Fran Jeffries & Annita Ray – Fran: Can Really Hang You Up the Most / Slow Glow

The Best Voices Time Forgot - Collectible Albums by Top Female Vocalists
Collector’s Edition - 2 Original LPs on 1 CD - Original Cover Art, Liner Notes

Fran: Can Really Hang You Up the Most
Beauty and talent combined in Fran Jeffries (1937-2016), a complete entertainer with a warm, sultry, distinctive style and complete command of lyrics and melody in every performance. She believed… thought… lived and inhabited the songs. As a singer and entertainer she oozed sexual allure —and more besides— with a persuasiveness that would melt the stoniest of hearts. On her first album, "Fran: Can Really Hang You Up the Most," recorded in 1961, the orchestra conducted and arranged by such a talented bandleader as Ralph Burns provides Fran with the ideal setting to prove that she sounded like no one else. Hollywood also surrendered to the charms of a singer of this range and sophistication, and although her film career was short, she will always be remembered for her stunning performance of Meglio Stas era in the memorable party scene from “The Pink Panther”; and for her suggestive and exciting interpretation of the theme Sex and the Single Girl in the film of the same title.

Slow Glow
This is Annita Ray’s first and only album. The former Ray Anthony ‘Bookend’, moved on to become a solo act, and to record in1962 this intimate set that is well within the romantic-ballad idiom. Much of the credit for establishing and maintaining the intimate mood, though, goes to Harry Betts for his warmly pulsing arrangements for string orchestra. The singer chose the songs herself —a mix of upbeat rousers and come-hither scorchers— and they are a perfect match for her surprisingly rangy alto swoon. Not only did she have a keen sense of musicality, she imbued each melody and lyric of an almost breathless intimacy that never descends to the affected. One might guess her voice is not a big one in the sense of power output, but no matter. What she does with her vocal equipment is beyond volume. On I’ll Be Around, for example, she soars away from the melody in perfect taste —a sensitive singer rather than just a pretty-sounding voice.

Track Listing:
Fran Jeffries: 1. I Just Found Out About Love - 3:08   2. Isn't It a Pity? - 3.51   3. No Moon at All - 2:41   4. Mine Eyes - 2:44   5. April Song - 3:21   6. Love and the Weather - 3:07   7. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most - 3:43   8. Aren't You Glad You’re You? - 3:04   9. When You Awake - 2:41   10. Lorelei - 2:56   11. I'm Gonna Laugh You Right Out of My Life - 3:17   12. Out of This World - 3:12   13. Sex and the Single Girl -1:57 *   14. The Anniversary Song - 1:58 *   15. What Is This Thing Called Love - 0:58 *   16. It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio Stasera) - 2:59 *   Annita Ray: 17. Slow Glow - 2:45   18. I Don't Want to Walk Without You - 2:54   19. The Heart That Broke Was Mine - 3:59   20. Another Time, Another Place - 2:25   21. Oh, You Crazy Moon - 3:09   22. I'll Be Around - 2:48   23. This Time the Dream's on Me - 2:54   24. This Life We've Led - 3:21   25. For All We Know - 2:45   26. A Sunday Kind of Love - 3:14   27. I'm In Love with Jim - 2:35 *
(*) Bonus Tracks not on the original albums

Sources:
Tracks #1-12, from the album “Fran: Can Really Hang You Up the Most” (Warwick W2020)
Tracks #13-16, taken from the movie soundtracks
Tracks #17-26, from the album “Slow Glow” (ÄVA AS-16)
Track #27, from the MGM single 1177

Personnel:

Personnel on "Fran: Can Really Hang You Up the Most":
Fran Jeffries, vocals
On #1-12: With Orchestra Arranged and Conducted by Ralph Burns
Recorded in New York City, 1961
On #13-15, from the “Sex & the Single Girl” Movie Soundtrack (1964)
With Count Basie and His Orchestra
On #16, from “The Pink Panther” Movie Soundtrack (1963)
Music Arranged and Conducted by Henry Mancini

Personnel on "Slow Glow":
Annita Ray, vocals
On #17-27: With Orchestra Arranged & Conducted by Harry Betts
Recorded at United Recording Studios, Hollywood, California, August 20 & 21, 1962