MISCELLANEOUS AND DANCE By JOHN OAKLAND EPs and LPs

Being one of those people that like to lie back and savour what I listen to when I'm playing records for pleasure or for review—not always the same thing by any means!—I found myself musing, when listening to Cliff Richard (Col. SEG7903 and 7910) recording before a teenage audience in the Abbey Road Studios, that when the Beat Generation grows up, it will be heartily ashamed of itself, and that records such as these will provide irrefutable evidence of the temper of our times; the unintelligible and unintelligent mouthing to a twangy guitar, the pile-driver rhythm, the shrieks of rapture(?) coming in smack on cue, and the lesson in mass-hysteria that is given.

To be fair, I doubt if the little dears' mums and dads were much more elevated in their taste for music and song when they were teenagers. Enoch Light and the Charleston City Seven on Top Rank JKR8010 provide five examples of the Roaring Twenties, following their LP last month, in the same gawky doowacka-doo style, admirably recaptured, but as I think I have remarked before, why, when the attics and outhouses of the country are stacked up with the real thing, do they consider hi-fl reproductions saleable?

I think I'd have been a square even then. After all, my generation when young jitterbugged to Benny Goodman and swooned over Frank Sinatra. As a reminder of the latter, Fontana have reissued some of his earliest solos without orchestral backing on =17042, and a splendid new 12-inch album set on TFL5054, show-tunes beautifully done under the title The Broadway Kick. Although these are probably at least seven years old, they constitute one of Sinatra's greatest albums yet.

One of his more recent LPs was Come Fly With Me on Cap. LCT6154. This has now been broken down into four EP sets, numbered EAP1-, 2-, 3-, 4-920. It makes for convenience to the limited pocket and storage space. Another EP that does this is Top Rank TR5004, featuring six numbers from artists such as Craig Douglas, Bert Weedon and Sheila Buxton. It is a non-stop hit parade, including Personality and The Battle Of New Orleans, without scrolls between, in fact barely more than a few seconds' pause, making individual selection almost impossible.

There are no scrolls on Franck Poured's Strings' new EP (H.M.V. 7EG8464), but as there are only three Strauss waltzes and a Lehar waltz, I wonder why this is. The music THE MONTH'S CHOICE Frank Sinatra Fontana TFL5054 Norman Luboff Choir Philips BBL7302 Pat and Shirley Boone London RED 1220 Michael Holliday Col. SEG7892 Xavier Cugat R.C.A. RD27I27 Philip Green Top Rank RX3013 is old-world and completely square. I imagine the same epithet may be applied to four melodies on H.M.V. 7EG8470, things like Traumerei by Schumann and Humoreske by Dvotak, richly played by the Melachrino Strings. Maybe I don't dig cool music the most, but I can enthuse over the modern, but not "'way-out" accompaniments to the Norman Luboff Choir singing But Beautiful— how right that is—on Philips BBL7302. The voices are mellow, perfectly balanced and they sing songs that are not staled by repetition.

I feel that some of the numbers on the Tony Osborne LP (H.M.V. CLP1270) have staled by just such repetition, and the treatment, soft piano over soft strings, is not exactly the latest idea; but They, the Buying Public, will swallow it, no doubt, as they have swallowed countless similar discs. Ernest Maxin's Orchestra on Top Rank RX3011 plays As Time Goes By and other well-worn "favourites" (mine once, but this reviewing proves the truth of the saying about familiarity breeding contempt) such as The Very i'hought Of You, most of them solo saxophone spots with the usual lush backdrop. Nothing wrong with it musically, but it's all so much of a muchness.

Another Latin record is by Percy Faith and his Orchestra on Philips BBL7311. Here again we have Marta, Malaguena, The Breeze And I and Siboney in appropriately exotic settings, which Faith does rather well. Also on the credit side, Philip Green and his Orchestra play a nice set of numbers about Things with Wings, from various birds (La Paloma, The Red Robin and Flamingo, for example) to Poor Butterfly and The Honeysuckle And The Bee, on Top Rank RX3013. These show some imagination, and they too are beautifully arranged and played.

Film fans, who, judging by the half-empty cinemas I've visited lately, are a dying race, are nevertheless well catered for on disc. Three EPs feature George Cates and his Orchestra (Coral FEP2029/31) in the music from such films as "Giant", and "Rebel Without A Cause", some of it vocal; and Pye NPL28002 offers sound-track recordings of films such as "Sunny Side Of The Street", "The Bridge On The River Kwai" and "From Here To Eternity", with vocal work from the stars themselves, of course.

One star of that firmament still shines, or perhaps glows, as radiantly as ever is Marlene Dietrich, who sings German lyrics to such American "pops" as Mean To Me, Annie Doesn't Live Here Any More and Miss Otis Regrets, as well as several pleasing German songs (Lili Marlene among them) on Philips BBL7322. These are of somewhat limited appeal, but they are certainly put across very artistically.

While we're discussing records of limited appeal, there is another that falls into this category on Vogue VAI60133, of a host of standard "pops" (two of them erroneously described as "Traditional") of the decade from 1925 to 1935, give or take a couple of years, played on an automatic piano with mandoline, xylophone and bell attachments, that according to the sleeve, actually provided the music in a house of sin in California. I suppose all this "background" is intended to excite the imagination, but to me it remains a typically flat-toned pianola with some shrill overtones from the attachments. I'd much rather listen to oldies played by competent bands, even though we know those bands as we know our best friends—the Big Ben Banjo Band, for instance, in songs from 'Way Down South (Col. SEG7907) or Sid Phillips and his Band (H.M.V. 7EG8461), including a catchy and little-played Irving Berlin number, Everybody Step. George Burns, a singer with something of both Al. Jolson and Jimmy Durante in his voice, also has some real old-timers (Red Rose Rag is not easily singable, nor do I think it was originally intended to be; the words, I feel, were grafted on later) on Pye NEP44000.

As well as old-time "pops", the country-andwestern artists have been having a bonanza. Wayne Raney, for example, on Parlo. GEP8746, sings with harmonica and guitar accompaniment some quite attractive songs of the wide open spaces, and I liked the lively banjo and guitar backing the Osborne Brothers on M.G.M. EP691; Hank Snow (R.C.A. RCX142) sounds like a Tin Pan Alley cowboy, phoney maudlinity and all, while Grandpa Jones (Bruns. 0E9455) is made of raw country stuff, lyrics and accompaniments alike. I only tried two of Stu Phillips' numbers on Pye NEP41001, but they are so similar, I felt further exploration unnecessary. He sings songs of the Far North with quite a pleasing if rather monotonous voice.

Shaking the hayseeds out of my hair, metaphorically, I turned to two EPs which both feature Side By Side, coincidentally. Both discs are delightful; one is by Pat Boone and his wife Shirley (London RED1220), and their voices blend beautifully, while the other is an amusing set of four duets by Michael Holliday and Michael Holliday. His asides to his alter ego, in the Bing Crosby–Johnny Mercer manner of all-those-years-ago, apart from his easy, looselimbed singing, are alone worth the money (Col. SEG7802).

Bing Crosby himself is represented by an extract from his LP of "Bing Sings While Bregman Swings", including Mountain Greenery, which was made for him if a song ever was, on H.M.V. 7EG8475. How much I prefer the warmth and ease of Bing to the wide vibrato and reedy tone especially in the spirituals—of Johnny Mathis, as on Fontana TFE17089, though his songs on TFE17091 are richer and more interesting. 1 A new American coloured singer, described as having a "caressing" voice, is Brook Benton, on Mercury ZEPI0023, who tends to resemble Mathis but who has more colour in his voice. Vic 13;.mone has four silky ballads on Mercury ZEP10022, with suitably decorous backing, and Jeremy Lubbock (Parlo. GEP8745) sings Just For The Fun Of It and others in the approved modern cabaret-act style. The girls' latest EPs include some typical sugar from Vera Lynn (Decca DFE6594); If Yesterday Could Only Come Again Tomorrow is the perfect answer to those who moan, "Ah, they don't write tunes like that any more". Counteracting this is a foursome from Carmen Macrae, the coloured singer who seldom fails to please my ear (Bruns. 0E9463), for she combines clarity of diction with a sense of swing; Bridle Gallagher is throaty, but has a rhythmic style on Decca DFE6571; Shirley Abicair sings four little exotic numbers of Creole, Neapolitan, Spanish and French origin on Fontana TFE 17124 (the second and third are in their native dialect and none too clear, but the tunes are good); and Toni Carroll (M.G.M. 689) puts I Don't Know Why and three others over in such an intimate way, you can almost feel her voice stroking your hair. Patti Page on Mercury MMC14013 dispels the heavy, scented atmosphere this creates by some beaty, weatherbeaten songs under the name I'll Remember April.

Spike Jones reappears with four of his notquite-so-zany creations of 1947 vintage on R.C.A. RCX1037, including The Man On The Flying Trapeze and the Peter Lorre leg-pull, My Old Flame. None But The Weary Heart, though, is new to this country; but I don't think it's very funny, this deliberate hamming against Tchaikovsky's lovely melody.

The remainder of this month's little lot are all orchestral, or at least, they rely on instruments rather than voices, let us say, but there are voices that rather obtrude on Tony Crombie's Men (Col. SEG7986) in another helping of their rock-'n-roll-that-you-can-listento. Mantovani playing four Continental favourites on Decca DFE6577 is suave and sweeping as usual, and when you consider that the set includes April In Portugal and Arrivederci, Roma, you will agree that it is a very acceptable one. Ray Martin has four film themes on Col. SEG7899, High Noon being a particularly good one, and Geoff Love remembers "Carousel" and "Oklahoma" with a tune from each on Col. SEG7906. Bill Shepherd and his Orchestra sound like a band at an American convention in their Swingin' And Marchin' , a mixture of old music-hall songs and World War One numbers, rather ragged marches, but quite a good idea. Jack Pleis and his Orchestra (Bruns. LAT8304) play soothing modern serenades (such as the ones to Sunrise, Moonlight, and so on), nothing too hackneyed, and Xavier Cugat (R.C.A. RD27127) winds up with typical Latin music that is unusual, attractive and melodic, with none of that brassy noise that spoils so much music alleged to be from exotic parts.