A Month of Wonders

In conjunction with the e-publication of my new I'll Take Romance: My Lifelong Affair With Jazz Singing and Singers, each day for the next month, I'll be uploading a different One Shot Wonders. Here is the intro from the book to the section about such rarified and recherche creatures:

The one thing that every one of the singers in this chapter have in common is that they recorded only one album bearing their name, and mostly between 1955 and 1965. This was the time when rock music was coming along and beginning to commercially blow every other kind of recorded music out of the water. There was simply no room for peaceful mutual co-existence. If an artist like Peggy Lee or Frank Sinatra was established by this time, for the most part they were able to maintain careers as recording artists, but for a great number of others just beginning to come along during this period it was over almost as soon as it began. I have now collected a list nearly 300-singers-long who fall into that category. The one thing that nearly all have in common, as well, is that they were uncommonly talented. But it was all to no avail. Most continued to perform---many on the Holiday Inn and Playboy Club circuits---or teach music, but some gave up music altogether. I did my best to track down the whereabouts or the outcome of these singers, but in a couple of instances they seem to have just fallen off the edge of the planet.

8/16/09 I'll Take Romance Donna Brooks Dawn DLP 1105 (1956)

8/17/09 Renee Raff Among the Stars Audio Fidelity AFSD 6142 (1957)

8/18/09 Charlie Appplewhite Love Affair Design DLP 57 (1958)

8/19/09 Joyce Bryant Runnin' Wild Epic LG 1016 (1954)

8/20/09 Juanita Cruse Juanita GNP 51 (1960)

8/21/09 Charlene Bartley Weekend of a Private Secretary RCA LPM 1478 (1957)

8/22/09 Marlene Cord Marlene Cord Dot DLP 3081 (1958)

8/23/09 Don Nelson The Wind Mode 111 (1957)

8/24/09 Kevin Gavin Hey! This is Kevin Gavin Charlie Parker PLP-8100 (1962)

8/25/09 Deno Kannes The Kid from Salt Lake City (Coral CRL 57205 (1957)

8/26/09 Larry Hovis My Heart Belongs to Only You Capitol LP/ST 1218 (Hovis also sang as part of a vocal group on Carlton LP by the Bill Gannon Trio.)

8/27/09 Diana Dors Swinging Dors Columbia CL 1436 (1960)

8/28/09 George Kirby The Real George Kirby Argo LPS 4045 (1965)

8/29/09 Doris Drew Delightful Doris Drew Mode 126 (1957)

8/30/09 Corky Shayne In the Mood for a Song? Salem SLP-1 (1956)

8/31/09 Flo Handy Smoky and Intimate Carney LPM 201 (1964)

Note: After 9/1/09, the pre-pub price of 5.99 for A Fine Romance will no longer be in effect. The new price will be 9.99.

New from SSJ Records