Was there ever a more romantic voice than Vic Damone’s? He may not have Sinatra’s savvy or Bennett’s lush emotionalism but he can phrase (especially on a ballad) with the best of them and his intonation is bang on. He also knows how to tell a story in song – and his sound is just plain gorgeous.
If you know him mainly from his hit singles or Kismet (in which he more than holds his own alongside Howard Keel and, against the odds, contrives to look quite dishy in a variety of mildly alarming frocks) then you’re missing the best stuff.
For ten years in the 50s and 60s he recorded a string of classic albums for Columbia and Capitol, packed with great standards and often featuring surprising but entirely sympathetic arrangements. Here’s a beautifully spare take on Paul Madeira and Jimmy Dorsey’s 1941 classic.
No wonder Ann Blyth succumbed…