I'm back with another Canadian vocal album featuring one of the best rhythm sections a guy-singer could hope for. Because listeners responded so to the music, it seemed appropriate this time around to ask audiences at Toronto's Top 'o the Senator to choose their favourites and make requests. After much haggling, these are the songs they selected for inclusion on this CD:

1) Parish and DeRose reworked a theme by Ravel, and in the process, created a popular standard, The Lamp Is Low. In 1964, Bill Henderson opened his Verve album with Oscar Peterson in a similar fashion using this song. Veteran trumpeter Denny Christianson is featured here in a guest appearance.

2) A crossover hit many times over, I Only Have Eyes For You perhaps sits best in the jazz idiom. Carmen McRae tore it up on the "Great American Songbook", but the more obscure and incredibly swinging Ann Richards (the vocalist, not the Democrat) went further still "Live At the Losers". Neil Swainson gives the first of two great solos here.

3) Many memorable renditions of this Van Heusen ballad come to mind, but Nancy Wilson's previously unreleased recording of Darn That Dream with Hank Jones for the Capitol "But Beautiful" sessions is a favourite. Our arrangement is a 60's pop-inspired bossa nova, with guitarist Reg Schwager in the first of many beautiful features on this album.

4) Joe Mc Carthy was one of Cy Coleman's first collaborators, and together they wrote many charming songs loved by café society. Having sung I’m Gonna Laugh You Right Out Of My Life since my arrival in Canada, it's high time this treasure finds its way onto an album of mine. Eisenman's sensitive accompaniment here shows why he is so respected on the Toronto scene.

5) The first of three Cole Porter tune was once a bit of a rarity, but Where Have You Been? is less obscure since Bill Charlap's recent revival. Notable vocal versions of this tricky little number include Teddy King's '56 RCA recording, Billy Eckstine's '57 Mercury take on the song, and of course Bobby Short's definitive rendition.

6) The second Cole Porter songs in the list is one I've taken lascivious pleasure in performing for some time now. Julie London's sexy treatment of You Do Something To Me from the "Julie, At Home" album informs the chart. Here, as often before, I have the chance to swing with the inspired subtlety of Jerry Fuller on drums.

7) Toronto audiences have been vocal in their affection for certain "chestnuts", and The Very Thought Of You by Ray Noble is one of the best. Introduced by Noble's boy-singer, Al Bowley, in the time before hi-fi, countless others have made their mark with it ever since.

8) Sarah Vaughan laid claim in perpetuity to I’ll Never Be The Same by recording it twice for Roulette (once as a ballad with strings and again in swing with Benny Carter's band). The songs Sarah loved had seductive melodic lines and room for harmonic exploration. I find that to be true of this tempting number, and I enjoy the singing of it immensely.

9) Who among us is still unaware that Frank Sinatra co-wrote the lyrics to I’m A Fool To Want You? I fantasize his words have something to with Ava Gardner and his feelings for her. Our version is a jazz waltz, complex and richly textured, loosely inspired by Mancini's "Charade".

10) Another brilliant Frank Loesser song, Spring Will Be A Little Late This Year was once rendered passionately by Helen Merrill in her trademarked understated approach. Eydie Gormé, conversely, wailed it loudly to a Don Costa chart with a built-in key change. We opt instead for the middle ground between passionate understatement and huge wailing.

11) When sung by a pretty young thing, the irony of this Cole Porter classic usually goes right out the window. What could be more ironic then, than Love For Sale as delivered by a not-so fresh-faced boy-singer? Add to that the funky retro-groove the band has happening here, and you have this program's novelty number.

12) The Senator's Sybil Walker is a romantic at heart, but she also has excellent musical taste. So when one late night after the gig, listening to Stan Getz and sharing a bottle of wine she asked, "What about Alfie?" I felt secure in her request. My history with the song is a long one, and Alfie here feels like an old friend making a long overdue visit.

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Unissued:

I Dream Too Much [Kern - Fields] Written for Lily Pons to warble in a motion picture of the day, this one was originally an over the top, operetta-styled Viennese waltz. With Jimmy Rowles adaptation, Jerome Kern's melody turned out to be a major swinger, and Dorothy Field's lyric is as tasteful and literate as ever. [see Movie Songs for later recording and release.]

Maggie Whiting once said that Johnny Mercer would hear bits of melody by an unknown composer, and be moved to write a lyric and try for another hit. Sometimes he'd succeed. Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life [Mercer - Borzage] from 1964 didn't achieve hit status, but it's a lovely song with an uncomplicated melody and a tender message. [see Bewitched for later recording and release.]