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Julie London Cry Me A River; her 62 Finest, 1955-62
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RETROSPECTIVE RTS 4300 [78:56 + 79:14]
A twofer of Julie London’s 1955-62 recordings can never be a bad thing even though there are compilations galore of her memorable, languorous, sexy singing. All of her first LP Julie is her Name is here, and there are examples taken from Calendar Girl, with Pete King and his Orchestra, the stripped back Lonely Girl with guitarist Al Viola, a brace from About the Blues, and a handful from Make Love To Me, both presided over by Russ Garcia. And that’s not yet the end of the first CD. The delights just keep coming.
Her métier was the slow ballad, tinged with romantic or erotic longing and disappointment; the promise and the fallout. Her first album established the template, obviously with Cry Me A River but also with her approach to things like I Should Care and Say It Isn’t So . The Al Viola album is interesting. The lower strings on Viola’s guitar seem to distort from time to time, possibly because he seems to be trying to evoke the sound of guitar and bass. She essays a daringly slow tempo onWhere or When and there’s trademark breathy melancholy on The Meaning of the Blues, taken from the film in which she appeared, The Great Man. Aloofly sassy in Blues in the Night, she is superb in Lover Man – and so different to the anguished Billie Holiday – and sultry in For You. Some of these performances enjoy interesting orchestration with roles for solo violin and flute inter alia.
It’s quite unusual to hear her in peppy up-tempo form, though she is all that and more in What is This Thing Called Love? backed just by Howard Roberts’s guitar and Red Mitchell’s bass. There’s a yearning cello in Something I Dreamed Last Night – a beautiful song beautifully arranged. André Previn accompanied her with his orchestra in a 1959 Liberty LP. Previn’s orchestration is supple and vivid and even Rachmaninovian in places, especially in One for My Baby – a strong hint of the great Rachmaninov conductor that he was to become.
One of the few jazzy environments here comes in the album Julie…At Home where a group anchored by pianist Jimmy Rowles – and again with Al Viola – creates a small ensemble for her and she responds with conviction on You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To. A more unwieldy beast is Around Midnight, excerpts from which LP with bandleader Dick Reynolds can certainly be luscious but also a bit over-ripe. Felix Slatkin, the great string player, brings a more idiomatic sheen in Whatever Julie Wants but by the early 60s she’s moving into Rosemary Clooney-Peggy Lee territory and sounding less like herself. It’s no surprise that the album Love Letters has an anonymous orchestra backing her. Gone were the days of luxury ensembles.
Still while it lasted – and it was, in truth, to last quite a bit longer than 1962 – Julie London left behind some inimitable and caressingly intimate albums full of a deliberate restriction in range and style that, ironically, only seemed to make her the more alluring.
Jonathan Woolf
Cry Me a River
I Should Care
I'm in the Mood for Love
I'm Glad There Is You
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
I Love You
Say It Isn't So
It Never Entered My Mind
East Street
'S Wonderful
No Moon at All
Laura
Gone with the Wind
February Brings the Rain
I'll Remember April
Memphis in June
September in the Rain
Lonely Girl
It's the Talk of the Town
What'll I Do
Where or When
The Meaning of the Blues
Blues in the Night
If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight
I Wanna Be Loved
Lover Man
Body and Soul
Somebody Loves Me
Daddy
Midnight Sun
For You
Blue Moon
What Is This Thing Called Love?
How Long Has This Been Going On?
Little White Lies
I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan
In the Middle of a Kiss
Just the Way I Am
Something I Dreamed Last Night
That Old Feeling
Cuddle up a Little Closer
Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?
It Could Happen to You
When I Fall in Love
One for My Baby and One More for the Road
The More I See You
You'd Be so Nice to Come Home To
The Thrill Is Gone
Sentimental Journey
You Stepped out of a Dream
'Round Midnight
Black Coffee
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
Don't Smoke in Bed
My Heart Belongs to My Daddy
Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
Love for Sale
Sophisticated Lady
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
I Loves You, Porgy
Come On-A My House
Broken-Hearted Melody
Julie London (vocals) with various orchestra and instrumentalists
Recorded 1955-62
