Dinah Shore Dinah Sings, Previn Plays CD

Known chiefly as a TV variety hostess, the late Dinah Shore was also a fine jazz-influenced singer. Andre Previn has a considerable reputation as one of the world's great classical conductors, but in the late 1950s he was established as a versatile jazz pianist. In 1960, they joined forces to record some Great American Songbook selections (Gershwin brothers, Cole Porter, etc.), resulting in an intimate, late-night set in which Shore's sultry singing and Previn's warm, succinct piano both shine.

While maintaining her status as a television star, Dinah Shore made a series of classy albums for Capitol Records between 1959 and 1962. On this, the fourth of her five LPs for the label, she again teamed with André Previn, who had arranged and conducted her earlier album, Somebody Loves Me. This time, Previn took to the piano, joined only by an occasional rhythm section for another set of ballads (or, as the sleeve notes put it, "songs in a mid-night mood"). They included standards by the Gershwins, Rodgers & Hart and others, and Shore handled them with more than her usual warmth; she smoldered. The result was a concept album that ranks with some of Frank Sinatra's. Maybe sales were negligible because the Shore of this album was hard to reconcile with the grinning hostess on TV, but it probably had more to do with the overexposure TV gives any regular performer, causing the public to look for her on the small screen rather than on the record shelves. In any case, that made this album a lost gem. [A 2006 reissue added four bonus tracks that were recorded at the same sessions that produced the originals.] ~ William Ruhlmann

Liner Note Authors: Dinah Shore; André Previn; James Gavin.

Recording information: Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA (06/02/1959-03/23/1960).

Personnel: Dinah Shore (vocals); Dinah Shore; Red Mitchell (upright bass); André Previn (piano); Frank Capp (drums).

Audio Remixer: Ron McMaster.