Hindsight Records in partnership with Select-O-Hits released With Love, featuring rare recordings from the great Doris Day. Now, the timeless recordings are available on collector's edition vinyl, a beautiful four-panel tribute to the legend. The incredibly intimate and authentic recordings from 1952 and 1953, including The Page Cavanaugh Trio, were not previously available for release and were originally created for radio broadcast use.
Doris Day was the quintessential girl next door who became one of the most successful Hollywood actresses. She started as a big band singer in the late 1930s producing such chart-toppers like "Sentimental Journey" and "My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time." Day's film career launched after World War II, with key roles in
Calamity Jane (1953), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), Alfred Hitchcock's The Man
Who Knew Too Much (1956) and
Pillow Talk (1959) - the last of which got her Oscar-nominated for Best Actress. In her later years she devoted her time as an animal rights activist before she died at 97 May 13th in Carmel Valley Village, California.
With Love album producer John F. Forbes was enthralled when asked to participate in creating a new work to honor Doris Day's legacy:
"With over 30 years as a major label Pop / R&B music director and producer, as well as producing music for the hit Broadway musical Love Jones, I felt I had the experience and passion necessary to create the album with orchestra for Doris Day," said Forbes. "I produced this With Love album with the same approach that I use when composing a film score. The strings were arranged with a nod to the famous Claus Ogerman, who arranged strings for Frank Sinatra, Jobim and others. For me, this project was truly a labor of love. Doris Day is one of the finest singers of our time and national treasure."
"Working on a project as historically important as "Doris Day: With Love," it was an obvious decision to separately master for vinyl distribution," said Forbes. "I received the original masters as high resolution files. The vinyl mastering process works with the highest resolution available form our content thus providing a listening experience that is almost unrivaled by most digital formats."
Thomas Gramuglia, president of
Hindsight Records, contacted the late Bobby Weiss (who was Doris's publicist) around 1980 to see if Doris would allow the release of the recordings on an album, and she graciously agreed. Doris had chosen some of her favorite songs, done in an easy, relaxed atmosphere, with no pressure of trying to make them hits.
Legendary drummer and producer Les Brown Jr. later approached Gramuglia, asking what he thought about augmenting the recordings with a full orchestra. After hearing the quality of Doris's voice and her wonderful, relaxed, easy interpretation of each song, he was blown away. Brown jumped at the chance to participate in presenting them to a new audience. The original versions consisted of just piano, bass and guitar, so Brown also performed the drum tracks for the new recordings.
"In the 1940s when my dad's band would be playing in theatres between movie showings, I would be off stage in the wings," said Brown. "After Doris finished her segment of the floor show, she would be backstage playing and looking after me in her dressing room while my dad was out with the orchestra. She had terrible stage fright. She didn't mind it so much when the band was playing for dancing in ballrooms, but the floor shows terrified her and that's why she liked having something to distract her, looking after me! It took her mind off her fears about performing."
"Doris Day was a magical performer," Brown continued. "A star of the screen of course, but blessed with a wonderful voice. At the time of course I knew her simply as my dad's glamorous friend, but to be able to orchestrate the Doris Day, With Love album is a dream come true, it's like a final gift to all her fans. I know that dad and Doris would be delighted. We've done them proud."
"This release is the result of our labor of love and respect to the sometimes underrated, but always exceptional actress, musician and singer that was Doris Day. I hope you enjoy listening to these recordings, in their newly orchestrated version, as much as we enjoyed making them," - Les Brown, Jr.
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