Screenland (Nov 1949-Oct 1950)

FRED ROBBINS Better setv up those toes Or St. ISick'll have woes! AND you'll be crying in your eggnog that the old cat with the whiskers forgot about you. 'Cause it's that month again — and the guy with the red drape and big saddlebag on his port shoulder is flying home on Donder and Blitzen once more. And there's scads of fetching etchings therein — aside from all the regular goodies like that mink coat, diamond ring, Cadillac car and new television set you've been hurting for all thru the year, dear. Hope you latch on to a new record player — be it 78, SSVs or 45 RPM — 'cause there's so much nice merchandise to go with it. Dig! HEAVENLY! Bing! — Robin Hope's caddy is in with half a dozen newies — 4 from "Top O' The Morning:" "You're In Love With Someone"— the lush ballad from the show, the title deal — very free and easy — and with ANN BLYTH, who's with him in the flicker, "Oh, 'Tis Sweet To Think" and "The Donovans," complete with brogue and all. Great quality about Bing — always seems to be having a ball when he sings. T'other two are from Walt Disney's "Ichabod And Mr. Toad" — "Katrina" and "The Headless Horseman," but the "Top O' The Morning" stuff is better, and Crosby at his most Crosbyish — which isn't jello! (Decca) Doris Day — M-m-m-m . . . how incredibly close to one's shoulder can you get! If you run out of mistletoe, kid. Dodo's fresh album will get the romance flowing Fred Robbins, Victor thrush, Kitty Kallen, at N. Y. opening of "Sword In The Desert." like eggnog! If he or she's as hard to land as the Queen Mary and if there's no pinches in the clinches — hold this album— "You're My Thrill" — over his or her ear. Then look out! All of the husky grace and delicacy that've made Sparkle Plenty [our pet yiame for Dodo) so sparkling on that screen do the same thing on wax on eight gorgeous slabs — "You're My Thrill," "That Old Feeling," "Bewitched," "When Your Lover Has Gone," "I'm Confessin'," "I Didn't Know What Time It Was," "Sometimes I'm Happy" and "You Go To My Head." Superlative singing — with Dodo distilling gallons of intimate feeling. She's 3 parts angel and one part woman! {Columbia regular C-189 and LP 6071) . And don't miss her single cookie of "Land Of Love" and "The Last Mile Home." John Rarig conducts the band behind her on everything. Frank Sinatra — Wow! What good things happen at chime time! For F.S. is out with 6 new sides — "Let Her Go" — a beauty written by Joe Marsala, himself a fine musician — "The Wedding Of Lili Marlene," "I Only Have Eyes For You" — warm as a hug — "It All Depends On You" — another oldie with a beat that leaps like Santa from his sleigh, with a few bop licks thrown in for good measure "If I Ever Love Again" — with "The Double Daters" making like the Pied Pipers used to for a real hunk of caramel, and "Every Man Should Marry," which you'll wear to just as much of a frazzle. Yeah, Frankie's singing again — the way only he can. (Columbia) Tommy Dorsey — "And The Band Sings Too"— A nifty sheafful of T.D.'s old cookies on which the band works out behind breaths by Frankie and Jack Leonard on stuff like "Sweet Sue," "I'll See You In My Dreams," "East Of The Sun," "How Am I To Know," "Blue Moon" and "Yearning." This'll have you pounding those pines till the shoesies are worn out! (Victor) Frankie Laine — Nothing lucky about "That Lucky Old Sun," Frankie's biggest selling waffle! Just that supercharged heart and a great performance on another "Old Man River." And if you got a new record pressing machine for chime time you can make extra dough knocking out those sorely needed biscuits for Mercury records. They can't keep up with the clamor. Only other one that comes near Frankie's is LOUIS ARMSTRONG'S on Decca with Gordon Jenkins. VAUGHN MONROE'S AND SARAH VAUGHN'S miss fire. Flip is Nat Cole's composition, "I Get Sentimental Over Nothing" — also real squidgy! And every drop of this success is so deserved! (Mercury) Perry Como — The Manhasset barber has you climbing aboard a butterfly and taking off on the breeze on his fresh pancake which'll curl your toes. Perry's so-o-o relaxed on "Dreamer's Holiday" — a hunk of ear satisfying salve that'll have you real a la mode. "Meadows Of Heaven" is the back — nice aussi — but that's "Dreamer's Holidaj'" — so fluft'y. (Victor) Yvonne De Carlo stops to chat with Fred before premiere of "Sword In The Desert."