Perry recorded "Delaware" and
"I Know What God Is" in late December, 1959, and while both sides of
the resulting single charted in the United States, the real surprise was
having "Delaware" received so well in the United Kingdom. A surprise
because the song, composed by Irving Gordon, known best today for Nat King
Cole's song "Unforgettable", was a spoof on the American
"states" with state names used within the comedic dialogue of the
song. In later years the British added "Delaware" to their version
of "Como's Golden Records" but whether it ever qualified for an
official gold record remains
unknown.
Perry's first recorded singles of the '60s
were produced by the team of Hugo & Luigi who recorded five albums with
Perry and seven single tracks within two and one half years. Perry has a
history of his flip sides becoming hit records and this turned out to be true
with his first recording of the new decade "Gone Is My Love",
composed by Paul Vance ( "Catch a Falling Star" ) when it was the
flip side "Make Someone Happy" which charted. The following year, he
recorded only one track for a single release, a composition written for him by
Burt Bacharach and Bob Hilliard titled "You're Following Me" with a
flip side taken from his first Hugo & Luigi album "For the Young at
Heart" released the year previous. Ironically, it's the flip side,
"Especially For the Young," more often remembered today than the
original charted single. Another surprise was in store in early '62 with
Perry's recording "The Island of Forgotten Lovers" co written by
Dick Manning ( "Papa Loves Mambo" and "Hot Diggity" et
al., ) and Kay Twomey ( Elvis Presley's "Wooden Heart" } when it's
flip side "Caterina" climbed the charts instead. Earl Shuman,
composer for "Caterina" would later pen two more '60s singles for
Perry, the English lyrics to the Italian song "Un giorno dopo l'altro (
One Day Is Like Another ) and a Christmas song titled "Love Is a
Christmas Rose". Perry had another surprise hit with "( I Love
You ) Don't You Forget It", which he recorded in May of 1963 just
following completion of his last Hugo & Luigi album "The Songs I
Love". These recordings were also his last with Mitchell Ayres who
had been with him since 1949. "( I Love
You ) Don't You Forget It" was the B-side to Perry's recording of
a beautiful ballad titled "One More Mountain", composed for him by
Paul Vance ( "Catch a Falling Star" ) and Eddie Snyder { "Girl
With the Golden Braids ). Both songs were featured in his 1964 RCA Camden
album "Love Makes The World Go 'Round", a compilation of hit singles
with several released in stereo for the very first time. Following the
departure of Mitch Ayres, Perry discontinued his weekly television show at the
end of the 1963 season and he didn't return to the recording studio for almost
two years.
Perry went to Nashville in February, 1965,
and recorded his first album with Chet Atkins titled "The Scene
Changes" out of which came the hit single "Dream On Little
Dreamer" that must have been expected because the album carried this
song as a sub-title. All of these
recordings were arranged and conducted by Anita Kerr who shared billing on the
album with her inimitable Anita Kerr Quartet. Perry returned to Nashville
during the summer of 1965 to record several follow-up tracks, two of which
were released on a single: "Oowee, Oowee" and it's flip side
"The Summer Wind". Although both of these songs were recorded with
The Anita Kerr Quartet, none of the other songs were released and either by
chance or design Perry never recorded with Anita Kerr again. In fact, it's not
clear whether Perry ever recorded in Nashville again during the 1960s!
During the fall of 1965, Perry returned to
New York where at Webster Hall he recorded two of the unreleased Nashville
tracks once again but this time with Nick Perito conducting, the Ray Charles
Singers, and his first New York recordings produced by Andy Wiswell. The two
songs were "Bye, Bye Little Girl" and it's flip side "Meet Me
At The Altar" which were also his first recordings with Nick Perito as
conductor and arranger, a relationship which would continue for thirty years.
In December, Perry returned to
RCA's Studio A where he recorded "Coo Coo Roo Coo Coo Paloma"
in album sessions for "Lightly Latin" that continued through to
early March of 1966. In this same studio, on December 17th, 1958, Perry
recorded a song titled "Tell Her of My Love Paloma" that was never
released but may possibly be an earlier version of this same song. The single
"Coo Coo Roo Coo Coo Paloma" was later released as the B-side to a
Nick Perito and Ray Charles composition "Stay With Me" which was
also taken from Perry's new album "Lightly Latin".
"Lightly Latin" was the first of
four complete albums produced by Andy Wiswell and his second, no less
compelling, was recorded on location at the RCA Italiana Studios, Rome, Italy,
just two months following in May of 1966. These recordings were attended
by Wiswell, well known RCA executive Steve Sholes ( who had also been
responsible for Perry recording in Nashville ), Nick Perito and Perry's long
time choral director Ray Charles. In a combination of English and Italian they
produced a charming album titled "Perry Como In Italy" which has yet
to be re-released in North America on compact disc but has been released in
Japan under the title "Memories of Italy". Perry's first recording
in Italy was the popular song "Forget Domani", in English and
Italian with the vocal blending and charming Italian accents of The Allesandro
Allessandroni Singers, backed by a lush orchestration. This song was
later released as a single with a B-side titled "Un giorno dopo l'altro (
One Day Is Like Another )" which, like "Coo
Coo Roo Coo Coo Paloma" before it, generally overshadowed
everything else. Whereas "Forget Domani" was light, breezy and
commercial, Perry's recording of "Un giorno dopo l'altro" was a
superb performance, a fine example of his vocal ability, but best heard on a
real hi-fi system and not just radio. The same could be said for "Coo Coo Roo Coo Coo
Paloma".
Almost every track from Perry's first
Nashville album "The Scene Changes" could have been released as a
single and "Here Comes My Baby" is no exception. This song was
re-released as the B-side to one of Perry's songs from "Lightly
Latin" and also as a flip side to the Willie Nelson composition "My
Own Peculiar Way" which had been released prior as the B-side to Perry's
hit record "Dream On Little Dreamer". The success of these
early Nashville recordings was due in no small part to the talents
of Anita Kerr and the unforgettable sound of her Quartet. Whatever it was that
broke the relationship between Perry and Anita Kerr ( perhaps by chance ) he
was never able to duplicate that sound again from his Nashville recordings
during the 1960s. Perry didn't rely on radio-play for the promotion of his
recordings during this period. He concentrated instead on the excellence of
his albums and a very large fan base who would learn of their existence in
many other ways, not the least having them featured on his regular television
specials. He would sing a medley of songs within an elaborate set featuring a
recently released album.
Throughout 1967 Perry toyed with more
"singles" recording than he had done in many years. A number of them
were recorded in New York but he also tried his hand once again in Nashville
during the summer of that year where he may have been attempting to assemble
another album. He had recorded several tracks in Nashville two years earlier
which had been abandoned and remained unreleased. Recordings during the summer
of '67 were not under the able hand of Anita Kerr, and that showed, but they
were jointly produced by Chet Atkins and Perry's New York based producer Andy
Wiswell. This could also mean that Perry didn't record these songs in
Nashville but, rather, added the vocal tracks in New York to previously
recorded Nashville orchestrations. The Nashville recordings generally remained
unreleased until many of them popped up in 1969 to fill an album in support of
another surprise hit for Perry titled "Seattle". This song was the
B-side to a Cindy Walker original titled "Sunshine Wine".
The real story of Perry's 1967 singles is
when you look at the composers and the special songs which appear to have been
written especially for him. Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett, composers of Perry's 1958 hit
record "Kewpie Doll", penned "Stop! And Think It
Over"; Paul Vance, composer of "Catch a Falling Star" with Jack
Segal, "Scarlet Ribbons", and Eddie Snyder, "Girl With the
Golden Braids", penned "What Love Is Made Of"; well known
Como composers Al Stillman and Dick Manning penned "Happiness Comes,
Happiness Goes"; and a host of well known composers having long time
connections with Perry can be found within other recordings from this period.
Paul Vance and Eddie Snyder also composed
a delightful song which Perry recorded in late December, 1967, ( he had a
habit of recording at that time of year ) titled "Somebody Makes It
So" but it was overshadowed by his recording at the same time of
"The Father of Girls" , composed by Ervin
M. Drake, "I Believe",
which turned out to be one of Perry's most requested songs and a timeless Como
standard. Perry recorded
this song almost by accident. He had performed it on one of his television
specials in late 1967, probably the American Thanksgiving Special, and
audience response was so great that he decided to record it. This recording
was received so well that it was added to an already planned album of Broadway
show tunes which Perry recorded during the summer of 1968. It's not generally
known that the single version of this song is different than the one included within
the album "Look To Your Heart" which was released during the
fall of 1968. The single has never been released in stereo and only once
within a British album compilation in monaural. Performance on the single is
more colloquial than the album track and, considering the content of the
message within the song, some listeners find it more charming and natural.
Perry's enunciation is generally meticulous, as is evident throughout the
album "Look To Your Heart", and hence, it was likely considered
appropriate to
record an overdub of Perry's voice to match the other songs
within the album set. Both versions are equally compelling.
Perry topped off the 1960s with another
surprise hit record which no one planned. The hit single was to have been the
superbly performed Nashville recorded "Sunshine Wine", composed by
no less than Cindy Walker, which Perry performed ably on the Carol Burnett
Show, one of his very few guest appearances on someone else's show. But it was
the flip side of this single which hit the charts, causing Chet Atkins and
Andy Wiswell to scramble together a number of previously unreleased songs for
Perry's last album of the '60s, titled "Seattle", and his last album
with the involvement of Andy Wiswell who had so well served Perry throughout
the latter half of the decade. Andy Wiswell must have retired from RCA shortly
following this, but it has recently been learned that he is alive and well,
living at home at the grand old age of 94 ( as of this year, 1999 ). The hats
of Perry Como fans around the world must surely be tipped to this grand old
gentleman for the quality of work he achieved with Perry during these years. Perry had one last single released from his 1969
"Seattle" compilation, the Al Stillman and Dick Manning composition
"Happiness Comes, Happiness Goes", which he had first recorded in
December, 1965, as a "warm-up" for the "Lightly Latin"
sessions, and the flip side was a Nashville recorded song, recorded a couple
of years before, ( although believed to have been recorded even earlier in New
York, as well, ) titled "That's All This Old World Needs". In
an odd sort of way, both of these songs serve to give summary
in musical terms the contributions of people like Hugo and Luigi, Andy
Wiswell, Chet Atkins, Mitchell Ayres, Nick Perito, The Ray Charles Singers and
the Anita Kerr Quartet, in making Perry what he came to be by the end of the
1960s.
In 1970, Perry would begin a whole new
chapter of live performance, hit records, classic studio albums and television
specials. He recorded two albums on-location in Las Vegas, a remarkable set of
recordings with Don Costa rivaling the best of his entire career, a return to
Nashville for two unforgettable albums with Chet Atkins, plus an historic album recorded
on-location in Britain where Perry's popularity has always been second to none.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Perry continued into the 80's with four
more superb albums, " . . . superbly performed beautiful
collections," as always.
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