Mel Torme appreciation thread

[teela_brown]

I love listening to standards singers and have a list of favorite performers. I like Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, and Nat King Cole. But at the top of that list is the brilliant Mel Torme.

I’ve only newly discovered youtube.com, and about ten minutes ago thought for the first time to search for any clips featuring MT. My God - I’m still sitting here in tears at his genius just from this one clip alone:

When Sunny Gets Blue

Having become a big fan of his after his death, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any clips of his performances. It is scary the control and perfect pitch the man had, yet he never sounded mechanical. He always injected a soft, rich emotional yearning into his voice.

I wish I had seen him when he was still alive. Who’ll replace our brilliant standards singers? They’re all going, going, gone.

[Zeldar]

I applaud your taste in The Velvet Fog.

About the only real current day counterpart is Michael Buble’.

Also, Mel wrote The Christmas Song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire).

[Telemark]

From here :

In fact, given the breadth of his talents, he might have been a bandleader since, in addition to singing, he was also a drummer good enough to have gotten offers to go on the road as early as his teens, a songwriter responsible for one of the perennial Christmas standards, and an arranger who wrote the charts for much of the music he performed. Amazingly, this is still only a partial list of his accomplishments, which also included acting in more than a dozen feature films and on radio and television; hosting radio and TV shows; and writing television dramas, numerous articles for periodicals including Down Beat and The New York Times, and six published books of fiction, biography, and music criticism.

There’s great stuff in his catalog.

[Roderick_Femm]

He was a great singer and musician, no doubt.

I still have trouble forgiving him for that hatchet job book he wrote on Judy Garland shortly after her death, though. Fortunately, I don’t think it sold very well, thereby depriving him of what was probably his main motive, money.

Roddy

[Iggins]

He was great on “Night Court”. Some of my favorite episodes!

[Chez_Guevara]

@Zeldar

Also, Mel wrote The Christmas Song (chestnuts roasting on an open fire).

Mel co-wrote this song with lyricist Robert Wells.

[Zeldar]

@Chez Guevara

Mel co-wrote this song with lyricist Robert Wells.

Good correction/addition. I just knew that when Nat heard it on the radio and called to find out who wrote it, he was told it was Mel. I have the sheet music several places and forgot that Mel didn’t do the whole thing.

[Zeldar]

@Zeldar

Good correction/addition. I just knew that when Nat heard it on the radio and called to find out who wrote it, he was told it was Mel. I have the sheet music several places and forgot that Mel didn’t do the whole thing.

After a little web searching to try to find a cite for this comment about Nat’s hearing the song on the radio, I’m suspicious of whatever source I must have gotten that tidbit from. It appears that the first recording of The Christmas Song was by Nat King Cole, which would make his hearing it on the radio before he even knew who wrote it, a dim possibility. It is conceivable that he might have heard a live performance of it, as recordings being played on the radio in 1945-6 were not as commonplace as they became later. (I haven’t tried to find out that particular detail yet).

Interesting additional reading about the song may be found at this website. I just can’t recall where or when I must have heard or read what I said in the post before this one.

I know the thread is about Mel, and I didn’t want to hijack it. Please carry on.

[Mama_Tiger]

I grew up listening to all those guys – my dad had put himself through college back in the late 30s/early 40s playing in a dance band, and my parents were huge fans of all the greats. I still love them all. I can’t remember how many times I saw Mel perform on TV, except it wasn’t enough. He’s got a style and a voice that you can just float on, doesn’t he?