DAY Doris 1965 - Brazil

This is also a Loronix post. I have many Doris Day's albums but not this one. It fits well in our Brazil serie...

LATIN FOR LOVERS

Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff, known as Doris Day (1924), is an American singer, actress, and animal welfare advocate. A vivacious blonde with a wholesome image, she was one of the most prolific actresses of the 1950s and 1960s. Able to sing, dance, and play comedy and dramatic roles, she has been an all-round star whose personality has permeated many popular and diverse movies.

Day's popularity as a radio performer and vocalist led directly to a career in films. After her separation from second husband George Weidler in 1948, Day was apparently set to leave Los Angeles and return to her mother's home in Cincinnati when her agent Al Levy convinced her to attend a party at the home of composer Jule Styne. Her personal circumstances at the time and her reluctance to perform on such short notice apparently contributed to an emotive performance of Embraceable You which so impressed Styne and his partner Sammy Cahn that they recommended her for a role in Romance on the High Seas (which they were currently working on for Warner Bros.). The withdrawal of Betty Hutton due to pregnancy left the main role to be recast. Thus, Day began her film career in a "peppy" Hutton-esque role.
The success of Romance on the High Seas established her as a talented (and popular) performer. In 1950, U.S. servicemen in Korea voted her their favourite star. Early publicity saddled her with such unflattering nicknames as "The Tomboy with a Voice" and "The Golden Tonsil". She continued to make saccharine and somewhat low-level musicals such as Starlift, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, and Tea For Two for Warner Bros. until the cycle exhausted itself. 1953 found Doris as pistol-packin' Calamity Jane what has become one of Hollywood's most enduring musicals, winning the Oscar for Best Song for "Secret Love".
After filming Lucky Me, a lacklustre musical comedy, Day chose not to renew her contract with Warner Bros. and instead freelanced under the management of her third husband, Martin Melcher. As a consequence, the range of roles she played broadened to include more dramatic roles. In 1955, she received some of the best notices of her career for her portrayal of singer Ruth Etting in Love Me or Leave Me, co-starring James Cagney. She continued to be paired with some of Hollywood's biggest male stars, including James Stewart, Cary Grant, David Niven and Clark Gable.
In Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, she sang "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)", which won an Oscar. According to Jay Livingston (who wrote the song with Ray Evans), Day preferred another song used briefly in the film, "We'll Love Again", and skipped the recording for Que Sera, Sera. When the studio pushed her, she relented, but after recording the number in one take, she reportedly told a friend of Livingston's, "That's the last time you'll ever hear that song." This was ironic, as "Que Sera, Sera" became her most famous song. It was used, for example, in her later film Please Don't Eat the Daisies and was reprised as a brief duet with Arthur Godfrey in The Glass Bottom Boat and became the theme song for her television show. (The song was also covered by Sly & the Family Stone in 1973 in a recording that has become a sort of secondary standard version.) This was her only film for Hitchcock and, as she admitted in her memoirs, she was initially concerned at his lack of direction; she finally asked him if anything was wrong and he said everything was fine.
After the great critical and popular success of Teacher's Pet, Day's popularity at the U.S. box office seemed to wane and some critical attention focused on perceived elements of "blandness" in her on-screen persona, although in some foreign markets (Germany, Britain and the Commonwealth), she remained a top box office draw. A dynamic performance in The Pajama Game received warm critical notices, but box office returns were disappointing. In the case of Tunnel of Love and It Happened to Jane, both the critical and popular response was uneven. As a result, during the period of 1957 to 1959, she was no longer regarded a "Top Ten Box Office Draw" by U.S. film exhibitors. Arguably, this development may have been linked to the marked decline in popularity of musical films during the late 1950s, and some poor choices in material made by Melcher on Day's behalf, rather than any waning in public regard. In addition, Day's popularity as a recording artist was diminished due to the growing popular taste for rock and roll. "Que Sera, Sera", for instance, was never a "U.S. Number One", being kept from the top spot by Elvis Presley's recording of "Hound Dog".

To be continued...

4 comments:

KenPaul66 said...

This is my favorite Doris Day album of all time. Who knew Doris had it in her to deliver such a fine bossa nova album as this ? This is the sort of album that would have been played at a swinging cocktail party in the mid-sixties. Check it out, you'll love it!

ken

kiken said...

I am always surprised to find out what a great singer she is, for she is so well known as a film star. I enjoy this album a lot. Thanks for sharing!
Kiken

soilworker said...

That's not a bad album - au contraire - but I've to admit that I like her non-bossa-nova music more.

East Bay Gary said...

Doris is great. Along with "Duet" this is her best album.