Blue Swing - Eileen Rodgers

I Guess I'll Have To Dream The Rest

Blue Swing
Eileen Rodgers
Orchestra Under The Direction Of Ray Conniff
Columbia CL 1096
1958

From the back cover: For a girl who had no particular interest in a singing career – in the beginning – Eileen Rodgers has come a long, long way, and she proves it conclusively in this fine, swinging album. Eileen, one of the brightest young stars around, is not one of your whispery singers, although she can get as pleasantly intimate as anyone; rather she sings out in a good, old-fashioned way that gives both the song and the audience a refreshing lift. Her selections here are predominantly lonesome in character, but there is nothing fretful about Eileen's performances – she gives the songs bracing, outgoing treatments that result in a collection which fully lives up to its title.

Eileen, of Irish and Italian extraction, comes from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she attended the Firck Elementary School and St. Paul's Cathedral High School for Girls. Active in the glee club and appearing from time to time in school operettas, she never gave a thought to a singing career until it practically fell into her lap. After graduation, she went to work in the local offices of the Blue Cross Hospitalization Service, but soon found that office work was not what she wanted. Out on a date in the Carnival Lounge in Pittsburgh, she stood up one night and sang a few songs with the band and so impressed the club's owner that he asked her to become part of the show. Eileen thought it over, and made her debut on New Year's Eve. Option after option was picked up, and her first engagement stretched out for twelve weeks.

Chicago television and nightclubs followed, and one night Charlie Spivak stopped by one of the clubs in which she was appearing. Luckily, he was looking for a girl vocalist for his band, and he signed Eileen at once. After two years with the band, Eileen decided she had acquired sufficient experience to resume work as a single act, and she set out for New York. There she made an audition record which came to the attention of Mitch Miller, who asked for a repeat audition. Just ten days before she turned 23, Eileen was signed to a recording contract and made her first record a week later.

This is Eileen's first collection, although she has a score of highly popular single records to her credit. With Ray Conniff and his orchestra, she offers a dozen solid standards, most of them firmly associated with the swing era and most of them blue, not in the sense of the classic blues, but deriving from them. As Ray lays down a firm, swinging beat, Eileen carries through and presents a group of performances that amply demonstrate her extraordinary talent and show why she has so quickly become a major recording star. Her enthusiasm, her sure musical instinct, and her vibrant personality all combine to provide an enlivening and delightful musical offering.

From Billboard - March 31, 1958: In this first LP album by Eileen Rodgers, her fine, swinging voice, clear diction and keen sense of phrasing are showcased in a dozen blues-flavored standards like "Solitude." "Washbah Blues" and "Some Of These Days." A solid backing by Ray Conniff and an attractive cover. She has strong potential as an album artist.

Wabash Blues
Am I Blue
Some Of These Days
Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Solitude
I Guess I'll Have To Dream The Rest
Sunday
I'd Climb The Highest Mountain
I Ain't Got Nobody
Lonesome Road
I Cried For You
After You've Gone