Julie London - Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast (1967)

The songs on this album are generally less famous but no less brilliant. 

Unlike the first album, the songs on this album date mainly from the twenties and thirties. Perhaps the most famous song here is When I grow too old to dream, originally a number one for Glen Gray in 1935. Elsewhere, there are covers of I've got a crush on you (Joe Sullivan, later a hit for Frank Sinatra), Everything I have is yours (Rudy Vallee), You made me love you (Al Jolson), I didn't know what time it was (Benny Goodman), Give a little whistle (Cliff Edwards - from Pinocchio), I surrender dear (Gus Arnheim), You go to my head (Larry Clinton with Bea Wain singing) and There will never be another you (Woody Herman). (by Peter Durward Harris)

Taken from the original liner-notes.
The image ineluctable of beauteous Julie London is of the singer of sad love songs. A wonderfully poignant and appealing image it is, calling to mind a distinguished gallery of great performers. Sad-faced Helen Morgan is, perhaps, the prototype of all the torch balladeers who once sang in small, intimate clubs in the wee hours of the morning, standing under a single beam of light. Before the girl who is remembered for her heartbreak rendition of My Bill in Show Boat, there was a funny-faced Fanny Brice, whose singing of My Man remains one of the grand moments of American vaudeville and whose tortured life provided Barbra Streisand with a moving stage role. In the great tradition of torch singing, there's the unforgettable French songbird Edith Piaf, whose depth of feeling transformed disappointment into tragedy, and by contrast, young Dinah Shore with the wistful, little-girl-lost sound of "Ah, the apple trees..." and the pain of The End of A Love Affair.

In our day, Julie London has become the singer par excellence of brittle songs of unreuited and misused love. Hers in not the driving style of the vengeful youngster of "Boots Were Made For Walkin'...over you, man," but of the grief-suppressed romantic of You Made Me Love You...I didn't want to do it...Everything I Have is Yours, I Surrender, Dear, and I Didn't Know What Time It Was. It was ordained that Julie should capture public fancy with Arthur Hamilton's imaginative torcher Cry Me a River. The hoarse, frog-in-throat style and the lowdown, soft-and-slow delivery were as natural to the song and to Julie as thorns to a rose.

In this album, Julie sings some of the great ballads of the '20's and '30's with warmth, intimacy, with deep feeling but not without tasteful restraint. Her delivery is not pop and not quite jazz. Put it on the borderline between the two and call hers the art of nuance. She takes attractive liberties with melodies and phrasing. Disposed to low-register sounds, she makes a telling use of glissando. Look for subtle, understated turns of thought and sound.

Julie -- it's hard to call her anything else when you think of that face -- never needed more accompaniment than a guitar and bass. She supplied all the elements that made singing an experience, and not merely an entertainment. But in this album, producer Calvin Carter has skillfully added contemporary market sounds. And so we have the provocative counterpoint, or as Carter put it, "the side comments," of organ, trumpet and bedroom sax.

Listen after hours...and cry me an old-fashioned glass of tears for all the sad and tender romantics of today and yesterday.




Personnel:
Julie London (vocals)
+
unknown Orchestra



Tracklist:
01. Nice Girls Don't Stay For Breakfast (Troup/Leshay) 2.25
02. When I Grow Too Old To Dream (Hammerstein II/Romberg) 2.50
03.
I've Got A Crush On You (G.Gershwin/I.Gershwin) 2.14
04.
Everything I Have Is Yours (Lane/Adamson) 2.05
05.
You Made Me Love You (Monaco/McCarthy) 2.17
06.
Baby, Won't You Please Come Home (Warfield/Williams) 2.12
07.
I Didn't Know What Time It Was (Hart/Rodgers) 2.50
08.
Give A Little Whistle (Harline/Washington) 3.07
09.
I Surrender, Dear (Clifford/Barris) 3.43
10.
You Go To My Head (Gillespie/Coots) 3.07
11.
There Will Never Be Another You (Warren/Gordon) 3.1612. Mickey Mouse (Dodd) 2.12


ARMU 2162
ARMU 2162 (shareplace)