So, why did I buy this Goodwill album? Well, after going through eight or nine boxes, I'd picked a small group of LPs and 45s. My brother-in-law was standing next to me. I thought this jacket was kind of cool (it is--surprisingly so for a cheapo label), so I held it up and said, "Do I want this?" "Yes, you want this," he replied. So I bought it.
The label is Hollywood, and here Hollywood is pulling the standard budget-label read-the-smaller-print scam: a big (colorized?) picture of the famous artists being exploited, the artists' name in big letters ("Dorsey"), and no Tommy or Jimmy Dorsey present on the disc. Surprise!! Just Maury Laws' Orchestra and Chorus, which does a surprisingly decent job recreating the Tommy Dorsey sound (7 to 8 on a scale of 10). (I don't think any of these were originally Jimmy Dorsey sides, but correct me if I'm wrong.) Surprisingly decent, because the budget couldn't have been very sky-high. In all, a fun LP with a few outstanding performances. My only complaint: some truncated arrangements, including my two all-time favorite TD tracks: Marie and Sunny Side of the Street. How could they? But there's an excellent Opus No. 1, so maybe I can forgive this lapse in $1.98-LP wisdom. This junk-label album far exceeded my low expectations, so I'll give it an A. Besides, the cover rocks.
Biggest surprise: the very decent sound. I combined left and right for fabulous results. Not usually, but sometimes the poverty-row record companies get it right. Well, except for putting the jacket's track listings in the correct order, but that's a proud budget label tradition. These folks have standards to uphold.
Click here to hear: The Dorsey Touch--Maury Laws' Chorus and Orch.
Getting Sentimental Over You
Royal Garden Blues
Boogie Woogie
Song of India
Swanee River
Marie
Will You Still Be Mine/Once in a While
Yes Indeed (Sy Oliver)
Sunny Side of the Street
I'll Never Smile Again
Opus No. 1 (Sy Oliver)
This Love of Mine/Embraceable You/There Are Such Things
Quiet Please (Sy Oliver)
Getting Sentimental Over You
Prepared and Directed by Maury Laws (Hollywood LPH-136, 1957)
Lee
3 comments:
This reminds me of my first exposure to Tommy Dorsey. My Mom was an RCA Record Club aficionado, and I remember a two-LP set from 20th Century Records that was an attempt to add a high fidelity edge to some of TD's greatest stuff. Sometimes the $1.98 bin yielded a winner or two. Thanks, Lee.
I have this record but have never got around to digitizing it... Thank!
Thank you for this album!
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