Description:
Mel Torme was somewhat ambivalent about the recordings he made during the four years he was under contract to Capitol Records, between 1949 and 1952. He chiefly objected to one point, and it was more of a philosophical bone of contention than anything else: that he was, to a degree, expected to do what the label and his producers told him to do. Torme loved working for the house that Johnny Mercer had built even though Mercer was no longer actively involved by 1949 and that he personally had a lot of respect for his producer, Lee Gillette. He also loved the orchestrators and conductors such as Pete Rugolo, Frank DeVol, Paul Villepigue and the young pre Sinatra Nelson Riddle, who were working besides him in these years, and was grateful for the opportunity to share the microphone with the likes of Peggy Lee. He also liked nearly all of the songs that the label gave him to sing—even if he had complete approval, he would have probably picked pretty nearly the same tunes. |