hey louis, why is johnny smith so underrated?

...
OF THESE THREE FABULOUS SINGERS OF THE MID FIFTIES, WITH THE GREAT JOHNNY SMITH playing his delicate guitar, who do you love best: the ever so shy jeri southern, the eternally young beverly kenney ... or the mysterious ruth price?

jeri southern/johnny smith/without a word of warning (1956)
un chef d'oeuvre d'équilibre entre la voix timidement sexy de jeri southern et le minimalisme cristallin de johnny smith, guitariste aux doigts d'eau, qui se glisse, timide lui aussi, derrière le piano de bob pancoast


ruth price/johnny smith/until the real thing comes along (1956)
une sublime ballade sentimentale signée cahn/chaplin, susurrée par la très méconnue ruth price, sur un lit de notes cristallines du grand johnny smith

hey louis, it's blossom dearie, ever so charming, and strangely close to beverly kenney's lolita phrasing, but without her vocal range ...

blossom dearie/l'étang (in french, great paul misraki song)/hello love
two great songs from her best album, my gentleman friend (1959)

hey louis, don't you think this very rare peggy lee's last recording is her best ever?

peggy lee, i see you/1995 (benny carter, composer and alto sax)
(in BENNY CARTER/songbook, vol 1)
...
...
et sept ans plus tôt, en 1988, pour son dernier et sublime album "jazz", LOVE HELD LIGHTLY, consacré aux chansons rares ou inédites de harold arlen ...

peggy lee/my shining hour (johnny mercer/harold arlen)
...
et quarante ans avant I SEE YOU (BENNY CARTER, SONGBOOK 1) ...
....

peggy lee/i only have eyes for you/sugar (from pete kelly's blues, 1955)

hey louis, do you really hate rock and roll?

peggy lee/till there was you (1961)

the beatles/till there was you (1962)


ONE OR TWO THINGS I KNOW ABOUT BEVERLY KENNEY
deux ou trois choses que je sais sur la sublime beverly kenney ....

before her untimely death in 1960, beverly kenney wrote a song: i hate rock and roll ....
she sang it on may 1958, on the steve allen show ...

i'm growing weary of teenage hoods/motorbikes, blue jeans and natalie woods
i'm tired of rebels without a cause/say, whatever happened to santa claus/rules of the road and baby ruth?
i for one must tell the truth/i don't care who knows it
i hate rock and roll/i don't care who knows it
i hate rock and roll

i want to say I love you/in the natural way
don't want to say/i luh-uh-love you
no, not that way/i don't care who knows it
i hate rock and roll

young luh-ove, true luh-ove is over-rated
and blue suede shoes/they should be confiscated
what is the answer to a teenage prayer?
frankly speaking i don't care, i don't care

i don't care who knows it/i hate rock and roll
i don't care who knows it/i swear that i hate rock and roll

i don't want to swing a hip/or swing a guitar
or anything to do with that ver-nac-u-lar
i don't care who knows
so I'm last on the hit record polls/cause i hate rock and roll
...





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POST SCRIPTUM 1

sylvia syms/there's somehing about an old love, barbara carroll, piano (1952)
sinatra's favourite crooning lady ("the world's greatest saloon singer", he used to say)
...
POST SCRIPTUM 2

jimmy durante/september song (kurt weil/maxwell anderson, 1955.
if you want to see other skorecki produced videos of SEPTEMBER SONG (among them a longer version of the song by jimmy durante, recorded eight years later with lots of violins, in 1963, as well as three different sinatra versions -one of them with gordon jenkins from sinatra's best album, no one cares, a nat king cole reading, the willie nelson version ....) as well as two new clips i produced of jimmy durantes' fabulous collaborations with gordon jenkins (les violons ont TOUJOURS RAISON), go to youtube and you'll find them easily .. ... ou demandez-moi, je les mettrais dans le blog .....