Episode 442. Henry Wright Revisited

Episode 442. Henry Wright Revisited

Last week I published an episode about Black Pop Singers who emigrated to Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of these gentlemen settled in the German-speaking countries, where there was a ready market for the “otherness” and exoticism that they embodied. The one outlier on that episode was Henry Wright, born in 1933, who in the late 1950s toured Italy with Lionel Hampton’s band and elected to remain there. With a voice as suave and seductive as any of the great crooners of the 1950s and 1960s, Henry Wright first came to international prominence as the voice on the record to which Sophia Loren performed her legendary striptease in the 1962 film Ieri, oggi, domani [Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow]. He went on to make a great impact on Italian pop music throughout the 1960s. A couple years ago I began collecting the ultra-rare (and costly) records of Henry Wright, which formed the basis of two separate Countermelody episodes. Here is the second of those episodes, first published as a bonus episode nearly three years ago now, which is devoted to Henry Wright’s recordings of pop standards, most of them from the so-called Great American Songbook, but a few of them English-language adaptations of favorite songs originally in Italian. The program begins with one of Henry Wright’s first Italian recordings, which features standards by Duke Ellington and Harold Arlen. The majority of the music on the program, however, is from Henry Wright’s 1967 LP, Prisoner of Amore, in which he is joined by the doodling pianism of Romano Mussolini (youngest son of the late dictator), and the somewhat overwrought arrangements of Giulio Libano. In spite of the excesses of his colleagues, Henry Wright still manages to make a positive showing in this, (as far as I know!) his final recording. In the course of the episode, I go down a number of rabbit holes that go off in a number of interesting directions: the songs of Harry Warren, the early pop stylings of Gérard Souzay in the first flush of youth as a pop crooner on the French airwaves, and the fascinating life and times of the pre-hippie Eden Ahbez, best known as the composer of “Nature Boy,” whose further compositions were performed by (among others) the sophisticated and cosmopolitan Eartha Kitt and Ahbez himself.

RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE

Unless otherwise noted, all tracks feature Henry Wright

George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, Du Bose Heyward: Summertime. Orchestra Mazzocchi [1959]

Robert Stolz, Arthur Rebner, Italian words by Ennio Neri: Abat-Jour [Salomè]. Orchestra Bruno Martelli [1962]

Ray Henderson, Lew Brown, Buddy DeSylva: Sonny Boy. Orchestra Augusto Martelli e i Radar [1962]

Duke Ellington, Juan Tizol, Irving Mills: Caravan. Henry Wright with Len Mercer Orchestra [1959]

Duke Ellington, Eddie DeLange, Irving Mills: Solitude. Len Mercer Orchestra [1959]

Vittorio Mascheroni, Gian Carlo Testoni, English words by Robert Mellin: My One Sin [Il mio peccato sei tu]. Len Mercer Orchestra [1959]

Unless otherwise noted, all remaining tracks come from the LP Prisoner of Amore [1967] featuring Henry Wright and Romano Mussolini with l’Orchestra Giulio Libano.

Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer: Autumn Leaves

Hoagy Carmichael, Mitchell Parish: Stardust

Victor Young, Ned Washington: Stella by Starlight

Carlo Alberto Rossi, Giorgio Calabrese [English version by Al Stillman, Arthur Altman]: If You Should Leave Me [E se domani]

Herman Hupfeld: As Time Goes By

Carlo Concina, Enzo Bonagura [English lyric by Robert Mellin]: The River [Sciummo]

Harry Warren, Mack Gordon, unknown French translator: Vous le savez comme moi [I Know Why and So Do You] (Sun Valley Serenade). Gérard Souzay, Orchestre Paul Bonneau [radio recording 14 March 1948]

Harry Warren, Mack Gordon: The More I See You

Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart: With a Song in My Heart

Eden Ahbez, Wayne Shanklin: Hey Jacque. Eartha Kitt, Henri René [Harald M. Kirchstein] and His Orchestra [1954]

Eden Ahbez: Full Moon. Eden Ahbez [1960]

Eden Ahbez: Nature Boy

Ernesto de Curtis, Giambattista de Curtis [English lyric by Mort Shuman, Doc Pomus]: Surrender [Torna a Surriento]

Leo Robin, Clarence Gaskill, Russ Columbo: Prisoner of Love