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DANNY KAYE! (1913-1987)

Original 1941-1952 recordings

NAXOS NOSTALGIA 8.120775 [58:19]

Crotchet Budget price

CAB CALLOWAY / CLARENCE GASKILL / IRVING MILLS
Minnie the Moocher Danny Kaye, vocals
       Studio Chorus
       Maurice Abravanel, conductor
       Recorded: 5 May 1941
SYLVIA FINE
Anatole of Paris  Danny Kaye, vocals
       Johnny Green, conductor
       Recorded: 23 January 1942
HERBERT BREWER / FRED E. WEATHERLY
The Fairy Pipers Johnny Green, piano / Danny Kaye, vocals
  Recorded: 9 January 1942
GEORGE GERSHWIN / IRA GERSHWIN
The Babbitt and the Bromide       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Johnny Green, conductor
       Recorded: 23 January 1942
SYLVIA FINE / MAX LIEBMAN
Eileen     Danny Kaye, vocals
Studio Chorus
Johnny Green, conductor Recorded: 23 January 1942
HARRY AKST / SAMUEL M. LEWIS / JOSEPH YOUNG
Dina Danny Kaye, vocals
       Maurice Abravanel, conductor
       Recorded: 5 May 1941
FRANK LOESSER
Bloop Bleep Danny Kaye, vocals
 Billy May, conductor
 Recorded: 7 May 1947
BOB HILLIARD / CARL SIGMAN
Civilization (Bongo Bongo Bongo)       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Andrews Sisters
       Vic Schoen, conductor
       Recorded: 27 September 1947
HOWARD DIETZ / ARTHUR SCHWARTZ
Triplets Danny Kaye, vocals
Johnny Green, conductor Recorded: 14 December 1947
JIM BURRIS / CHRIS SMITH
Ballin’ the Jack       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Johnny Green, conductor
       Recorded: 18 December 1947
MICHEL EMER / SAM GALLOP
The Moon is Your Pillow       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Johnny Green, conductor
       Recorded: 19 December 1947
BOB HILLIARD / CARL SIGMAN
The Big Brass Band from Brazil       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Andrews Sisters
       Vic Schoen, conductor
       Recorded: 20 December 1947
SYLVIA FINE / MAX LIEBMAN
Lobby Number       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Johnny Green, conductor
       Recorded: 20 December 1947
FRED HEATHERTON
I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Cocoanuts       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Harmonaires
       Vic Schoen, conductor
       Recorded: 2 October 1949
MEREDITH WILLSON
The Peony Bush       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Vic Schoen, conductor
       Recorded: 2 October 1949
CY COBEN / OLIVER WALLACE
How D’Ye Do and Shake Hands  Jimmy Durante, vocals / Danny Kaye, vocals / Groucho Marx, vocals / Jane Wyman, vocals
       4 Hits and a Miss
       Sonny Burke, conductor
       Recorded: 12 August 1951
CARMINE ENNIS / MARILOU HARRINGTON
Black Strap Molasses Jimmy Durante, vocals / Danny Kaye, vocals / Groucho Marx, vocals / Jane Wyman, vocals
       4 Hits and a Miss
       Sonny Burke, conductor
       Recorded: 12 August 1951
FRANK LOESSER
Inchworm (Hans Christian Anderson)       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Studio Chorus
       Gordon Jenkins, conductor
       Recorded: 12 August 1952

The King’s New Clothes (Hans Christian Anderson)       Danny Kaye, vocals
       Studio Chorus
       Gordon Jenkins, conductor
       Recorded: 11 August 1952
IRA GERSHWIN / KURT WEILL
Tschaikovsky (Lady in the Dark) Danny Kaye, vocals
       Studio Chorus
       Vic Schoen, conductor
        Studio Orchestra
Recorded: 20 December 1952

There’s never been an entertainer like David Daniel Kaminski, alias Danny Kaye, a fact amply demonstrated by this great collection from Naxos. Like many of my generation, I adored Danny Kaye when I was a kid. There was a sincerity, an utter charm about him, that we found irresistible.

As a performer, he had it all. He could dance, act, clown around manically; and then of course, to top it all, there was that voice; it was a virtuoso instrument, a lighter-voiced Crosby one moment, the full operatic baritone the next, with a whole range of silly sounds in between. He could pull off a mind-boggling, tongue-twisting mouth music of nonsense syllables, which is heard to great effect in the first number on the CD, ‘Minnie the Mooch’.

He made some magical films, too, and there are various numbers from those, including, from his hit musical of 1952 Hans Christian Anderson ‘The King’s New Clothes’ and the remarkably lovely ‘Inch Worm’ (which incidentally uses the same technique of combining different time-signatures as the Ball Scene in Don Giovanni!). Then from The Secret Life of Walter Mitty there’s the story of the misogynist hat-maker ‘Anatole of Paris’, and most brilliant of all ‘Lobby Number’, a take-off of the typical Hollywood Western, from Up in Arms of 1944.

But every track is great: ‘Triplets’ is hilariously misanthropic (the song of one who would happily shoot the other two); ‘The Moon is your Pillow’ the most beautiful lullaby imaginable; ‘Ballin’ the Jack’ hypnotic – just try and stop yourself doing the movements! – and ‘The Peony Bush’ just plain Daft!

If you’re anything like me, this CD will have you grinning from ear to ear from beginning to end. "But WHERE is ‘Tubby the Tuba’?" I hear you cry! Fear not – Naxos assure us there’s more on the way. Well there better had be, that’s all – in these hard times, Danny Kaye is a tonic everyone should be gently but firmly urged to take at least once a day.

Gwyn Parry-Jones