Eydie Gormé

I am only really familiar with her deservedly popular Spanish-language albums with Los Panchos, but just happened upon one of her late 50s albums arranged and maybe produced by Don Costa and think I need to listen to more of this pronto.

Produced, it says on the cover.

This is where I started and never tire of listening to this stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AFQWSaB0WQ

This was a big discovery for me this year. It's unbelievably good. The idea is they're doing hip new arrangements of big band era hits.

https://i.discogs.com/yEVt2qVfERhHjq0wx4NeEnWXRNk3ytuh7ml5i5Qvb54/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:594/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTMwODkx/NDUtMTcwNzY0NTA1/Ny05NTAyLmpwZWc.jpeg

(It seems that for a brief time circa 1960 they went by Eydie & Steve instead of vice versa).

Will Friedwald says that Sinatra later hired Don Costa to work with him because of the records he made with them, but the Steve and Eydie albums he produced were in general much better.

He also produced this in the early 70s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3QYbKbuG4U

Just listened to and enjoyed Eydie in Love, which is what started this. I had listened to her version of "It Could Happen to You," which is well-sung and especially interesting since she sings the introductory verse, which almost no one ever does. I only found it elsewhere on recordings by Sarah Vaughan and Anita O'Day, Even Dorothy Lamour doesn't sing it to Fred MacMurray in the movie it debuted in. But it seems to have been on the original sheet music. Friedwald says that the Don Costa-produced records are full of rarely heard verses.

Also noting that Dorothy Lamour was not a recipient of the ghost singer treatment.

Where is Will Friedwald saying this?

A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers

Good reference work. With loads of opinions in it, obviously.

Yeah. He definitely has opinions

I've had long enough to train myself to try to turn a blind eye when a critic doesn't like something I like.

He seems to love Eydie though. Steve too.

Fun fact: I've been in Will Friedwald's apartment. It's a whole story.

Too long to post here, I'm assuming.

I can explain, I just wasn't sure if there was interest. Basically, he was showing a compilation of vintage music clips to an assembled crowd. I think this was something that he did semi-regularly at the time (this was perhaps 12-15 years ago). Some friends of mine had been invited by Friedwald and they brought me along. It was a very nice setting on the UWS, almost looked like a social club. We watched one clip after another for what seemed ike two hours as Friedwald, iirc, said a few words of explanation about the clips. It was all kinds of different music, but mostly focused on mid-20th century show biz. Eydie Gormé was probably in the mix. I distinctly remember Louis Prima and Keely Smith were in it. I think this was a time when old TV clips of this kind of material were showing up on YouTube, but there wasn't the huge volume of it we have today and what Friedwald had assembled was pretty interesting.

Nice

Think he specifically compares Steve and Eydie to Louis and Keely.