The Songbirds Archives

Maxine Sullivan at the Village Vanguard, New York, March 1947.
Photo by William P. Gottlieb

The First Torch Singers, Volume 3: 1935-1940
Take Two Records (TT424CD), U.S., 1999

Reviewed by Earl L. Dachslager (The Woodlands, Texas)

This is the third and last volume of a trio of CDs devoted to that oft-cited but indefinable vocal genre, torch singing. The dictionary defines "torch song" as "a sentimental love song, typically one in which the singer laments a lost love." Along with being too general, this definition omits what is perhaps the most obvious characteristic of torch songs: They are almost always sung by women. While men can undoubtedly carry a torch, there is no such creature as a male torch singer. The essence of torch singing is a woman lamenting her lost love, i.e., her man. Hence the multitude of classic torch songs with titles such as My Man, Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man, The Right Kind of Man, The Man I Love, I Must Have That Man, What I Wouldn’t Do for That Man, and He's My Secret Passion, all of which are included in this series.

I would guess that one reason for the demise of torch songs and singers is that the lament has become either passé or relegated to country music (same thing). These days, the female vocalist's lament is more likely to be for a lost life than a lost man.

But in those "simpler" days of the 1920s and 1930s, when having a man was equal to having a life, torch singing was really hot stuff. Indeed, "red-hot momma" was once a popular euphemism for a torch singer. The third volume covers the years 1935-1940 and includes most of the expected names: Ruth Etting, Helen Morgan, Adelaide Hall, Hildegarde, Lee Wiley, Mildred Bailey, Connie Boswell. It also includes some less familiar names: Bebe Daniels, Dixie Lee Crosby, Greta Keller, Gertrude Niesen, and Una Mae Carlisle. The previous two volumes in the series, both still in print, include even more hidden and unknown treasures; only the most intrepid songbird collector will be familiar with the work of Sylvia Froos, Welcome Lewis, Go Go Delyse, Zora Layman, and Eve Taylor, all of whom turn up on Volumes 1 and 2.

Also included on this CD are a number of singers not closely associated with torch singing, such as Alice Faye, Ginny Simms, Helen Ward, Maxine Sullivan, Kay Thompson, Dinah Shore and Jane Froman. Nevertheless, they all manage to pull off performances which come close, or close enough, to capturing the lump-in-the-throat, ache-in-the-heart, tear-in-the-eye mood and tone that distinguishes the vocal torchbearer. In this category, especially noteworthy is Kay Thompson's version of the little-known Oscar Levant-Dorothy Fields song Don't Mention Love to Me.

While all of the cuts on this collection are worthwhile, for historical reasons if no other, I would pick as particularly outstanding Adelaide Hall's 1938 version of I Can't Give You Anything but Love, backed by Fats Waller on organ; Helen Ward's All My Life, with the Benny Goodman trio; Greta Keller's angst-ridden version of These Foolish Things; Helen Morgan's wonderfully sappy and moony I Was Taken by Storm; Dixie Lee Crosby's surprisingly adept Until the Real Thing Comes Along (she never should have married that guy); Maxine Sullivan's Moments Like This; Gertrude Niesen's lowdown Where Are You; and Frances Langford's Please Be Kind (a far cry from Blanche Bickerson but, then again, maybe not). To hear where Marilyn Monroe got her Happy Birthday, Mr. President, check out Hildegarde's version of For Sentimental Reasons.

On the Adelaide Hall I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Waller's vocal asides almost make the song a parody of torch singing, but since torch singing was, from the start, close to self-parody anyway, Waller’s comic asides seem quite fitting.