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Reups by Request

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A large number of reups this evening, all from requests. These have been remastered where noted. As usual, the items from several years ago exist only in mp3 form, and the sound may be short of splendid. The sonics of the remastered materials are generally excellent.

Links for all these reups can be found in the comments to this post. Check the original post for more information by using the appropriate keyword link at right.

Abbe Lane - Where There's a Man (the sultry singer in Living Stereo, no less)

Babes in Arms; Jumbo (an entry in the 1953 RCA "Show Time" series; remastered and repitched)

Band Wagon (another item from the RCA "Show Time" series; repitched and remastered)

Bob Manning - Capitol EPs and Singles (unavailable Capitol singles from the big-voiced baritone; remastered)

Bobby Troup! (the excruciatingly hip 10-inch Capitol LP; remastered)

Hansel and Gretel (Barbara Cook in this soundtrack from TV; mp3 only)

Kay - Western Symphony; Thomson - Filling Station (excellent ballet scores for Balanchine; mp3 only)

Lisa Kirk - RCA Victor Singles (the wonderful stage contralto - one of my favorites; repitched and remastered)

Rose Marie - Show Stoppers (in between being the child star Baby Rose Marie and a Dick Van Dyke sidekick, she was a cabaret singer)

Stubby Kaye - Music for Chubby Lovers (the beloved Broadway character sings for you; features what Will Friedwald calls one of the great album covers of all times)

Thomson - Louisiana Story; Five Portraits (the Philadelphia performances conducted by Ormandy and the composer, courtesy of Joe Serraglio; remastered)

Thomson - Three Pictures; Five Songs (more Philadelphia performances conducted by Ormandy and the composer, courtesy of Joe Serraglio; remastered)

Yeomen of the Guard (promo EP for a Barbara Cook-Alfred Drake TV performance; new transfer)


Hans Kindler Conducts Tchaikovsky; Reups

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Hans Kindler is not remembered today, but he was a well regarded conductor in his day, the 1930s and 40s.

Kindler, originally a cellist, founded the National Symphony in Washington, D.C. in 1931, and led it until being replaced 17 years later. He passed away the following year.

The conductor and his ensemble recorded for RCA Victor in the 1940s, but only had the opportunity to inscribe two symphonies - the Brahms Third and this worthy attempt at Tchaikovsky's Third, or Polish Symphony. It comes from the orchestra's first RCA session, on November 8, 1940, according to a Kindler discography in the Autumn 1999 International Classical Record Collector.

For a relatively new ensemble, the Washingtonians acquit themselves well. The symphony is well paced and alertly played, and the recording is good. You can learn more about Kindler here.

This transfer is taken from an early 1950s reissue on RCA's budget Camden label. At that time, most or all of Camden's classical line was offered under pseudonyms; in this case the National Symphony became the "Globe Symphony."

I have previously offered three other symphonies from American orchestras in those recordings' Camden guise, and am reupping them today along with this newcomer. They are:

Tchaikovsky - Manfred (Indianapolis Symphony/Fabien Sevitzky)

Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 1 (Indianapolis/Sevitzky)

Vaughan Williams - London Symphony (Cincinnati Symphony/Eugene Goossens)

I heartily recommend the two Tchaikovsky symphonies in particular - they are strongly characterized under Sevitzky's baton. All of these have been remastered and the sound is excellent. Links for these recordings are in the comments.

Call Me Madam

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One of Ethel Merman's most famous roles was Ambassador Sally Adams in the 1950 Broadway musical Call Me Madam, and the recordings from that production have been reissued many times. (There are two - one set with Merman on Decca and the RCA version with Dinah Shore, of all people, in Merman's place.)

However, the LP of the subsequent film version has been more neglected, so here is my transfer for those interested.

This is one of Irving Berlin's best scores (and by that I suppose I mean among the ones that I like the best), with a number of fine songs. The showstopper on Broadway was Merman's duet with Russell Nype on "You're Just in Love." Here Nype gives way to the terrific Donald O'Connor.

"You're Just in Love"
Also in the cast and usually in tune is George Sanders, who loved to sing and did so in several films in the 1950s. I made mild fun of Sanders' singing on an earlier occasion, only to be gently rebuked by his partisans. Here he does well in his solo, "Marrying for Love," but his entry in the duet "The Best Thing for You" is low comedy.

As often happens, Decca's pressings both for the 10-inch LP and the corresponding 45 set were grainy, but even so the sound is very good.

Top Pops of 1952 with Ralph Flanagan

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I admittedly have a weakness for Ralph Flanagan's records that can't be explained in any rational manner. So please indulge me as I present yet another of his early LPs, this one exploring some of the top popular songs of its era.

Recorded in April 1952, Dance to the Top Pops is a typically smooth effort from Flanagan, largely if not entirely devoid of jazz content but completely easy to listen to. The arrangements are by Flanagan and Bob Friedlander, who worked for many of the big bands of the era.

For my taste, the standout cuts are "The Blacksmith Blues," which had been a hit for Ella Mae Morse with a Nelson Riddle-Billy May arrangement, and the Brazilian tune "Delicado," a success for Percy Faith, who favored Latin melodies. Bernie Leighton is the pianist.

RCA's sound is quite good, as usual.


Reups, Requested and Otherwise

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A number of reups for you today. Some result from your requests and some are dealer's choice.

Most of these have been remastered or are recent efforts, with very good sound. "The Party Leads Us On to Victory" is mp3 only. This is the second time I have reupped this Red Army Band effort - you just can't get enough of the swingin' sounds of the Cultural Revolution!

Here are the selections. As always, links are in the comments to this post. You can learn more about each via the original post.

Chris Connor - Sings Lullabys of Birdland (remastered) - The singer's wonderful first LP.

Larry Kert - Sings Leonard Bernstein - Superb vocals from the original Tony in West Side Story.

On the Twelfth Day (remastered) - Witty Christmas soundtrack from Doreen Carwithin.

The Party Leads Us on to Victory (mp3 only) - The Red Army Band plays for you.

Elgar - Dream of Gerontius (remastered) - Sir Malcolm Sargent's second recording, from 1955.

Martin and Blane - Sing Martin and Blane (remastered) - Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane sing their own compositions. Don't miss this one.

Schumann - Symphony No. 2 (remastered) - The 1947 recording by the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell.

Mitropoulos in Minnesota: Milhaud, Ravel and Rachmaninoff

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More of Dimitri Mitropoulos' recordings with the Minneapolis Symphony today, all originally on 78, with these transfers coming from early LP incarnations.

First is their excellent rendition of Milhaud's Le Boeuf Sur La Toit, coupled with Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin on a 10-inch LP.

Mitropoulos in 1946
The Milhaud is particularly successful, with the ensemble capturing the absurdist goings-on with contagious enthusiasm, if rough tone. The Milhaud is from March 1945, with the Tombeau from December 1941.

We move to 12-inch LP for a January 1947 Rachmaninoff Second Symphony. Mitropoulos' biographer, William Trotter, says the conductor loved this work with a passion. If so, the emotion shows through in this convincing effort. By this time, Mitropoulos and the Minnesotans had moved to Victor, and this symphony is better recorded than most of Columbia's work in Minneapolis. As with all commercial issues of this symphony until the 1960s, this rendition is cut.




Tito Puente on Broadway

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I recently reupped Perez Prado's first American LP, and enjoyed the experience of remastering that recording so much, I went looking for more mambo sounds for you.

I didn't have far to look because as it happens, Tito Puente is right next to Perez Prado on my shelves.

The young Puente at a recording session
The two are often linked as Cuban musicians, but in actuality only Prado hailed from Cuba (and even he achieved fame in Mexico). Puente was born in the New York and was of Puerto Rican descent. If you look online, you will see Puente hailed as the "Mambo King" and Prado as the "King of the Mambo."

Whatever their ancestry and whoever was king, they both made superb records, and this one is a particularly fine example. It starts out with the incredible "Ran-Kan-Kan" and goes from there, powered by Puente's hyperactive timbales, with hardly a low point (possibly excepting the mambo version of "Tuxedo Junction"). The passionate lead vocalist is apparently Vitin Avilés, although this is nowhere noted on the LP.

This 10-inch LP dates from 1953; however, a discussion of Puente's recordings here suggests these sides were made from 1949 to 1951. At that time, Puente worked mainly for Tico Records, but during a lull there he did these sides for RCA Victor's international division. RCA's American label signed him away from Tico in 1955.

The sound on these recordings is remarkably vivid.

Americana for Solo Winds and Strings

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This Mercury LP celebrates the conservative but highly attractive music of the composers associated with Howard Hanson at the Eastman School - with the notable addition of Aaron Copland, in what may be the only recording of Copland's music led by Hanson.

The delightful and striking cover seems to pay homage to Copland's "Quiet City," and perhaps Kent Kennan's "Night Soliloquy." An alternative cover used for an EP issue (below) switches to a rural motif more in keeping with the conductor's "Pastorale."

A few words about the lesser known composers:

Kennan
 Keller
Kent Kennan, an Eastman School graduate, spent most of his life teaching, but he was an active composer earlier in his career and near the end of his life. He wrote a few widely used instructional books.

Rogers
Barlow
Homer Keller was another product of the Eastman School. He wrote three symphonies and spent much time teaching.

Bernard Rogers was head of Eastman's composition department for several decades.

Wayne Barlow earned undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees from Eastman, then taught there for many years. "The Winter's Past" is also known as "The Winter's Passed" - either makes sense.

The recordings were made in October 1952 and May 1953. The sound is good.



Another Batch of Reups and Remasters

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Here we go again down the path of reuploads, mostly by request, but some by choice of the proprietor.

As always, these are remastered for better sound, except for the newer transfers. Remasters are noted below.

The links to all files are in the comments section of this post. More information on the records and the artists can be found via the original posts.

Today's selections:

Barkleys of Broadway. The original 78 soundtrack of the final Astaire-Rogers film. Now includes a repitched version (the published version is a little sharp). Note that the original post can be found on my other blog.

Benjamin and Vaughan Williams by Larry Adler. The harmonica wizard's original recordings of works written for him by Arthur Benjamin and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Dori Anne Gray - Copa Girl. Obscure 50s vocal records are always popular around here.

Mary Kaye Trio - Music on a Silver Platter. A little less obscure, vocalist Mary Kaye and her trio were Vegas regulars.

New York Jazz Quartet - Goes Native. A most enjoyable set from the Mat Mathews-Herbie Mann-Joe Puma group. Remastered.

Junior Miss. An EP presenting songs from a forgotten Burton Lane-Dorothy Fields TV musical. Remastered.

Matt Dennis - Saturday Date. Fabulous 40s transcriptions from the great singer-pianist-songwriter. Remastered.

William Warfield - Deep River. Songs of folk origin and inspiration from the great bass-baritone. Remastered.

Szell, Ormandy, Böhm and Maag Conduct Mozart and Haydn

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Two early LPs for you today showing mid-20th century approaches to Mozart and Haydn from leading conductors and orchestras.

Ormandy attempts to poke a cellist in the eye
The Columbia album has an April 1947 edition of Mozart's Symphony No. 39 from the Cleveland Orchestra, early in George Szell's tenure with that ensemble.

It is backed by a recording of Haydn's Symphony No. 88 set down by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy in December of the same year.

Also on offer is a London LP with two additional Mozart symphonies. First is No. 36 with Karl Böhm leading the Vienna Philharmonic. I enjoyed this rendition, which is from September 1950, but Lionel Salter in The Gramophone certainly did not, as you will see in an appended review.

Young Peter Maag
The other side of the LP has the Suisse Romande Orchestra under Peter Maag performing Symphony No. 29, in what was the Swiss conductor's first recording - at least the first to have been released. The taping is from October 1950. I believe this was during a time when Maag was Ernst Ansermet's assistant in Geneva.


Jean Sablon on RCA Victor

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I've been presenting early LPs by the legendary French crooner Jean Sablon now and then, and this is the third such post - also the third cover to feature the same photo of Sablon.

But while the first two albums were on the American Decca label, this is an RCA Victor product from the early 1950s, a double-EP version of a 10-inch LP.

The LP gives no information about recording dates or conductor identities. Sablon first recorded some of these songs in the 1930s for Pathé Marconi; however, these versions are from his time at Victor from 1947-49 and were first issued (or intended) as singles, I believe.

I've been able to determine a few of the bandleaders involved: "J'ai Te Main" is with Claude Thornhill and "Vous Qui Passez Sans Me Voir" and "Insensiblement" are with Toots Camarata.

These RCA recordings are just as good as the Decca sides from earlier in the 40s, and the sound is excellent.

Later on, I'll complete our look at Sablon's American records with his 1952 Capitol LP.

Hymns with Virgil Fox

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My two previous Virgil Fox posts have been amazingly popular. I am not one to argue with success, so here is a third.

But while I won't take issue with Fox's approval rating, I might quibble with his choice of instruments here.

This selection of popular hymns is played for the most part on an electronic Hammond Concert Organ. I for one usually find the sound of these instruments strange and unnatural - always have. However, Fox had no problem with them and later made quite a living with his flamboyant recitals on portable electronic instruments.

Fox
The recording of the Hammond took place in Church of the Incarnation in New York. There are two churches by that name in the city; it's not clear which was used. The cover shows a small town church, which probably didn't even have an organ.

Not all the songs on this 1954 LP are on the Hammond. Although the cover does not mention it, the last five selections ("Abide with Me,""O God, Our Help in Ages Past,""Faith of Our Fathers,""Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus," and "Alleluia Sing to Jesus") are clearly performed on a pipe organ.

I am guessing that RCA took down these final hymns at the same time that it recorded Fox's 1954 Christmas LP offered here last December. Those sessions were in Riverside Church, where Fox was the organist. It's possible that the LP of hymns was originally designed to be a 10-inch album, and RCA later decided to make it a 12-incher, necessitating another session. (The bigger format was then beginning to supplant the smaller one.)  Both the hymn record and the Christmas album came out in both 12-inch and double-EP format, the latter of which is equivalent to a 10-inch record.

The sound is excellent.

Thomas Scherman Conducts Copland and Thomson

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Four years ago a post on this blog presented an American Decca recording of film music by Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson from the Little Orchestra Society and Thomas Scherman. Here is a companion post with more music by the same composers and the same performers, also from 1952.

Scherman
This time around we have a 10-inch LP with music from Copland's score for the film Our Town, and a suite from Thomson's music for The Plow That Broke the Plains.

Scherman was not terribly well regarded as a conductor during his lifetime (Ned Rorem tells the story of walking out on a Scherman performance of Rorem's own music), but in my view these are accomplished performances of most affecting music, beautifully recorded. The Decca pressings are not very good, but hopefully not too distracting.

Latest Reups and Remasters

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Once again we have a pile of reuploads for you. Some of these are requested by readers and some were chosen by me.

These all have been remastered for better sound, except for one set from a lossy original, noted below.

The links to all files are in the comments section of this post. More information on the records and the artists can be found via the original posts.

Today's offerings:

Early recordings of Edgard Varèse. The first LP of Varèse's music, with exceptionally vivid sound and very good performances.

Liebermann - Concerto for Jazz Band and Orchestra. The Sauter-Finegan Band joins the Chicago Symphony led by jazz hound Fritz Reiner in this wonderful period piece. Also a slam-bang version of Strauss's Don Juan.

Mel Tormé - At The Crescendo 1957. Bethlehem clumsily chopped Tormé's 1957 club date into two LPs; Will Friedwald reassembled it for us. (Apple lossy format)

Songs from Kiss Me Kate and Anything Goes. One of the entries in RCA Victor's 1953 "Show Time" Series of potted musicals, with Lisa Kirk, Jack Cassidy, George Britton, Helena Bliss and Helen Gallagher. Terrific.

Wally Stott Conducts Irving Berlin. The great arranger Wally Stott (Angela Morley) with a smooth LP of Berlin scores, plus a bonus EP.

Let's Dance Again with Flanagan

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Dancing with Ralph Flanagan is something we do regularly around here. This spin around the floor is by request of a reader who was seeking the conductor's rendition of "Dancing in the Dark," which appears herein.

In most ways this is a typical Flanagan program, with smoothly played Miller-style instrumentals. However, the skimpy program of six tunes also includes two vocals, unlike most of the bandleader's LPs. The singing is by Flanagan regular Harry Prime, a pleasant vocalist who doesn't always hit the notes squarely. The record is also unusual in that it contains an honest-to-gosh instrumental solo, also unlike most of Flanagan's output. The forthright and rich-toned tenor spot on "Let's Face the Music and Dance" is by either Ed Dix or Steve Benoric (don't know which).

This 10-inch record dates from 1951, when the Flanagan group was tremendously popular on campus. In the Billboard college poll for that year, the ensemble came in first in three categories - most popular dance orchestra, most promising newer dance band, and favorite sweet band.

The sound here is terrific, and the cover is a riot, what with a violet, teal and taxicab yellow pinwheel affixed to Flanagan's upper back.

Early Recordings of Charles Ives' Music

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In response to my recent report of early recordings of the music of Edgard Varèse, longtime blog reader David Federman asked me if I had this pioneering 1951 record of Charles Ives' music. Not only do I have it, I had already transferred it for presentation here.

The LP, on the short-lived Polymusic label, was made when Ives was still alive (he died in 1954, at age 79). At the time, his reputation was growing. He had won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 (even though he stopped composing in 1930), and such advocates as Bernard Herrmann, Ralph Kirkpatrick, Nicholas Slonimsky, Lou Harrison and Helen Boatwright were programming his music.

Nonetheless, recordings were few and the music was still little known. Most of the performances in this album are first editions, possibly all of them except for the second violin concerto, which Patricia Travers had done for Columbia in 1950. These include such pieces as "The Unanswered Question" and "Central Park in the Dark," which are today far more familiar.

Ives in his back yard, 1950
These and the other orchestral works are led by Vladimir Cherniavsky. I had not encountered his name before, so did some research. Online sources generally suggest that the name "Vladimir Cherniavsky" is a pseudonym for Will Lorin. But when I looked deeper, I found that it is actually the other way around.

I believe that Vladimir Cherniavsky was the birth name of a composer-conductor-writer who was the son of another composer-conductor, Joseph Cherniavsky (or Josef Cherniafsky). The elder Cherniavsky was associated with the Yiddish theater and made a number of records in the 1920s. The younger Cherniavsky first shows up as a composer of a piece presented by one of the radio orchestras on air in the early 40s. He then disappears until this 1951 session.

Cherniavsky thereafter apparently made his living under the name Will Lorin, both as a writer and composer-conductor. Among his credits were working with Duke Ellington to adapt "A Drum is a Woman" for television in 1956, and providing the musical backing for Harry Belafonte's "An Evening with Belafonte" in 1957. In 1960, Lorin wrote the incidental music for the Broadway play Send Me No Flowers. Less auspiciously, he put together a 1963 General Electric industrial record called "Music to Drill Oil Wells By".

On the Ives LP, Cherniavsky leads an orchestra of New York studio musicians. Performing the violin sonata are Elliot Magaziner, who played in the CBS television orchestra, and pianist Frank Glazer. Joining them for the Largo is clarinetist David Weber.

The LP is a fine accomplishment, considering the music was all but unknown at the time and is highly individualistic.

The album is labeled Volume One, but I can't find any evidence that it was succeeded by other volumes. The sound is excellent.

Claude Thornhill - Piano and Rhythm

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Claude Thornhill made a great many records as a bandleader, but relatively few as a pianist with rhythm section. As far as I can tell, there were 10, all done in November and December 1947 with backing by Barry Galbraith (guitar), Joe Shulman (bass), and Bill Exiner (drums), who were members of Thornhill's band of the time.

Columbia devoted this 1949 10-inch LP to eight of the songs. One other, "Frasquita Serenade," appeared only on a 78 that I also have and have appended as a bonus track. I don't have the final piece that Thornhill recorded. It was included on a 1950s compilation LP, but that record isn't in my collection, unfortunately.

Thornhill was a imaginative, reflective pianist who chose some unusual works for this program. The sound is excellent, except for an occasional crackle and whoosh, and some odd low-frequency thumping that Columbia added to "That Old Feeling."

Florence Henderson

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Florence Henderson is best known today for being the mother on The Brady Bunch, a well-remembered US television show of the early 70s. But as with many television stars then and later, she started in musical comedy and made her name on Broadway.

Young Florence
Henderson's debut was a small part in Harold Rome's Wish You Were Here, which opened in 1952. She was barely 18 at the time. By late 1954, she had graduated to the title role in another Rome musical - Fanny. I believe she stayed with the show throughout its two-year run.

She was not seen again on Broadway until starring in Noel Coward's The Girl Who Came to Supper in 1963. But she was very active on television, becoming almost inescapable on variety shows before being cast as Carol Brady.

This 1959 LP is one of two that Henderson made for RCA Victor's budget Camden label in which she sang the hit tunes from current shows. On this record, she essays Gypsy and Flower Drum Song. (The other covers Fiorello and The Sound of Music.) The results are pleasing, with the singer showing the decided influence of Mary Martin. This made her well suited for The Sound of Music, perhaps less so for a Merman specialty like "Some People." Still, she was a very skillful vocalist, handling difficult material like "Love, Look Away" very nicely.

The backing is by Sid Bass, an RCA staff arranger who had put out a number of LPs in what today is sometimes called the "space age bachelor pad" genre. Henderson is undeterred by the arrangements' period hokeyness, and the early stereo sound is remarkably vivid.

I'll be presenting a few more albums from the Broadway stars of the time in future weeks.


John Kirkpatrick's First Ives Recording

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Pianist John Kirkpatrick was possibly the most influential musician in establishing Charles Ives reputation in prewar America.

Kirkpatrick was the first to play the complete Concord Sonata in a public performance, in 1939, and the first to record it, in this 1949 LP transfer of an April 1945 rendition for Columbia. In 1968, the same record company had Kirkpatrick set down a stereo version.

Reacting to one of the first public performances, the New York Herald-Tribune's Lawrence Gilman was effusive both about composer and pianist. He called the sonata "the greatest music composed by an American, and the most deeply and essentially American in impulse and implication," while adding that Kirkpatrick was "a poet and master, an unobtrusive minister of genius."

The pianist must have deeply identified with the music, which was an homage to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Alcotts and Henry David Thoreau, evoking the spirit of transcendentalism.

This is the second in a series of early recordings of the music of Ives. The sound is good.


Everything I Have Is Yours / Lili

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M-G-M combined the songs from two of its early 50s musicals on this one 10-inch LP - the backstage story of Everything I Have Is Yours, and the naive girl-with-puppets fairytale of Lili.

Marge and Gower Champion were the dancing protagonists in 1952's Everything I Have Is Yours, joined for a rare musical outing by glamorous actor-singer Monica Lewis.

Monica Lewis and the Champions
The score is a mishmash of old items like the title tune and new material from Johnny Green and Saul Chaplin, who contributes a song for Lewis with the unpromising title, "Seventeen Thousand Telephone Poles."

The music for 1953's Lili is more satisfying, with the beloved "Hi Lili, Hi Lo" from Leslie Caron and Mel Ferrer, and a few attractive instrumental cues from Bronislau Kaper.

As always, the M-G-M Studio Orchestra is a delight to hear, as conducted by Green, David Rose and Hans Sommer. Orchestrations for Everything I Have Is Yours were by Albert Sendrey; for Lili, Bob Franklyn and Skip Martin. The sound is very good.
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