Vic Damone, RIP

It's sad to hear of Vic Damone's passing. The first record of is I ever heard was his version of "MacArthur Park", which I really like. I'm listening to the mono version of the "This Game Of Love" album right now and my goodness, it does sound very good. It's one of those albums I listen to very rarely, not because I dislike it, but because I like it so much I consider it something special.

 

As if Mitch Miller ever wanted a singer to "be himself"! The artists had to do the songs Mitch wanted, with the arrangements that Mitch wanted and with a vocal approach that Mitch wanted. Or else...

 

Certainly Sinatra and Dinah Shore chafed under Miller's rule but Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney, Frankie Laine, Patti Page, Johnnie Ray, Guy Mitchell, Jerry Vale, as well as Damone flourished under his leadership.

Tony Bennett certainly preferred Mitch to Clive Davis.

 

But I think it is no coincidence that the recordings Tony did under Mitch Miller are the worst of his career!
Some of the stuff is unlistenable!

 

That is the case for much of Mitch. He took phenomenal singers and forced them to record inferior material with poor arrangements - lost opportunities when singers could have been creating real, lasting masterpieces.

 

It was late that he learned of Vic Damone's death. I'm sad for a great singer like he's gone, but that's life. I really like his work, and it's not just the Capitol phase. He recorded good albums for Columbia and RCA. But I have a certain passion for records that he recorded with the arrangements of Billy May and Jack Mrshall. To me, they are fine gold.

The recording is follow is one of which I most like it, although agree with colleague roda12 that it is not cool to put the voice on one side of the stereo channel. But I still like this mix.

 

Well, although Bob Norberg is responsible for the remastering of this album, it's worth the acquisition simply because there is no better alternative. I say this because only here the tracks have been remixed with Vic's voice in the center. The downside is excessive noise reduction. In fact, it is not noise reduction, but "noise" exclusion rs. But I think Bob Norberg believed that getting the noise out would make consumers happy. Maybe I'm wrong, too.

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I just saw him on an episode of the Joey Bishop show on MeTV.

 

There are few records of Vic Damone with the arrangements and accompaniment of Nelson Riddle. It's a shame the two have not recorded albums together. This recording was part of a special collection of Reader's Digest, it seems.

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Loved his recordings with Axel Stordahl

 

I'll open a new topic for Vic Damone, analyzing the best of his work, what do you think @roda12 ?

 

Would be nice!

 

The topic is this: The Best of Vic Damone - Songs, Albums & Etc.