****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Here ideally coupled are two of the better albums Dean Martin and Ray Price never made: Damone's entire Warners 1965 discography, a brief interregnum at his vocal peak. He began in a Tony Martin mode as a casual but natural singles crooner for Mercury, became an album artist at Columbia (where he made his sole Italian treasury), matriculating to full concept-album mastery (cf. Sinatra) at Capitol in swinging collaborations with the Tower's better arranger-conductors, notably Billy May and Jack Marshall. This WB interlude preceded Damone's final major-label stint, at RCA and further fine work with Nelson Riddle.Both sets were produced aggressively by young Jimmy Bowen, latterly hot for giving senior crooners Sinatra and Dean Martin punchy Reprise chart hits. Damone was not yet 40 when he laid down the varied, Dinoesque and very commercial title album, longer than but inferior to his Nashville ballads set (which exactly parallels Ray Price's sophisticated countrypolitan albums from this era). Damone was entirely his own man, however, with the Italianate crooning style Sinatra so admired, and although Damone, reinventing his recordmaking persona, is at Bowen’s mercy here the albums are not derivative.Ernie Freeman conducted the pop set, and the assertive drum thwacks in "You were only fooling" unsuccessfully drown out the singer scoring a mid-career chart success (here Damone's career intersects the great Kay Starr, who made the song a hit in 1948). The remainder is assorted and very eclectic, Damone covering his fraternal sponsor Perry Como and Tom Jones too, channeling Connie Francis with "For Mama" and delivering obscure balladeer romantica in "Stranger in the world," "And roses and roses" and "Careless hands." It's a louder, more commercial album than need be (Bowen contracted for three drummists and fully 30 musicians) but beautifully produced and almost entirely enjoyable. (Broadway divo John Raitt sat in on these sessions, probably bemused and perplexed by turns over the Damone-Bowen-Freeman interactions.)Damone’s country torch songs were laid down onsite in Nashville over nine days, conducted by veteran Bill Justis ("Raunchy"), discreetly omitting steel guitar and any nasality or twang by the sophisticated vocalist. The short playlist is extremely choice, with no filler or duds, and Damone's urbane, impassioned takes on several quality standards--"A fool such as I," "Room full of roses," "Together again," "Faded love" and "You don't know me"--are particularly memorable and worth replaying, all leading up to Damone's killer version of "You win again." The album title misleads, as these are not optimistic happy songs but wistful torch songs of loss and regret, universally confessional and done full justice by an interpreter as suave and knowing as Vic Damone. If there is any tendency to assign Damone to second-tier crooner status, this stunning achievement in unexpected repertoire silences any doubts.Damone the WB popster is agreeable enough and constant pleasure to your ears, but his sole country album is a real masterpiece--and this is uptown country crooning such as Damone's admirer Sinatra would never attempt (although Como made several artistically successful pilgrimages to Nashville). Bravo for the singer's ambitious artistic reach, fulfilled quite gloriously in his fine Nashville set.
