Merv Griffin - Songs by Merv Griffin (1946)

"Lullaby of the Leaves" by Merv Griffin

By his own account, Jack Paar left Tonight too soon, but the workload of a nightly 105 minutes of screen time was a strain to fill. Even after rerunning "Best-of" material and employing guest hosts to lighten the stress, Paar would make March 30, 1962 his last episode as the host of Tonight. In his five years as host, Paar had made the late night show an institution and set its format for all the hosts who would come after him. When Paar left, NBC had no thought, like there was with Steve Allen's departure, to try something different. Their only thought was to find somebody who could fill Jack Paar's shoes and maintain the show as "must watch" television. In fact, NBC already had the next host signed, but an inflexible ABC wouldn't let him out of his previous contract. So, a series of guest hosts filled the months on the freshly christened The Tonight Show until the new host could be introduced. Famous and familiar faces took turns behind the desk but none was as natural in the chair as Merv Griffin.

NBC executives were so impressed that they gave Merv Griffin his own hour block show to preempt The Tonight Show and keep him around in case Tonight's new host didn't make the grade. Going back in time, Merv Griffin had already been a familiar face with NBC as a game show host, starred in films for Warner Bros., played nightclubs, and started his career as a radio singer at the age of 19. While at KFRC in San Francisco, Merv Griffin saved his money to record a couple singles and the compiling debut album Songs of Merv Griffin released in 1946 on his own, one-off Panda Records.

Despite being a personally funded effort, the "album"—really, it's just four songs—has a professional veneer thanks to his connections at KFRC. Station band leader Lyle Bardo provides his full orchestral support to Merv Griffin's croon. Together, the songs have a cinema quality and a cinematic quality. It's a dreamy sound popular in Hollywood musicals of the 30s and 40s, and Bardo's arrangements paint the scenes of the art songs: a windy day with scattered leaves, waves on the beach. Rather than an artistic statement though, the album is more a calling card for Griffin. He's young, ambitious, an entrepreneur and a professional...who also sings quite well.

Here is the discography surrounding Merv Griffin's debut album:

Lullaby of the Leaves (1946 single)

Sand (1946 single)

Songs by Merv Griffin

"Falling in Love with Love" by Merv Griffin

"Sand" by Merv Griffin

Pass the Headphones!!

Jo Stafford - Songs by Jo Stafford (1946)

"Let's Take the Long Way Home" by Jo Stafford


When Johnny Mercer toured with his backing vocal group The Pied Pipers, he told piper Jo Stafford that when he had his own record label that he would sign her to a solo recording contract.  That's exactly what happened and Jo Stafford was one of Capitol Records' foundational contracts.  Jo Stafford released her debut album Songs by Jo Stafford release in 1946 on Capitol.

Here is the discography surrounding Jo Stafford's debut album:

Old Acquaintance (1943 single)
It Could Happen to You (1944 single)
Long Ago (And Far Away) (1944 single)
The Trolley Song (1944 single)
Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1944 single)
Let's Take the Long Way Home (1945 single)
On the Sunny Side of the Street (1945 single)
That's for Me (1945 single)
There's No You (1945 single)
Candy (1945 single with Johnny Mercer)
Conversation While Dancing (1945 single with Johnny Mercer)
The Chronological Classics: Jo Stafford 1943-1945 (compilation album)
Cindy (1946 single)
Day by Day (1946 single)
I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time (1946 single)
This Time (1946 single)
White Christmas (1946 single)
You Keep Coming Back Like a Song (1946 single)
You May Not Leave Me (1946 single)
The Chronological Classics: Jo Stafford 1945-1956 (compilation album)
Songs by Jo Stafford

"Long Ago (And Far Away)" by Jo Stafford


"Cindy" by Jo Stafford


"The Boy Next Door" by Jo Stafford


Pass the Headphones!!

Frank Sinatra - The Voice of Frank Sinatra (1946)

"The Song Is You" by Frank Sinatra


The album cover for our last stop, Smash Song Hits by Rodgers & Hart is considered to be the very first album cover.  The cover was designed by legendary graphic designer Alex Steinweiss, who also invented the concept and pitched it to record executives.  Steinweiss would go on to design hundreds of album covers including the cover for Frank Sinatra's debut album The Voice of Frank Sinatra released in 1946 on Columbia Records.

Here is the discography surrounding Frank Sinatra's debut album:

Our Love (1939 personal recording)
Harry James and His Orchestra Featuring Frank Sinatra: The Complete Recordings Nineteen Thirty-Nine (compilation album with Harry James and His Orchestra)
The Song Is You (compilation album with Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra)
The Lamplighter's Serenade (1942 single)
Night and Day (1942 single)
Close to You (1943 single)
Sunday, Monday or Always (1943 single)
People Will Say We're in Love (1943 single)
Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night of the Week) (1944 single)
The War Bond Man (1944 single)
I Couldn't Sleep a Wink Last Night (1944 single)
White Christmas (1944 single)
I Fall in Love Too Easily (1944 single)
I Should Care (1944 single)
America the Beautiful (1945 single)
Lily Belle (1945 single)
My Shawl (1945 single)
Nancy (With the Laughing Face) (1945 single)
Ol' Man River (1945 single)
Put Your Dreams Away (For Another Day)
The Charm of You (1945 single)
What Makes the Sunset? (1945 single)
Dream (1945 single)
If You Are But a Dream (1945 single)
Embraceable You (1945 single)
She's Funny That Way (1945 single)
If I Loved You (1945 single)
White Christmas (1945 single)
Homesick, That's All (1945 single)
Begin the Beguine (1946 single)
Five Minutes More (1946 single)
From This Day Forward (1946 single)
Home on the Range (1946 single)
It's All Up to You (1946 single with Dinah Shore)
Jingle Bells (1946 single)
One Love (1946 single)
Poinciana (Song of the Tree) (1946 single)
September Song (1946 single)
Hush-A-Bye Island (1946 single)
Silent Night, Holy Night (1946 single)
Soliloquy (1946 single)
That Old Black Magic (1946 single)
The Coffee Song (1946 single)
They Say It's Wonderful (1946 single)
Oh! What It Seemed to Be (1946 single)
Full Moon and Empty Arms (1946 single)
All Through the Day (1946 single)
These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) (1946 single)
I Dream of You (More Than You Dream I Do) (1946 single)
I Don't Know Why (I Just Do) (1946 single)
The Rarest Sinatra (compilation album)
Frank Sinatra Conducts the Music of Alec Wilder (1946 album)
The Voice of Frank Sinatra
The Real Complete Columbia Years V-Discs (compilation album)

"The Music Stopped" by Frank Sinatra


"Poinciana (Song of the Tree)" by Frank Sinatra


"Soliloquy" by Frank Sinatra


"We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)" by Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra


"Just as Though You Were Here" by Frank Sinatra with The Pied Pipers and Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra


"It's Funny to Everyone but Me" by Frank Sinatra with Harry James and His Orchestra


Pass the Headphones!!

Oscar Levant - Oscar Levant Plays Popular Moderns (1946)

"Golliwog's Cake Walk / Maid with the Flaxen Hair / Reflection in the Water / Claire de Lune / La plus que lente / The Little Shepherd" by Oscar Levant


Oscar Levant played the piano on the Anton Rubinstein recording from the last entry.  A famous pianist and a famous personality in movies, TV and radio, Oscar Levant released his first album Oscar Levant Plays Popular Moderns in 1946 by way of Columbia Masterworks.

Here is the discography surrounding Oscar Levant's debut album:

Rhapsody in Blue (1945 single)
Oscar Levant Plays Popular Moderns

"Rhapsody in Blue" by Oscar Levant


Pass the Headphones!!

Sarah Vaughan - The Chronological Classics: Sarah Vaughan 1944-1946 (1946)

"I'll Wait and Pray" by Sarah Vaughan (with Billy Eckstine and His Orchestra)


Sarah Vaughan took piano lessons, sang in the choir, and snuck into New York's best jazz clubs.  This all culminated in her winning the regular amateur night contest at the Apollo.  As a result, she'd be hired as occasional singer and pianist for the Earl Hines Orchestra in 1943.  She'd sing alongside Billy Eckstine in the Hines Orchestra and followed Eckstine when he ventured to start his own big band.  In the new environment, Vaughan's voice would prove an excellent complement to bop, the new jazz, as it grew out of the Eckstine creative incubator.  The nickname "Sassy" (which she'd fully adopt professionally and personally) was given to her by pianist John Malachi to match her personality.  (She also earned the nickname "Sailor" for her salty language).

In 1945, she broke away to start her solo career.  Vaughan would record sides solo with jazz label Musicraft or with different backing bands including some helmed by Dizzy Gillespie, Georgie Auld, and Tadd Dameron.  She befriended jazz trumpeter George Treadwell who soon became Sarah's manager.  He'd organize everything for her touring schedule and recording arrangements and manage her image through her wardrobe, hairstyles, and capped teeth.  In a comfortable professional relationship, Sassy and Treadwell would marry in the latter half of 1946.

Here is the discography for Sarah Vaughan's first recordings:

The Chronological Classics: Sarah Vaughan 1944-1946

"I'd Rather Have a Memory Than a Dream" by Sarah Vaughan


Pass the Headphones!!