I Can Dream, Can't I
Romantic Rendezvous
Steve AllenWith Neal Hefti and His Orchestra
Sportswear on cover by Majestic
Coral Records CRL 57138
From the back cover: The name Steve Allen has become in the space of time it takes for a President to serve his term-a password to many things for many people. It has been a name denoting late nights at the TV set, audience interviews with salami prizes for participants, crazy sketches and guests, a quipmaster supreme, and traffic-stopping stunts outside the TV studio on Manhattan's West 44th Street. The name also stands for a serious-looking, wavy-haired chap with dark-rimmed glasses sitting at the piano. That last-named image stands for a considerably less celebrated side of the many-faceted Steve Allen. Most often thought of as the comic and the clowner, Allen is also a man who loves music-as a composer, as a performer and perhaps most of all as a fan. From his earliest indoctrination into the world of the microphone as a part time announcer in Arizona, the musical side of Allen's on-the-air personality has actually received just as important a share of the camera and mike spotlight as his preoccupation with the offbeat and humorous sides of humanity that makes life a never-ending adventure.
His first step upward and outward came in Hollywood where he won a wide circle of local fans for his comedy, interview and music shows. In 1951, the Columbia Broadcasting System imported Steve to New York to be quizmaster of a music-based show called "Songs for Sale," which in those earlier days of TV developed its own steady clientele of fans.
Despite this early TV success, Allen felt a need for expansion which would lift him out of his then rigid show format. The National Broadcasting Company provided the required elbow room when it started him in July 1953 with his own late-night "Steve Allen Show," which many viewers will remember as one of the most unrehearsed and utterly fascinating shows on the air. One of the few certainties of those shows was that a substantial portion of each would be devoted to: 1.) Steve's piano playing (the piano top with Steve's glasses became the trademark for the show) 2.) A generous helping of tasty pop and standard songs by Eydie Gorme, Andy Williams, and Steve Lawrence, and 3.) Steve's spotlighting of music talent as his guest attractions.
As the months passed, the show became the hottest and most sought-after spot for exposure by music talent of practically every school. Allen seemed determined to bring every possible name performer as well as deserving lesser-lights in the music business to late evening screens. The heralded names of swing, dixieland and modern "cool" jazz were there. So were the solo instrumentalists and the singers in the popular, rock and roll, jazz and sophisticatedly torchy fields. So too were America's most fabled songwriters in wonderful passing parades of their own tunes, known in showbusiness as the "And then I Wrote" routines. Allen has been known to bring the entire cast of a new Broadway musical to his show, following its opening, to discuss the show and play tunes from its score. On just such a show for the cast of a revue simply titled, "Almanac," an up and coming but little known folk singer named Harry Belafonte got one of his first important TV airings.
There can be little doubt that the musical talent parade on these Allen shows has had at least a part in the steady upsurge in the record business in the past four years. As a writer, Allen has produced at least a thousand songs and as an artist, he has performed at his piano not only for TV fans but for his own increasing army of record followers as well.
Here is Steve Allen's eighth Coral album. Here, as in "Music for Tonight," and "Tonight at Midnight," Allen's warm and tasteful piano is showcased by the lustrous arrangements of Neal Hefti. Normally associated with crisply smart brass and woodwind jazz ideas, Hefti shows here an equal deftness
for soft string and woodwind backings, which frame Allen's melodic impressions of a dozen standards of varying vintage. This is music by a music lover and a fine talent - for you and a special someone. This is music ideal for a Romantic Rendezvous. It's restful for listening or if you prefer, the lightly accented beat makes it just right for dreamy "good night" dancing. Shall we listen? – Ren Grevatt
Coral Records CRL 57138
From the back cover: The name Steve Allen has become in the space of time it takes for a President to serve his term-a password to many things for many people. It has been a name denoting late nights at the TV set, audience interviews with salami prizes for participants, crazy sketches and guests, a quipmaster supreme, and traffic-stopping stunts outside the TV studio on Manhattan's West 44th Street. The name also stands for a serious-looking, wavy-haired chap with dark-rimmed glasses sitting at the piano. That last-named image stands for a considerably less celebrated side of the many-faceted Steve Allen. Most often thought of as the comic and the clowner, Allen is also a man who loves music-as a composer, as a performer and perhaps most of all as a fan. From his earliest indoctrination into the world of the microphone as a part time announcer in Arizona, the musical side of Allen's on-the-air personality has actually received just as important a share of the camera and mike spotlight as his preoccupation with the offbeat and humorous sides of humanity that makes life a never-ending adventure.
His first step upward and outward came in Hollywood where he won a wide circle of local fans for his comedy, interview and music shows. In 1951, the Columbia Broadcasting System imported Steve to New York to be quizmaster of a music-based show called "Songs for Sale," which in those earlier days of TV developed its own steady clientele of fans.
Despite this early TV success, Allen felt a need for expansion which would lift him out of his then rigid show format. The National Broadcasting Company provided the required elbow room when it started him in July 1953 with his own late-night "Steve Allen Show," which many viewers will remember as one of the most unrehearsed and utterly fascinating shows on the air. One of the few certainties of those shows was that a substantial portion of each would be devoted to: 1.) Steve's piano playing (the piano top with Steve's glasses became the trademark for the show) 2.) A generous helping of tasty pop and standard songs by Eydie Gorme, Andy Williams, and Steve Lawrence, and 3.) Steve's spotlighting of music talent as his guest attractions.
As the months passed, the show became the hottest and most sought-after spot for exposure by music talent of practically every school. Allen seemed determined to bring every possible name performer as well as deserving lesser-lights in the music business to late evening screens. The heralded names of swing, dixieland and modern "cool" jazz were there. So were the solo instrumentalists and the singers in the popular, rock and roll, jazz and sophisticatedly torchy fields. So too were America's most fabled songwriters in wonderful passing parades of their own tunes, known in showbusiness as the "And then I Wrote" routines. Allen has been known to bring the entire cast of a new Broadway musical to his show, following its opening, to discuss the show and play tunes from its score. On just such a show for the cast of a revue simply titled, "Almanac," an up and coming but little known folk singer named Harry Belafonte got one of his first important TV airings.
There can be little doubt that the musical talent parade on these Allen shows has had at least a part in the steady upsurge in the record business in the past four years. As a writer, Allen has produced at least a thousand songs and as an artist, he has performed at his piano not only for TV fans but for his own increasing army of record followers as well.
Here is Steve Allen's eighth Coral album. Here, as in "Music for Tonight," and "Tonight at Midnight," Allen's warm and tasteful piano is showcased by the lustrous arrangements of Neal Hefti. Normally associated with crisply smart brass and woodwind jazz ideas, Hefti shows here an equal deftness
for soft string and woodwind backings, which frame Allen's melodic impressions of a dozen standards of varying vintage. This is music by a music lover and a fine talent - for you and a special someone. This is music ideal for a Romantic Rendezvous. It's restful for listening or if you prefer, the lightly accented beat makes it just right for dreamy "good night" dancing. Shall we listen? – Ren Grevatt
Do You Ever Think Of Me
I Can't Dream, Can't I
A Little Kiss Each Morning (A Little Kiss Each Night)
I Can't Escape From You
Don't Worry 'Bout Me
La Rosita
Picnic
My Reverie
The Night Is Young And You're So Beautiful
Just Friends
I Love You
That cover is FABULOUS!!
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