PEGGY LEE: "Jump For Joy"

Original released on LP Capitol T 979 (mono)

(US, 1958)

The powers that be at Capitol-EMI haven't been as thorough with their Peggy Lee reissues as they have been with, say, June Christy (a much less commercially successful artist), not to mention Frank Sinatra or Nat "King" Cole. Luckily, in 2009, the DRG label saw fit to put out domestic U.S. reissues of the previously unavailable "The Man I Love" and this "Jump For Joy", from 1957 and 1958 respectively. "Jump For Joy", Peggy Lee's second (and last) album with Nelson Riddle arrangements, was conceived as the extroverted, swinging follow-up to "The Man I Love" (which was itself produced and conducted by none other than Sinatra himself to mark her return to Capitol Records after a five-year absence). At the very least, it succeeded in securing Lee's status on the label with its solid production, classy arrangements, and, of course, her own masterful singing. "Joy" is also notable for including a number of older tunes from the '20s and '30s - songs like "Back In Your Own Back Yard," the Boswell Sisters' "When My Sugar Walks Down The Street," "Aint We Got Fun," Billie Holiday's "What A Little Moonlight Can Do," and Fred Astaire's "Cheek To Cheek." Far from making the album something of a novelty session - both Lee and Riddle can make any material sound fresh and contemporary, anyway - they only add to the bright, insouciant mood the singer and her arranger are trying to establish here. Apart from Sinatra's "Songs For Swingin' Lovers" and "A Swingin' Affair", these are some of Nelson Riddle's most hard-swinging charts. Of course, it all comes down to Peggy Lee's equally superb vocals - she has never sounded more confident or more in charge, as she looks forward to a renewed and successful association with the label where she first became a major star. (Richard Mortiflogio in AllMusic)

SOUTH PACIFIC (OST)

Original released on LP RCA Victor LSO 1032

(US, 1958)

Character-forming. There weren't many records around when I was a kid, but this was one of them, or at least an EP with four of these songs on it. I don't think "Happy Talk" could have been one of them, because I don't remember playing it, and I tended to gravitate towards the most annoying songs available. The one I do remember playing a lot is "There is Nothing Like a Dame". I liked its simple oom-pah rhythm, and I probably liked the contrast between male chorus and individual voices. I didn't think to ask what a dame was, because I knew: Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Dame Flora Robson. Confirmation, if it were needed, came from another version of the song on an LP of showtunes alongside "There's No Business Like Showbusiness". A dame, everyone knew, was an elderly English actress. Listening to it now in perhaps the first time for twenty-five years, I realise what I must have known subconsciously for a long while: that it's a remarkably frank song about a group of sailors so sexually frustrated that they're on the brink of begetting mermaids. Hearing this as a child may perhaps have led to my liking for opera; it's not impossible that it also planted the seeds of my Francophilia; what's certain is that it ensured I spent thirty years of my life confusing sex with theatrical performance. (in RateYourMusic)

Something really odd about this movie is the way they used extreme and almost surreal color-filters for a number of key-scenes. Friggin' irritating, if you ask me. But in regards to the music, it's a totally different ball game. The songs are not only both terrific and exquisite, they've rarely been bettered, which means close to definite versions of such immortal Rodgers-Hammerstein tunes as "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair", "Some Enchanted Evening", "There Is Nothing Like A Dame", the almost unreal beauty of "Bali Ha'i" and the most understated anti-racist rant you're ever likely to hear in the glorious "Carefully Taught". Man, that's what I call music. If you get it on vinyl, make sure to get a hold of a copy with the splendid gatefold sleeve and the accompanying booklet. No color filters there... (in RateYourMusic)