elvin Howard Tormé was
born on 13 September 1925 in Chicago and died in August 1996.
He had
his first job as a singer when he was four years old and after
that
worked in radio until 1940. His real singing career took off in
1942 when he
formed his group Mel Tormé and The Mel-Tones who recorded hits
with
Artie Shaw and Bing Crosby. In 1946 Tormé began his solo career in
earnest, recorded first for a little-known music label and then
signed on with
Capitol Records for a five-year contract. In the Fifties he worked
increasingly as a composer and had his own daily talk-show on CBS.
xcept
for being an outstanding vocalist, composer, writer and so on,
he also
starred in a few movies, most notably (notably for Llydien anyway)
in
1947's Good News with June Allyson and Peter Lawford.
Billed as
'Everyone's Favourite College Musical' the film is set in the 1920s,
when
'girls were flappers and boys were sheiks'. Oh yes.
With a screen play
by Betty Comden and Adolph Green - who also wrote the screenplay
for
Singin' in the Rain - and a wonderful De Sylva, Brown, and
Henderson score which includes 'Lucky In Love' and 'He's A Ladies'
Man',
Good News features a young Mel Tormé who is adorable in 1920s clothes and sings like a dream, too, in
particular 'The
Moon Belongs to Everyone'. Absolutely
enchanting.
is voice has been described as 'almost
absurdly lyrical' and it has indeed a magical warm timbre which
is
really hard to describe but instantly recognisable. His nickname
'The Velvet Fog' stems from his earliest singing period, when he
sang with a high husky voice. Llydien much prefers his earlier
recordings to more recent one, but Mel Torme always sounds wonderful.
Obviously this would
be the place for a few mp3 recordings of some Mel Tormé classics
such as 'A
Stranger In Town', 'Blue Skies' and 'The Christmas Song'
but once again
technology won't allow Llydien to do this. Shame really,
he is just SO
worthwhile listening to.
ll Llydien can do is include a link to a good Torme webpage with
lots of info and more pictures (this is also
where she got the above photo! Lacking her own.
Soon to come, however!)
Click here
