Doris Day – “Duet”

Is there anyone more intimate in her singing than Doris Day? As a child, her voice teacher taught her to sing as if she were singing in the ear of one person.

Day was not as as jazzy as singers like Ella Fitzgerald (her idol) and Sarah Vaughan. She didn’t scat, but nevertheless was a jazz and swing singer, even if she is better remembered today for many of her popular hits.

According to author Tom Santopietro in his book Considering Doris Day, her preference was to take a song extremely slowly and she was able to indulge this tendency in one of her finest albums, Duet, which was released in 1962. She collaborated with Andre Previn – pianist, composer, band leader, music arranger – and his trio.

Here is one of my favorite songs from the album, “Give Me Time,” by Alec Wilder.

“Falling in Love Again” was originally written in German (“Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß auf Liebe eingestellt”) by Frederick Hollaender and was introduced by Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel, but she was also known for singing the song in an English translation, which was provided by Sammy Lerner. Hollaender actually wrote a number of songs for Dietrich throughout her Hollywood career: Destry Rides Again, A Foreign Affair, Seven Sinners.

This last song was written by one of my favorite composing teams, Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart. “Nobody’s Heart” was introduced in their musical “By Jupiter,” which premiered in 1942 and starred Ray Bolger, with a plot involving the Greek army and Amazons. I believe it is an Amazon who sings this song.