From the Author

From the Author

Perry Como's 50 year association with the RCA Victor Records Label began inauspiciously in 1943 during the middle of the American Federation of Musicians ( A.F.M. ) recording ban which began a year earlier. Due to the ban, Perry's first 8 songs were recorded without musicians, with vocal support only, beginning with "Goodbye Sue" in June, 1943, and ending with "Lili Marlène" a year later. His first Victor recording with orchestra was a song by Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson, "I Wish We Didn't Have to Say Goodnight", recorded in December, 1944, for Perry's 20th Century-Fox Hollywood debut "Something For the Boys". A year later Perry struck gold with another song by the same composers titled "Dig You Later ( A Hubba, Hubba, Hubba )" for his second motion picture "Doll Face" again for 20th Century-Fox.

But Perry wasn't cut out for the movies and he would appear in only two others, "If I'm Lucky" (1946) and "Words and Music" (1948), before his career would become solidly interlocked with RCA Victor and the new medium of "television" when his first Christmas Special was broadcast Christmas Eve, 1948. The year following 1948 was a pivotal year for records too as the "War of the Speeds" would pit Columbia's LP against RCA's incompatible 45 RPM format and the 78 shellac format would soon be history. Perry's career would mushroom along with the era of high fidelity sound reproduction. He had been moderately successful with radio throughout the 40s but during the first real decade of television Perry proved to be a master of the medium, establishing the ground rules for virtually every TV musical variety show to follow. His influence on television would affect the medium for nearly fifty years during which his name and seasonal specials became television classics. With three major RCA Victor Christmas albums, recorded between 1946 and 1968, his association with this very special time of year was firmly entrenched. A fourth Christmas album, recorded 'live' for his 1993/94 "Irish Christmas" television special, was his only non-RCA Victor recording in 50 years. While his television show changed Networks from time to time, Perry's relationship with the RCA Victor Label never faltered. It's safe to say that his association with RCA Victor is virtually unparalleled within the industry.

Perry's earliest recordings during the 1930s were with the Ted Weems Band on the Decca record label but the hallmark of his recording career, and the legacy he left for future generations, is with those recordings he made with the RCA Victor Label exclusively. Other recordings are emerging from his early radio broadcasts in the 1940s as will no doubt come from his years on television, but its the RCA recordings which really tell the story of Perry Como and his masterful artistry.

The original purpose of this discography was to document Perry's recorded legacy with the RCA Victor Records Label from the time of his earliest recordings in 1943 to his last album for the label in 1987. This had never been done prior to 1992 when Perry's wife Roselle read the first printed discography and requested personally that the research be expanded to include more detail. Some of Perry's fans within an American Fan Club called "The Como Circle", headed up by the late Martha Gerhard, had been allowed access to the RCA files in 1978, which, according to Martha, were in total disarray and literally dumped from a large box onto a table for she and her companions to sort. Without even access to a photocopier, Martha copied down everything in sight and busily tried to unravel the enormous amount of information to some semblance of order. Martha and her friends inexplicably sat on this data for almost twenty years when at the behest of Mrs. Como we joined forces to bring the information Martha had gathered together with my research in forming an expanded and on-line Perry Como Discography and CD Companion.

The on-line discography began inauspiciously during Christmas, 1997, and was fully up-and-running just prior to the closing of Perry's New York offices on the 1st of April, 1998. This was no April Fool's joke, Perry and all of his staff, many who had worked with him for the better part of fifty years, had officially retired and they were leaving no forwarding address. The goodbyes were bittersweet, an era had passed. Vera Hamilton, Perry's personal secretary had worked with him from the mid-fifties, Mickey Glass, who had risen through the ranks to be Perry's personal manager had been with him even longer and was several years his elder. And even though they weren't associated with Perry's New York offices directly, Ray Charles, Perry's long-time choral director had worked with him since 1948 whilst Nick Perito, the "spring chicken" of the bunch, had been with Perry for more than thirty years since having picked up the mantle for conducting from Mitchell Ayres who had been with Perry since 1949. Long relationships with incredible loyalty, a hallmark of Perry's style! Both Ray Charles and Nick Perito would continue to work, with Nick conducting the Percy Faith Orchestra, and Mr. Charles ( The Ray Charles Singers ) never really understanding the meaning of the word "retire", while everyone else would follow Perry's lead and take it easy from this point on. Sadly, during the summer of 1998 Roselle passed away suddenly from a heart attack only shortly following the Como's 65th Wedding Anniversary. Perry lived quietly at the family home in Jupiter, Florida, for almost three years longer where he passed away in his sleep May 12th, 2001.

The on-line Discography and soon to be developed CD Companion gained momentum throughout 1998 and 1999 when it reached the point of having 100,000 hits by February, 2000. At that time, this number of on-line hits was considered a significant number to be celebrated. A common joke was to suggest that when the site hit the "million" mark, I should then ask everyone for one dollar! That would pay for the time and effort. The magic million was achieved in May, 2001, simultaneous with Perry's death. The second million mark was reached within less than nine months following that, the third and fourth million quickly following and approaching five million at the end of 2002 when work on the original site ended and a new domain established. In effect, the site had achieved five million hits in less than five years from its founding. Mrs. Como would have been thrilled!

Now, as we begin the first year of the next five year plan, the official Perry Como Discography and CD Companion faces new challenges no less formidable than those unwittingly faced in 1997 or even five years earlier in 1992 at the time of its first publication on paper. Today we find the Music Industry in complete disarray with technology threatening to overwhelm the ability of any label to survive financially. The market is flooded with low-grade, unauthorized pirates, most of them sourced from the United Kingdom where their view of copyright protection favours mediocrity and penalizes legitimacy. The RCA Records Label, now owned by Bertelsmann, one of the largest corporations of its kind in the world, is seemingly hamstrung between the pirates who claim "public-domain" status and the public who download and burn their music freely without payments to the labels or artists of any kind. Bertelsmann has not re-released a single one of Perry's original RCA Victor albums properly re-mixed and remastered from first generation sources. It is simply not in their interest to do so with the ability of the public to freely copy at will. The level of deception has never been greater as both consumers and the industry find new ways to cheat each other. As technology advances, the quality and legitimacy of recordings has never been worse. This is the challenge we face at the beginning of the next five years; to bring integrity and standards back where they belong and to have Perry's RCA Victor albums re-released properly, re-mixed and remastered by competent engineers with everyone honestly compensated and fairly available at affordable prices. The task at hand appears insurmountable but that's the challenge we face!

George Townsend

Revised ~ May, 2004