Mel Tormé – The Quintet & Beyond 1944-1960 – 4CD

Track Listing:

CD1: 1944-1947
The Mel-Tones & Eddie La Rue's Quartet: 1. Stranger in Town - 3:01   2. You've Laughed at Me for the Last Time - 3:02   The Mel-Tones & Eugenie Baird: 3. Am I Blue - 2:22   The Mel-Tones, Bing Crosby &Buddy Cole Trio: 4. Day by Day - 2:51   The Mel-Tones & Sonny Burke & Orchestra: 5. Willow Road - 3:02   The Mel-Tones & Artie Shaw & His Orchestra: 6. I Got the Sun in the Morning - 3:00   The Mel-Tones & Sonny Burke's Orchestra: 7. Try a Little Tenderness - 3:07   8. It Happened in Monterey - 2:51   9. Born to Be Blue - 2:40   The Mel-Tones & Artie Shaw & His Orchestra: 10. Get Out of Town - 3:16   11. What Is This Thing Called Love - 2:57   12. Changing My Tune - 2:40   13. For You, for Me, for Evermore - 3:06   14. Guilty - 3:08   15. And So to Bed - 2:35   16. Don't You Believe It Dear - 2:36   with Ray Linn & His Orchestra: 17. A Little Kiss Each Morning - 2:56  with Sonny Burke & Orchestra: 18. It's Dreamtime - 3:03   19. You're Driving Me Crazy - 3:12   20. Who Cares What People Say - 2:55   21. I'm Yours - 3:01 with Page Cavanaugh Trio: 22. I Can't Give You Anything But Love - 3:00   23. My Baby Just Cares for Me - 2:37   24. Love, You Funny Thing - 2:58   25. Dance Ballerina Dance - 3:13   26. If I Had a Girl Like You - 2:43   with Hal Mooney & His Orchestra: 27. Until the Real Thing Comes Along - 2:55

CD2: 1947-1950
Mel Tormé: 1. But Beautiful - 2:45   2. Love Is the Sweetest Thing - 3:05   3. Gone with the Wind - 2:57   4. I Cover the Waterfront - 4:27   5. County Fair - 4:33   6. A Foggy Day in London Town - 2:54   7. Makin' Whoopee! - 2:54   8. Little White Lies - 2:58   9. Night and Day - 2:44   with Dave Barbour Four: 10. Three Little Words - 2:01   11. Love Me or Leave Me - 1:47   Mel Tormé: 12. Do, Do, Do - 2:29   13. Careless Hands - 3:15   14. Stompin' at the Savoy - 2:34   15. You're Getting to Be a Habit with Me - 3:07   16. Blue Moon - 3:12   17. Again - 3:11 with Frank DeVol & His Orchestra: 18. The Four Winds and the Seven Seas - 3:05   19. It's Too Late Now - 3:14   20. Sonny Boy - 2:45   21. Oh You Beautiful Doll - 2:19   with Peggy Lee & Mellow Men: 22. The Old Master Painter - 2:49   with The Mel-Tones & Hal Mooney Orchestra: 23. I Hadn't Anyone Till You - 3:09   24. Cross Your Heart - 2:38   with Pete Rugolo & His Orchestra: 25. Skylark - 3:08   26. Lullaby of the Leaves - 2:21   27. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - 3:19

CD3: 1949-1954
with Mel-Tones, Peggy Lee, The Jud Conlon Chorus & The Starlighters: 1. The Original "California Suite": Mountain Desert Theme / The Golden West / We Think the West Coast Is the Best Coast / Coney Island / The Miami Waltz / They Go to San Diego / Sunday Night in San Fernando / Got the Gate on the Golden Gate / Prelude to "Poor Little 'Extra' Girl" / Poor Little "Extra" Girl / We Think - 30:44   Mel Tormé: 2. Recipe for Romance - 2:33   3. My Buddy - 2:48   Mel Tormé & His Trio: 4. You're a Heavenly Thing - 2:33   with Peggy Lee: 5. Don't Fan the Flame - 2:30   with The Jud Conlon Singers: 6. A Stranger in Town - 2:42   Mel Tormé: 7. Anything Can Happen Mambo - 2:46   8. Blue Skies - 2:17   9. Rose O'Day - 2:22   10. Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama) - 2:37   11. All of You - 2:50   12. Spellbound - 2:31   13. The Hut Sut Song - 2:28   14. Cement Mixer - 2:24   with Al Pellegrini Trio: 15. That Old Black Magic - 3:14   16. Mountain Greenery - 2:21   17. County Fair - 5:15   18. The Christmas Song - 3:11

CD4: 1954-1960
with Al Pellegrini Trio: 1. Goody, Goody - 2:28   2. Bernie's Tune - 2:57   Mel Tormé: 3. Ghost of a Chance - 2:43   4. I'm Getting Sentimental Over You - 2:31   5. Prelude to a Kiss - 3:13   6. I've Got the World on a String - 2:03   7. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea - 2:23   8. I Surrender Dear - 2:35   9. Don't Worry 'Bout Me - 3:10   10. One Morning in May - 2:42   11. I Can't Give You Anything But Love - 1:58   12. I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart - 2:00   with Billy May & His Orchestra: 13. Vaya con Dios - 3:22   14. Six Lessons from Madame La Zonga - 3:09   15. Nina - 2:35   16. Frenesi - 2:35   17. South of the Border - 3:02   18. Perfidia - 2:07   19. The Rhumba Jumps - 2:13   20. Malagueña (At the Crossroads) - 2:37   21. Cuban Love Song - 2:03   22. Rosita - 2:56   23. Adios - 2:04   24. Baia - 2:29   Mel Tormé: 25. Baubles, Bangles and Beads - 2:17   26. A Sleepin' Bee - 3:34   27. The Surrey with the Fringe on Top - 3:00   28. All I Need Is the Gin - 3:04

Reviews:

1. AllMusic -John Bush
Mel Tormé was a singing, writing, and recording dynamo during the 1940s and '50s, and any set would need many more discs than just four to collect his work. That said, The Many Sides of Mel Tormé goes a long way, functioning as one of the very best extended surveys of his early career. Included are several discs' worth of his earliest recordings (with vocal group the Mel-Tones or otherwise), plus a pair of '50s LPs (one originally on Verve) to take Tormé's story into the era when his career matured and peaked. All of the great Mel-Tones sides are here, some of the best recorded with Artie Shaw, like the alternately smooth and supercharged "What Is This Thing Called Love." The beginning of his true solo career comes next, and the birth of the Velvet Fog with "Careless Hands," "Night and Day," "The Old Master Painter," and "A Foggy Day." Disc three includes his full-length work The California Suite, plus some small-group sides that showed his growing skill with nimble vocal lines ("Goody, Goody," "Mountain Greenery"). The set concludes with two discrete LPs, one originally released in 1957 as Prelude to a Kiss (and re-released numerous times later) and the other a Latin-themed LP with Billy May (1959's Olé Tormé: Mel Tormé Goes South of the Border with Billy May). Both are strong albums, if not at the level of his peak recordings for Bethlehem and Verve. Altogether it's an entertaining and invigorating set of Mel Tormé's first 15 years of recording, finding his way in the vocal arts.