio One, well into her pregnancy. The music industry practice was to pay their artists as little as possible and it had a strangle hold on everyone. They had their favorites and that was that. Mitch Miller, head of A&R at Columbia, did not want to invest further in her carear. Joan Weber was not the first carear Mr. Miller had ruined nor the last. He was without boundaries and did as he chose with his personal priorities tainting the choices ...
     
  19. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Scotch or brandy, no matter: a fine review all the same. I agree that, just at its title suggests, the album has an appealingly intimate and warm sound -- perfect to listen to on a cold evening while sitting by a chimney fire.

    Incidentally, the inspiration for the album's title came from a critic's comparison of Dolores' voice to warm brandy. The LP can be heard in full at YouTube: DOLORES GRAY - WARM BRANDY - FULL ALBUM 1957 - SID FELLER ORCHESTRA ». On CD, DRG Records released it with bonus tracks.

    Although her most famous roles could certainly lead to that conclusion, she was not really a comedy singer, but rather a theater-raised actress-vocalist who could adapt her voice and style according to the demands of the song. The soft approach that we hear in Warm Brandy is therefore just one of the ways in which she could sing. In other contexts, she can come off as louder and brassy.

    I don't think that Dolores recorded more than two albums, but you can hear many vocals by her in Broadway cast albums and singles from the early 1950s. In fact, there is a full CD containing 25 of such vocals, culled from just four years (1949-1952):

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    I do not have her other solo LP, but its chosen title leads me to assume that it showcases the more boisterous side of her singing:

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    Her first claim to fame was when she was chosen to play the lead role in the London debut of Annie Get your Gun, the musical whose star had been Ethel Merman on Broadway, and would be Betty Hutton in Hollywood. She stayed on the London stage, playing that role, for three consecutive years. For the rest of Dolores' career, her greatest successes continued to happen in the United Kingdom, although the Chicagoan certainly worked on the American stage as well, appeared often on television, and also starred in a few Hollywood films from the 1950s. Hers was, in addition, one of the singing voices used to dub Marilyn Monroe's character in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

    Dolores became notorious for a lavish style of living, and for fighting all too often with her male co-stars. On the matter of her lavishness, some amusingly eye-popping stories were often reported by the press. On her way to London in the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth, she rented a cabin for the exclusive use of Scherazade, her Persian cat. On another occasion she brought 14 mink furs with her (citing the cold weather as the reason) along with two bodyguards tasked with keeping an eye on them.

    Below we can watch her performing a now-well-known standard that she introduced, singing it not in the hushed voice of the Warm Brandy album but with the more potent, belted-out voice of other projects:

     
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  20. AudiophilePhil

    AudiophilePhil Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
  21. Stu02

    Stu02 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Such a wealth of information on a relatively unknown singer. Most appreciated Ridin H . Interesting to hear the same voice but infused with with an extra 20 years of cigarettes and high living. Sure is lacking in all the restraint and playfulness and warmth from the earlier take. I'm not a fan of that belt it out there style but at least she seems to have mad a better go at her life then some singers from the 50s and their addictions. She seems in pretty good condition and still gigging well all things considered.
     
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  22. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    Definition - Wikipedia - "A torch song is a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love, either where one party is oblivious to the existence of the other, where one party has moved on, or where a romantic affair has affected the relationship."

    Before Wikipedia, long before, I was aware that the idea of 'carrying a torch' meant that a love was unrequited, or lost, but it always also conveyed to me nocturnal moods and an exotic voice, perhaps husky. Always female?



    :)
     
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  23. Eric Carlson

    Eric Carlson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Valley Center, KS
    I can't find anything online from Marilyn Maye's 1966 RCA LP The Second Of Maye, Marilyn Maye Live From The Living Room with The Sammy Tucker Quintet, but it's definitely worth picking up if you find a copy. Ella Fitzgerald reportedly called her "the greatest white female singer in the world" and this would be the best evidence of that in my opinion. I'm not sure she recorded anything else with a small group, but based on this album, I sure wish she had.
     
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  24. Eric Carlson

    Eric Carlson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Valley Center, KS

    This is the best example of Marilyn Maye I can find not on the album I mentioned previously and shown below. I can understand why she was paired with an orchestra, but her 1966 live album shows she truly did not need one.
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  25. Ridin'High

    Ridin'High Forum Resident Thread Starter

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    The woman in this photo ranks as the most iconic representative of torch singing. In the music world, the concept grew and was built around her. Her name was Helen Morgan, and she was active during the late 1920s and 1930s. She herself was said to have carried the torch for an unrequited love in real life, dying barely past the age of 40 from drinking too much (cirrhosis of the liver).

    Morgan was the original performer of the same character that Ava Gardner would later reprise in one of the film versions of the musical Showboat. Some of the most typical torch songs to ever exist, such as "Bill," "Why Was I Born," "Can't Help Lovin' That Man," and "Don't Ever Leave Me" were either written for or sung first by Morgan.

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    Helen was also responsible for creating torch singing's most iconic, self-defining image: a woman at a nightclub atop a piano, lights dimmed, singing about unrequited love. This 1920s image is still engraved in the world of movies, in particular. Above, we can catch it being enacted by Lauren Bacall and Harry Truman, no less, probably in the late 1940s. The image was still alive around 1990, when it was revived in The Fabulous Baker Boys, for which Michelle Pfeiffer stroke her own version of the Helen Morgan pose:

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    Some folks have theorized that the phrase goes all the way back to the Greco-Roman era, when there was a wedding-night tradition involving the lighting of a torch at the bride's home. Once lighted, the torch would be taken to the newlywed's house, where it would in turn be used to light their home's hearth. If placed within this tradition, the notion of "still carrying the torch" would mean that the final destination (literally, the couple's hearth; symbolically, their happy union) was not reached.

    The album below, by a singer who has yet to be discussed here, is built around this phrase and concept.

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    I too think about it in the same way. And yet, there was nothing husky in the voices of early representatives of torch singing. Those include the aforementioned icon Helen Morgan, who was more of a soprano, and who sometimes sounded like an opera or classical singer: Helen Morgan, 1929. » I suspect that the reason why some of us associate this type of singing with exoticism and nocturnality is our exposure to it in old-time movies where it was presented in those environments.


    Back in the 1920s and 1930s, yes, I would venture that the notion of "torch singing" was primarily associated with female singers. It still might be, general speaking, but not to the same extent. A change in perception happened thanks to the great success of male interpreters in the same genre --most notably, Frank Sinatra, of course.


    "Is That All There Is" is more of an ironic and existentialist number -- or even a nihilistic one. It's true that the singer briefly points us to what sounds like a moment of unrequited love in her existence ("I feel in love with the most wonderful one in the world ... Then one day, he went away and I thought I'd die"). However, far from carrying the torch forever, she gets over it ("But I didn't") and proceeds to question, the worth of it all ("And when I didn't, I said to myself, Is that all there is to love?"). Her attitude would be heretical in the world of torch singing.

    So, the song is not suitable ... but the singer should be. Peggy is certainly a good choice, as far as the notion of "female vocalist singing about unrequited voice with a relatively husky voice" goes. From her catalogue, the following clip would be, to me, a perfect representation of torch singing. (For anyone taken aback by the lesser-known song heard at first: you are actually listening to the start of a torch medley, featuring several well-known standards. After around 2:40, she moves on to torchers such as "Here's That Rainy Day" and "I Get Along Without You Very Well").

     
    Last edited: Nov 1, 2016

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