Can't We Be Friends? - Jane Powell

 

Can't We Be Friends

Can't We Be Friends

Jane Powell

Cover Photo by Phil March

Verve MGV-2023

1956

From the back cover: Can't we be friends? Yes, indeed. Jane Powell would certainly like to be friends – but only if it's a friendship based on a realistic appraisal of who she is and how old she is, today. Jane, in short, is no longer the sugary ingenue of so many years of MGM musicals. Today, Jane Powell is a grown up young woman – very much so. It is the that anyone with eyes – males, preferably  – would need virtually no convincing at all along these lines. In her mid-20s Jand stands 5 feet and her 100 pounds are distributed to form an extraordinarily pleasing outline. She is, moreover, a blonde. As the title of a recent Parade magazine article expressed it, "She's a Big Girl Now."

All of this is preamble to this album, in which Miss Powell sings in a manner at odds from anything she has ever before recorded. Here is the Jane Powell not of the movie musicals, but the Jane Powell of Las Vegas and Miami nightclubs, a bedazzling performer in a decollate gown and armed with warm sophistication. How did she get this way? To begin with, Jane Powell was born Suzanne Burce, the daughter of Paul and Eileen Burce, in Portland, Ore. Bu the time she was 7 she was singing on a children's radio show in Portland but it wasn't until the was 11 that the idea occurred to undergo instruction of any sort. Her first teacher was astonished by the quality in the young girl's voice and urged her to practice three hours every day. Soon the teacher arranged for an audition at a Portland radio station –KOIN – and not long thereafter Jane was singing on her own show as one of Portland's most popular entertainers. As a teenager Jane, with her parents, visited Los Angeles on a three-week vacation. Although Jane confessed her major interest at the time was in collecting stars' autographs,  happened to venture into a Hollywood Showcase broadcast. Janet Gaynor was mistress of ceremonies. When Jane sang an aria from "Carmen," she not only won the contest but was swamped with calls from talent agents. A week later she was tested by MGM and promptly hired on a long-term contract. Since 1944 she has starred in 17 motion pictures but only in her most recent one, RKO Radio Pictures, "The Girl Most Likely," has she found herself in a mature role –  and no longer, incidentally, under exclusive contract to MGM.

Until now, Miss Powell's recordings had been either from sound tracks of her movies or along a classical vein. It was Buddy Bergman, artist and repertoire director off Verve Records, who had the notion that Miss Powell could do so well buy popular standards. Since Miss Powell had long entertained such a suspicion herself it was a fruitful meeting of the minds. From a list of 150 songs 12 were finally selected – all of them, as you will hear, varied in mood and familiar but not too familiar. Miss Powell, substantiating her reputation as a true professional, rehearsed these songs for a month and a half before entering the recording studio. Bu then she was ready and the session, went as a result, quicker than most with Bregman conducting the full orchestra in his own arrangements.

Still, there is the inevitable question: can a soprano, one who is able to shatter a glass at 20 paces when she's of a mind, actually sing such pop standards as, say, "I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good" or "How Come You Do Me Like You Do" and remain in the popular-song idiom? The answer, of course, is yes – if the soprano has the versatility of a Jane Powell. But the album itself provides the best possible answer.

From Billboard - December 1, 1956: The movie canary has enjoyed considerable success with her current single waxing of "True Love," which should help this LO chalk up some sizable returns. The package should also do well on its own merits – particularly on the deejay circuit. It spotlights the thrush on a group of standards in her usual fine light opera style, contrasted by some equally effective piping in a swingier vein. Excellent cover portrait adds dealer display value.

My Baby  Just Cares For Me

For Every Man There's A Woman

Imagination

I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good

Ev'ry Time

Comes Love

Let's Face The Music

In Love In Vain

How Come You Do Me Like You Do

Can't We Be Friends

The Things We Did Last Summer