The
label for the 78 RPM Frank Sinatra vocal "Why Try To Change Me Now" (tracked
down by Alan Bunting)The vocals are directly from 78's that Percy recorded to a cassette in 1974, those
marked with an asterisk * are verified as Percy Faith compositions The early 1950's are when Percy Faith
recorded, as part of his contract with Columbia/pop A&R chief Mitch Miller,
vocal arrangements to get "the youngsters" started in their careers - but Percy
Faith's preference, and also part of this contract, was to let him record his
own orchestral arrangements, and that orchestra-only departure happily was most of his career, the music we
celebrate. The lyrics of a couple of the songs are "difficult" - like
apologizing to a "lonely phone" in the song "Did Anyone Call?" Length of
these recordings, no tracks, sorry, are about 50 minutes total. I tried to
edit and add tracks/remove problems but ended up making a mess so you'll have to
stream or download the whole file (right click and "save as" in Windows) and
then you can "scrub" your media player to other selections as you like.
It's about 43 megabytes, not that large. Percy Faith recorded only 3
"sides" with Frank Sinatra, and the one heard here is um, well, awful but I
figure it's a novelty song resulting from a Mitch Miller juvenile release, music
by Faith. Percy did one wonderful song
with Frank, "Why Try To Change Me Now" and I think this was at the very end of
Sinatra's time with Columbia/Miller. MANON is a lovely Faith original;
however the COLUMBIA HOUSE PARTY album with Percy at the piano and
Mitch at the oboe was a lovely rendition!The
label for the 78 RPM Frank Sinatra vocal "Why Try To Change Me Now" (tracked
down by Alan Bunting)
Before you delve into these not-often-splendid VOCALS (according to me) Tennessee Newsboy is (sigh) a Faith original "for sure." It's not..good. I hear the influence of Mitch telling Faith and DeVol what to do (that was not to last much longer, as Frank Sinatra left Columbia at this time; The twangy rude accompaniment is Faith's composition, however it's Axel Stordahl's arrangement, one of Frank's great regular "arrangers." Thanks to Mike McKenna for turning this up! Mike also provided the label shots/cover art scan of Blubber Boy. This accounts for "one of three" "sides" Percy recorded with Frank Sinatra before he, er, left Columbia: Tennessee Newsboy (awful), Life Is So Peculiar (not quite as awful) and Why Try To Change Me Now (beautiful). These were all put on a huge, finely detailed collection on CD's years ago. Repeating myself a thousand times, Percy Faith's orchestral work of the 1950's was WONDERFUL and the vocals - not wonderful at all (how dare I say that!)
Cover art and label for Blubber Boy, The Walrus (and Johnny Brown Who Turned Green!) Why Not! I did when listening to this song!!! I don't have a recording of the latter "Musical Story."
So with Percy as the DJ, here is a cassette he put together for the "vocal contingent:"
1. Manon - vocal Herb Jeffries *
2. Manon - vocal Lee Lawrence *
3. My Humble Heart - vocal Rich Tucker (long silent skip in this track)
4. Tennessee Newsboy - vocal Frank Sinatra* (Faith wrote the music, not the lyrics)
5. That's How It Goes - vocal Frankie Laine
6. Why Does It Have To Be Me? - vocal Tony Bennett
7. Did Anyone Call? - vocal Rosemary Clooney
8. Did Anyone Call? - vocal unknown artist
9. That's How It Goes - vocal unknown artist
10. Be Patient, My Darling - vocal by Lu Ann Simms
11. True Or False? - w/chorus, lots of interruptions *
12. There's Always My Heart - Toni Arden
13. Rap-A-Tat-Tat - w/chorus *
14. Blubber Boy, The Walrus - w/chorus, vocal Johnny Brown (good grief) *
15. An Angel Made Of Ice - Sammy Kaye Orchestra
16. Why Does It Have To Be Me? - vocal by Loren Beckler (why, indeed?)
17. No One But You - vocal by Johnny Thompson *
18. Funny Fellow - w/chorus *