FRANKIE LAINE — One For My Baby (review)

FRANKIE LAINE — One For My Baby album cover

Album · 1951 · Vocal Jazz

4/5 · 2011-12-03
Matt

Recorded and released in 1951 Frankie Laine's Columbia debut "One For My Baby" was the first time that Frankie recorded with Paul Weston's Orchestra although Carl Fischer on piano was still with him from his previous tenure at Mercury. All new material with none of the songs previously recorded by him with a fairly wide selection for the material all being Jazz influenced. Frankie had arrived at Columbia records through Mitch Miller who had been handling things for Frankie Laine previously at Mercury and it was Mitch who teamed up Paul Weston Orchestra's which would be the first of many more recordings that the two artists would do in conjunction at Columbia with addition of The Norman Luboff Choir for this release providing the backing vocals. It was also Mitch Miller who had been the driving force behind Frankie Laine's two previous hits "The Lucky Old Sun" and "Mule Train" as well as other material recorded near the end at Mercury which was leaning more toward an Americana style which would become his mainstay at Columbia in the 1960's but here on "One For My Baby" it was all still Jazz and Popular music with a mixture of show tunes added comprising Frankie Laine's debut at Columbia.

Eight tracks only released in 10 inch format with the first track being "Tomorrow Mountain" with quite a slow intro only in the first verse with a great addition of swing added for the rest of the song with Frankie Laine really bringing his vocals to the front with that gusto that emanated from him whilst he was singing this style of up tempo tunes from this time in the 1950's with the Norman Luboff Choir providing it's distinct style of backing vocals The song is taken from a stage musical and actually is a Duke Ellington adaptation and one will recognise the similarity with the classic Country song "Big Rock Candy Mountain" with all the connotations of a bum's heaven with everything for free, just waiting to be picked from the trees but this time we are in a city and not a rural setting for the song. "Song Of The Islands" having a distinct Hawaiin touch with the guitar is at a much slower pace than the first and that Choir is backing this one too but not with vocal repitition from Frankie Laine's lead but they add a tonal texture to the tune with the female vocals singing word less additions. The glorious swing is back with it's shuffle beat for the next "She Reminds Me Of You" and Frankie takes on this song without Norm's Choir bringing a nice texture to the album and the following closer for side 1 is the ballad "To Be Worthy Of You" again without the choir and given the "Old Leather Lungs" treatment with a beautiful interruptation from Frankie with one of those big finishes that only he could do.

"When It's Sleepy Time Down South" opens up the flip and I myself will always compare it to Louis Armstrong's take as it was one of Pop's standards which he performed at almost every concert he ever played but back here with Frankie Laine's take, yes it is up there and whats more one should remember it was not often a white popular artist would cover this sort of material but not so with Frankie Laine who always remembered the true birth place of Jazz and he would always pick many of his songs from the more traditional standards down in the glorious South where all those classic songs originated from which Louis Armstrong brought to the entire world. "Love Is A Cheat" has a slight gypsy influence with the vocals sang in rapid manner over quite a fairly quick beat by Frankie to great effect with "Necessary Evil" following with a straight Jazz take with the version presented and the album finisher is the classic "One For My Baby" and lets just say, "and one more for the road" and you should know the song with that addition to the lyrics in this timeless tune. Of course it is good and Frankie takes a fairly low key approach to the song.

The time was 1951 and one should remember that Swing was really still a term for all those Big Bands and not really used as a description for Jazz or popular vocals during this time and another Frank with the surname Sinatra would be the leading exponent in this music format for all time but one does wonder if Frankie Laine had not been do diverse with his song selections he may have knocked the other off his perch or at least made him move over. The songs all have those big vocal finishes from "Old Leather Lungs and the Norman Luboff Choir is present for two of the eight numbers but it is the ones without them that shine for me. Great mix of song styles from this time but I always go for Frankie's more up-tempo material personally and this one just falls a little short but then the diversity would be missing from the release and as the old saying goes, "You can't have your cake and eat it too". Still wonderful stuff and there is a cd release out there with the "Mr Rhythm" album combined and well worth picking up if you are interested in Frankie Laine.