[78-L] Doris Day

[David Lewis]

Sorry to bring this thread out sort of zombie-like, especially as so many correspondents
were so anxious to see it expire. But I wanted to share my perspective.

Partly Doris' issue is a problem of classification. Once upon a time there was something
called a "pop singer" or "pop vocalist" and that had a specific meaning. Frank Sinatra
and Bing Crosby were both pop vocalists whose records were in the "Pop Vocal" section of
your local record store. In 2011, however, "pop" itself refers to an entirely different
kind of music, and if Amy Winehouse is a pop singer, than Doris Day cannot be. So Bing and
Frank have been re-designated as jazz singers, which is not too uncomfortable a designation
for them, although I would have a hard time recognizing "Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral" or "High 
Hopes" as "jazz," because these are pop songs, period. We have re-designated them into a
category that really doesn't suit what they did in the "big picture" sense. 

But it does not fit Doris at all; she was not a jazz singer. She was a pop singer. And those
singers whom do not transit to jazz end up being disenfranchised at least and sent to a 
lower tier of endeavor at worst. This is a useless, artificial form of classification, and
some here may pipe up and say, "David! Why are you even lending credence to such ridiculous
thinking and abusing our attention with it?" That is because we all collect 78s and 
understand the proper -- and simpler -- context of music gone by; Ella Fitzgerald, jazz 
singer; Marjorie Hughes, not a jazz singer. But in our metadata driven world with its
gallimaufry of micro-categories it just isn't that way anymore, and there aren't any 
macro- or micro-categories developed thus far for an artist like Doris Day that are meaningful.
At AMG we used to struggle with these designations EVERY DAY.
 
Unlike my esteemed colleague Mr. Lennick -- who can put his finger on and name specifically
why he doesn't like her voice -- I like Doris Day very much. Not only as we share the same
hometown of Cincinnati -- also crucial to the Clooney Sisters as artists -- I like her salmon-
to-silvery voice, her approach, her clear enunciation and the bright, cheerful quality of her
singing. And I would not listen to her to the exclusion of all other singers, but there are
certain charms in Doris' singing that I don't get elsewhere, and I wouldn't want to be without 
it. She was, to my mind, an ideal pop voice, much as Karen Carpenter's was, especially good in
slow ballads. Like Mr. Lennick, there are some singers I cannot stand just by virtue of the 
sounds that they produce, and unfortunately this includes a great many female Canadian singers 
such as Natalie Merchant. Sorry about that, but something about her voice I cannot bear.

Mr. Lennick posits that her association with Mitch Miller is trotted out as a weak defense
for some indefensible records that she made, and implies that this is not a good reason to
rehabilitate her reputation. I would concur with this view if it weren't also true for just
about anyone else Mitch Miller worked with. Mitch felt he had his finger on the pulse of 
what moved units in the Ike and Mamie era, and of course the advent of rock 'n roll spoiled
his evil plan. Much of the material that Doris recorded for Columbia is treacly, but Johnnie
Ray, Tony Bennett, Jo Stafford, Rosemary Clooney and all of the others recorded that same
treacle. Clooney was particularly vocal about how much she hated it; Doris was a trouper,
happy to be employed, a team player who didn't realize that her goose was gradually being
cooked by her manager-husband. So she didn't ask a lot of questions.

As soon as Rosie was able to get away from Miller she began working on coherent albums, such
as the great one -- forget the title -- for Decca with Buddy Cole, "A Touch of Tabasco,"
"Rosie Solves the Swingin' Riddle" etc. This set the stage for the fine Concord Jazz output
that came along later -- thinking in terms of songs collected to serve a theme in structuring
albums. This was extremely important in terms of establishing one's self as a seriously considered 
artist in the long term -- what would Sinatra be without it? However, Day's only contract -- 
with Columbia from 1946 to 1966 -- stubbornly exploited her as a singles artist; apart from 
"You're My Thrill" in 1949 she did not make a coherent album until "Love Me Or Leave Me" in 1955; 
everything in between was either movie tie-ins or collections of singles, and that would continue 
to typify the kinds of Columbia issued by her even afterward, though she did manage to get some
actual albums through -- a few. When the hit singles dried up after "Everybody Loves a Lover"
in 1958, she was unable to transition to the album market -- her only album to chart afterward
was the greatest hits LP which contained that track, also issued in 1958. Doris' recording
career ended in 1967, way before nearly all of her colleagues at Columbia. 

So, despite being the top box-office draw of the 1950s and a singer of tremendous popularity,
Doris was screwed from the standpoint of her recording career. If you don't like her singing,
that is perhaps no great tragedy, but it does explain why she is not regarded as being in the
same league as Rosie Clooney or Sinatra -- she just didn't gain any traction in the kinds of
products that make her work easy to access, and satisfying to boot. To find the gems you have
to dig through an awful lot of mediocre or crappy material.

I liked very much Harold Aherne's post below; this is long enough though. Let me merely
mention singers of this ilk that I greatly enjoy not so far mentioned; Kay Weber, Nan Wynn, 
Ginny Simms, Anita Boyer, Ella Johnson.

Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com
 
As long as everyone else is talking about the female singers they like, or don't, I suppose
I can add my two centimes. There are few vocalists prior to about the late 30s that I 
really dislike, but those from later decades (which I sometimes listen to but don't collect)
provoke more vested reactions from me one way or the other.
 
Doris Day--mixed. I think she had vocal talent but often misused it to convey cuteness
and pseudo-flirtatiousness, and her vocal stylings don't do anything for me.
 
Helen Forrest--mostly great. She should've had a bigger solo career.
 
Jo Stafford--no real objections. She sometimes bends the notes into a "whine", for lack 
of a better term, in her recordings (cf. the second "I'll be so ahh-lone without you" in 
"You Belong to Me") and I wasn't always fond of it, but I really don't mind it anymore.
"Better Luck Next Time" from 1947 is especially good. 
 
Andrews Sisters--there's a 1932 RCA home-recording disc of them attempting "Sentimental
Gentleman from Georgia" and listening to it reveals them as an unpolished Boswell Sisters
copycat group. They always tended, IMO, to substitute perkiness for substance.
 
Dinah Shore--her rather indefinite style works sometimes (as "You'd Be So Nice to Come 
Home To"), but more often it simply leaves no impression on me.
 
Georgia Gibbs--the R&B and rock covers have given her a bad reputation, but she could
certainly belt out a song. Had she been a bigger star earlier in her career she might be 
more fondly remembered. 
 
Margaret Whiting, Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, and others are all fine 
by me.