BEVERLY HILLS—Doris Day’s new album, “My Heart” is due out in September on Sony Music. To millions of people, Doris Day is best known as the enormously popular star of dozens of hit movie musicals and comedies in the 1950s and ‘60s. She later starred on a hit CBS television series that ran into the 1970s by which time she began devoting more and more of her time to animal welfare. With few exceptions, she has remained out of the limelight since her move to picturesque Carmel by the Sea some thirty years ago.
Doris Day’s tremendous movie stardom overshadowed, in many ways, her equally successful career as a recording artist. Beginning in the mid-1940s, for more than twenty years she was one of the biggest recording artists at Columbia, earning enough Gold Records to panel several walls. Two of her song hits won Academy Awards as Best Song and another four were nominated for the honor.
Her theme song – “Whatever Will Be, Will Be” (Que Sera Sera) is fixed in the minds of many as the only song Miss Day is known for. In reality, she recorded nearly 700 songs and some of her concept albums from the 50s and 60s are among the best recordings ever made. Her duet album from the early 1960s with Andre Previn is a classic of its type. “Latin for Lovers” is an exhilarating mix of sensuality and Latin-type music that is intoxicating and Day’s take on “Let it Snow” from her 1960s Christmas album is the sexiest version of this song ever recorded.
Day’s vocal skills are flawless. Her diction, breath control and the warmth she projects when she sings, making the listener feel she is singing directly to them, earns her a place as one of the finest vocalists of the 20th Century. After decades away from the recording studio, Miss Day’s first album in years is about to be released by Sony Music. Already it is generating excitement and considerable sales activity. The finished product is worth the lengthy wait.
Before his untimely death in 2004, Day’s son, Terry Melcher, a major songwriting and producing force in the recording business for many years, had lured his mom back into the recording studio. For all intents and purposes, Day’s singing since the late 60s had been limited to several well-received television specials in the 1970s and songs rendered to a lucky few around her home. Melcher co-wrote four of the new songs in this collection of twelve numbers, nine of which are new and three of which are classic Doris Day. Despite a span of decades, Day’s voice retains its unique warmth and flavor. Best of the new songs include the catchy “Heaven Tonight,” Day’s take on the Lovin Spoonful’s “Daydream,” the Beach Boy’s “Disney Girls,” “Hurry It’s Lovely Up Here” from the Broadway musical, “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” and especially “You Are So Beautiful.”
Written by Billy Preston, Bruce Fisher and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, “Beautiful” became an huge hit for Joe Cocker in the 1970s. By the third note, Day has made this song her own and it’s a number you’ll want to play again and again. Miss Day dedicates the haunting “Happy Endings” sung by Melcher, to her son.
From the vault, Miss Day has selected a number from her Previn album, “My One and Only Love,” “My Buddy” and the definitive version of “Ohio” from the Broadway musical, “Wonderful Town.” The Ohio native brings an added poignance and wistfulness to this beautiful tune.
“My Heart” will bring enormous listening pleasure to longtime Doris Day fans but will also make believers out of everyone who only knows Day from her screen roles or “Que Sera Sera.” Here’s hoping this is not the last we’ll hear from the golden throat of Doris Day.
Paul Brogan is the author of “Was That a Name I Dropped?” (Aberdeen Bay)
Photographs are Courtesy: Link 81 Collection
