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Music > Jazz
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Black Dog
(CD)
By:Black Dog - McAllister, Hoover, et al / Spring, Hill, et al
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R381
Discovery Miles 3 810
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Out of stock
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While many British record labels create confusion in the
marketplace by taking advantage of the 50-year copyright limit on
recordings in Europe to issue their own unlicensed versions of
familiar, still-in-print albums, Sepia Records here shows how
valuable the public domain rules can be by coming up with an album
the original copyright holder would never bother with, a
compilation of Lisa Kirk's long-out-of-print RCA Victor recordings
of the late 1940s and early `50s. Kirk established herself by
co-starring in Broadway shows, notably Kiss Me, Kate, and leveraged
that into a long career as a nightclub entertainer. While she was
still in Kiss Me, Kate, RCA signed her to a recording contract, and
the series of singles that followed over the next few years saw the
label trying to sell her in the popular styles of the day. That is
to say that she recorded light pop in the novelty and Tin Pan Alley
revival manner of people like Doris Day and Teresa Brewer. Often,
as was the custom of the time, she was expected to cover songs also
being done by other performers on other labels, a good example
being the comic number "Dearie" from The Copacabana Show of 1950, a
duet with Fran Warren. Bandleader Guy Lombardo (with vocals by
Kenny Gardner and the Lombardo Trio) had the Top Five hit with the
song for Decca, and it was a lesser hit for Jo Stafford and Gordon
MacRae on Capitol, and for Ray Bolger and Ethel Merman on Decca,
but the Kirk/Warren version also made the charts. When she wasn't
given covers or remakes of old songs to do, Kirk usually received
second-rate material similar to current hits. Listening to this
album, it's easy to expect that the next tune will be "The Doggie
in the Window" or "In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening," since
that's the kind of light novelty fare the songwriters clearly were
aiming for. "Sweet Promises and Good Intentions," for example,
sounds like it was written as a deliberate follow-up to "Dear
Hearts and Gentle People." Kirk didn't get to do any of those
standards, but she does her best with what she has here, bringing
her acting skills to bear along with a strong alto voice. This
album does not contain "the best-of" Lisa Kirk; none of her
signature songs from Broadway, such as "The Gentleman Is a Dope" or
"Always True to You in My Fashion," is found here. But a previously
forgotten aspect of the career of a sturdy second-echelon Broadway
and nightclub talent of the `40s and `50s is brought back to
attention. ~ William Ruhlmann
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I'll See You Soon
(CD)
Erik Orum Von Spreckelsen, Erik Orum, Von Spreckelsen
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R318
Discovery Miles 3 180
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Out of stock
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