Screenland Plus TV-Land (Jul 1959 - May 1960)

Reviews of new discs by SHELDON WAX |ECCA'S latest singing comet, Carl " Dobkins, Jr., has just put out his first urn titled succinctly enough "Carl Dobis. Jr." The LP gets off and winging !h Carl's big hit, "My Heart Is An en Book", and keeps on building m there. Among the top grade tunes dered by young Carl are Cole Porter's rue Love" and a pair penned by Carl aself, "Love Is Everything" and "If u Don't Want My Love" . . . Followthe simple tenet that one good turn ;erves another, Contemporary Records | sequelled its successful etching of nelly Manne And His Men Play Music ' )m Peter Gunn" with "Son Of Gunn! ! !'" _ ich is loaded with another generous Iping of the same. The Manne men are, usual, superb, delivering such Henry incini delicacies as "Spook", "Joanna" d "My Manne Shelly" with verve, lomb, eclat and all that jazz . . . Vic's young muscleman Johnny Restivo s cut his vocal eyeteeth on his first jum, "Oh Johnny". There's nothing isclebound about Johnny's tonsils. He is given a big buildup by Victor. It ould start paying dividends with LP's e this one . . . Ernestine Anderson's est Mercury coupling bears out all pre?tions of Miss Anderson taking her ice in the first rank of America's songrds. The pairing of "Call Me Darling" d "My Love Will Last" adds up to two lpings of top talent. ■ Three of our favorite females, the cGuire Sisters, pull off a tour de force taking Sophie Tucker's "Some Of These ays" and making like it was their very m. The reverse side of the Coral etchg. "Have A Nice Weekend", is up-toite and quite listenable. But "Days" is e big side . . . Decca's beautiful pack;e of a 2-LP musical eulogy to "Lady ay", "The Billie Holiday Story", conins ample evidence of Billie Holiday's eatness. The numbers recorded between *14 and 1950 include some of Billie's :st work which should be recommendaan enough. The Holiday stamp remains indelibly on tunes such as "Porgy", "Crazy", "He Calls Me" and "Easy Living" . . . Sam "The Man" Taylor is busy blowing up another storm again. His new M-G-M "More Blue Mist" is topgrade tenor-saxmanship. Sam tackles standards in this lush LP and the mood is romantic. Among the tunes Sam caresses with his horn are "Tenderly", "Willow Weep For Me" and "I Should Care". Play it again, Sam . . . United Artists Records' glamour queen Diahann Carroll, the girl most likely to inherit Lena Home's mantle, gets some of her sultriness on wax in her new U-A 45 "My Love, My Love" and "Again". Diahann's backing is provided by Don Costa and is the black velvet that sets off Diahann's sparkling performances . . . Ralph Marterie's hopped on the Private Eye bandwagon but good. Marterie and his Marlboro Men have etched an album for Mercury, "Music For A Private Eye", that touches most of the bases when it comes to TV sleuths. Name of your favorite ' video detective — Richard Diamond, Peter Gunn, The Thin Man — they're musically on tap in this one ... Do you dig Dixie? Well, step right up then and latch on to "The River Boat Five Takes The Train", their latest Mercury album. The boys are landlocked on this outing, confining themselves stricdy to rail transportation. Among the choo-choo cha-chas are "Wabash Cannonball", "On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" and "Take The A' Train". ■ One of the most refreshing original cast albums to come along in many a musical moon is the Victor waxing of "Take Me Along", the song-and-dance takeoff on Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness". The cast, headed by Jackie Gleason, Walter Pidgeon, Eileen Herlie and Una Merkle, does handsomely by the Robert Merrill score. This album could be either a mouth-watering invitation to see the show or a marvelous memento after you've taken it in . . . M-G-M's own particular pride and joy, Conway Twitty has a new hit-tune-filled album titled "Saturday Night With Conway Twitty. Conway has come a long way since his golden record of "It's Only Make Believe". His handling of such standards as "Danny Boy" and "Blueberry Hill" teamed up with au courant items like "Hey Miss Ruby" and "She's Mine" spell out a vocal success story . . . Jackie Wilson, who toils in the Brunswick vineyards, has been whipping up some heady brew* lately. The most recent of which is his pairing of "Talk, Talk, Talk" and "Only You, Only Me". The beat varies from rockin' ("Talk") to romantic ("Only You") and the Wilson approach is just right in both cases . . . Dinah Shore's latest Capitol album, "Yes, Indeed", is a real rouser. It's her first LP outing under that label and an auspicious premiere it is. Everything's upbeat, including such standards as "It All Depends On You" and "Taking A Chance On Love" . . . The sound track for the Harry Belafonte starrer, "Odds Against Tomorrow", is a little different. As set down on a United Artists LP, it shows the score done by John Lewis, leaderman of the Modern Jazz Quartet to be interesting, avant garde, first class jazz in its own right. Conductor Lewis leads a big band knowingly through composer Lewis* creation. "Here We Go Again," the title of the Kingston Trio's new Capitol album, is completely appropriate as the boys are off on another big-seller binge. These young gentlemen are three of the best things that ever happened to folk music. A perfect example is their beautiful handling of "Across The Wide Missouri" . . . High flyin' Connie Francis comes up with another big one in her latest M-G-M package, "Country And Western Golden Hits". Connie's right at home with the backwoods beat delivering tunes such as "Your Cheatin' Heart". Her versatility is matched only by her salesability . . . Reach, pardner, for the new Marty Robbins Columbia album. "Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs" that is. Marty backs himself up on guitar and has additional rhythm and a male chorus behind him. The effect is a large slice of the Old West. Among such sagebrush standards as "Cool Water" and "Strawberry Roan" are Robbins originals including "Big Iron" and "El Paso" . . . Pat Boone's new Dot 45'er couples "The Faithful Heart", sliced from his new movie, "Journey To The Center Of The Earth", with "Beyond The Sunset" and is proof positive of Pat being one of musicdom's "regulars". Pat is an ardent practitioner of the art of "just plain singing." For this, much thanks . . . Paul Anka, ABC-Paramount's "young man on the way up," is pretty close to the top rung of the success ladder, continually turning out such highly professional performances as his dual offering. "It's Time To Cry" and "Something Has Changed Me". To wind up with a terrible pun. let s say that ABC's Anka is definitely not dragging on this pairing. END II