Mario Lanza And His Magical Effect On The Mundane

[Tonytenor]

This is so amazing, I've been thinking for weeks about Mario and some
of the, shall we say, lesser songs he was given to sing and record
during his career - we probably all have our favorites. In alll
events, along comes Gregory Stepanich and writes what I would say is a
generally positive article about Mario but in it he mentions the very
thing I've been thinking about. He labeled it "junk," Mike pointed
out that during that period of time we had the very erudite "Alley
Oop!." Call it what you will.... So, the argument of whether Mario
had good, or even great songs to sing is really not my point in
bringing up this subject. What absolutely fascinates me, and I mean
every time I hear one of these "mediocre" songs is how Mario puts it
over. The lyrics may be pedestrian and perhaps even substandard, and
the melody is forgetable and perhaps not on par with Rodgers and Hart
or even Brodzsky and Cahn, but Mario absolutely sells it - the whole
thing! It's fantastic and, to my mind it's a real mystery.

I was listening the other day to some Lanza songs I'd not heard in
some time and I was struck by the total conviction with which he
sings, virtually everything. Just to toss off a few that I heard and
seemed to fall into this catagory:
"Lee-Ah-Loo"
"The Song Angels Sing"
"A Night To Remember"
"Call Me Fool"
"Boom Biddy Boom Boom"
and of course the always popular "Pineapple Pickers"

I apologize in advance to anyone I may offend by mentioning a favorite
song and labeling it a less than stellar compositon. I myself have
quite a few favored Lanza recordings which I fully agree are sub-par
when compared to say Kern's "All the Things You Are." One I am
particularly fond of is "The Trembling of a Leaf." Now this is not a
bad song unto itself, but I hesitate to say it is a great song. What
I will say though, and bear in mind this this is my opinion and that
makes it quite subjective, is that what Mario Lanza did with this song
when he recorded it was nothing short of amazing. The way he phrased
and caressed the lyrics and the way he used vocal dynamics throughout
the song is extraordinary and, to me, if ever there were an example
of, as Mario was wont to say, "living the song" this would be a prime
one.

In thinking about this topic, I pulled out several recordings by
favorite singers just to make sure I wasn't glorifying Lanza and
crediting him with something that many other fine artists have the
capacity to do as well. I wasn't. I wasn't overestimating this
incredible ability that Mario Lanza had and so very many do not. Oh
yes, there are some exceptions, some special recordings when singer
and music are one and you are clearly aware of it and, if you allow
yourself, you are taken on the same journey the singer is on. The
scenes and images that are being painted with voice and music you not
only see but are part of. The feelings and emotions being expressed
through the magic of the singing voice are not just clear to you but
part of you - you are feeling them also. You see this was the magic
of Mario Lanza. It transcended the barriers of language, style and
time. I've often thought that perhaps that is why so many of the
singers of his time, most especially his classical contemporaries,
were so critical and unkind to him. I think they recognized
immediately in Mario an innate, unique and limitless ability that they
could only dream of possessing.

[Tonytenor]

My apologies folks. I meant to include this link with my first post.
Sorry 'bout that.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/QfteCteX/The_Trembling_Of_A_Leaf.html

[Derek McGovern]

Great post, Tony, and an excellent thread title!

I know exactly what you mean about The Trembling of a Leaf (and quite
a number of songs that Lanza sang -- particularly on the Coke Shows;
"I Never Knew," "My Buddy" and "And Here You Are" immediately come to
mind). There's something quite ungainly about its structure, and I've
always felt the ending was a bit awkward, with that repetition of the
lyrics, etc.

But in Lanza's hands none of this matters one jot. By believing in it
so completely, as you say -- and endowing it with an almost child-like
sense of wonder at times -- he creates something quite
special. "The whisper of the wind"...the heroic nature of "Stand
still, time and heaven and earth" (who else could pull that off either
vocally or dramatically?!)...the second "*blooming* of the rose"....I
could go on and on.

Incidentally, Armando interviewed John Green, the composer of this
song. As I recall, Green was very impressed with Lanza's recording
(and also that of Never Till Now -- another Green composition).

Cheers
Derek

[Tonytenor]

Hi Derek:

Say I have another one for you, "Call Me Fool." Now if that's not a
mediocre song than I need a serious taste tune up. "Don't be afraid
to parade the slave you have made, give the world a laugh. Wise men
say all or nothing at all, but fool are happy with half." I don't
know Derek, pretty cheesy stuff. But you see the fascinating thing
is, Lanza pulls it off. Or he pulls it off as well as any singer in
the known world possibly could. He sings the aforementioned line
twice in the song and each time he gives himself over totally to it
phrasing the line differently the first time than the second. It's
amazing to hear. Now I don't know if Mario was very careful and
planned his phrasing of every line of every song he ever sang or
recorded but I am tempted to say he didn't. So, given that, these
marvels, these miraculous moments of music making were simply
spontaneous. If that is so, then this is the real miracle. Again,
this is what staggers the mind, this is one of the stellar capabilites
which Lanza had that set him light years apart from his
contemporaries. What tenor(s) in 1949 could do what Mario did and
perform a song like "They Didn't Believe Me" - as beautifully as he
did - and then turn around and give a stellar reading of "Celeste
Aida"?

Really, how amazing that we here in 2010 still marvel at this vocal
diamond. I guess it is rather like a jewler looking at a beautiful
stone, you see the overall beauty and then you become fixated upon
each and every ravishing facet.

Here's a link to "Call Me Fool"
http://www.4shared.com/audio/IGY3jgmC/20-Call_Me_Fool.html

[leeann]

Dear Tony,

To a wee bit this thread reminds me of one Derek started not too long
ago about "guilty pleaures."(And I've discovered so many more since
then!)

I love that you bring up songs that perhaps we question because
they're such period pieces or perhaps they're songs that aren't often
discussed.

One song I'd like to ask about is "Behold!" I haven't discovered very
much about it Have others recorded it? Does Mario Lanza bring a
unique interpretation?

And that chorus--the ubiquitous 1950s generic group. I don't think
we get the best of Lanza with this one, because I'm not sure the song
calls for it, but I kind of wonder if we don't get extraordinary
benefits from his interpretive magic. Best, Lee Ann

[leeann]

Whoops. Sorry, a link to YouTube, althoug I've heard this piece on
the 3CD collection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC5KkiqILD4

Lee Ann

[Tonytenor]

Hi Lee Ann:

Very interesting your mentioning "Behold' because that is one of the
songs I listened to the other day and while romantic in its sentiment
and no doubt genuine, I think this song falls into that classification
of mediocre. Now please don't misunderstand me, I rather like the
song and I think Mario's reading of it is stellar, I really do. But I
think, here again, we have a case of the material not being up to the
level of the artist in quality. Interestingly enough, I think
"Behold" comes much closer to being on par with Mario's level of
talent than "Call Me Fool" or "This Land."

"This Land" I have to say is, in my opinion, a truly poor song.
Written in a sort of quasi-patriotic style it starts out with some
promise, but when we get to the final verses, it just falls apart. In
fact, it makes very little sense at all: "This land where I live, is
the land I will give, to the one that I love as much as I love this
land." I don't know Lee Ann, kinda hard for me to buy that one. BUT,
the quality or even the sense of the song make little difference - we
already know that from "Lee Ah Loo" and "Pineapple Pickers" now don't
we - its what Mario does with it. He may have privately said to Betty
or Callinicos or someone, "This song is crap!" but once in front of
the microphone it was a totally different story. He believed in what
he was singing, no matter what it was, with every fiber of his being.
That is what we hear, that is how we come to think that, hey this song
isn't bad. It's Mario that brings the material up to his level.

When you examine the material he was given, even early on at MGM, some
of it was, well, questionable on the quality scale. One song that
jumps to mind is "I'll Never Love You." I must be honest and tell you
that I've never really liked this song, it just seems trite. It also
has the unfortunate distinction of being the second (original) love
song after "Be My Love" not a great place to be. But Lanza brings it
up several notches with his magnificent voice and wonderful
interpretation.

Oh I suppose I could go on and on, but that's no fun and as Armando
pointed out in another thread, we aren't here to pick apart everything
Lanza sang. True enough, but it still remains quite interesting in
comparing the quality of material vs the artist. And when the artist
is Mario Lanza, I would venture to say the comparison and subsequent
dialogue might never end.

All the best, Tony

Here's the link to "This Land"

http://www.4shared.com/audio/9SL4um6-/Lanza_-_This_Land.html

[Derek McGovern]

Some very interesting posts from Tony and Lee Ann.

You know, I've always felt that Lanza was badly served by his A & R
people at RCA regarding the seven new(ish) songs he was given to
record in August 1956 and April 1957. (I'm assuming that Mario didn't
find these songs himself.) Every single one of them -- Do You Wonder,
Earthbound, This Land, Love in a Home, Behold, Come Dance With Me, and
A Night to Remember -- was mediocre in my opinion. *Surely* there was
better new material floating around?

In fact, there *was* in the form of On the Street Where You Live, but
of course that song had already been a casualty of the Lanza on
Broadway sessions in May 1956. It's too bad Mario didn't promptly re-
record that beautiful song (as he did with Younger Than Springtime --
just 18 months after he'd first attempted it on the LOB album), since
it went on to become a #1 hit in the UK for Vic Damone that same year.
With a decent arrangement, and a Lanza in top vocal form, it could
have been a big seller for him.

(It's also a shame Lanza never recorded Stranger in Paradise -- a song
tailor-made for him, and a big hit for Tony Martin in 1954.)

But mediocrity aside, Mario does elevate those seven 1956-57 singles
to a level worth hearing. You could say the same thing of the even
less distinguished I'll Never Love You and Lee Ah Loo. In fact, Lanza
sings one of his most spectacular B-flats ever at the end of Behold,
while giving the rest of the song a sensual, adult touch that probably
would have escaped other interpreters ("Have faith and always
*be*lieve in me/And love will last till eternity", etc). I don't even
mind the Jeff Alexander Choir on this recording! Perhaps it's the
dominance of male voices, as opposed to those grating "angels" who
almost spoil (and certainly date) the earlier Because You're Mine and
The Song Angels Sing, but the choir seems less intrusive here.

Lee Ann: I'm not aware of any other recordings of Behold; perhaps
after hearing what Lanza does with the ending, no one else was game to
follow him? :) In fact, the only one of those seven 1956-57 singles to
achieve success in other singers' hands was Love in a Home, which
Doris Day also recorded in 1956. (It reached #79 on the Billboard 100
in October 1956.)

Cheers
Derek

[Tonytenor]

Hey Folks!

Now here's a Mario Lanza recording that I would most certainly not
label mundane (by way of the material or the performance), yet I
think it falls into that rather nebulous catagory of corn or
schmaltz. Personally, not for me. I love the poem by Joyce Kilmer
and what Mario does to the musical setting of the well known verse is
magical. I am speaking of course of "Trees."
http://www.4shared.com/audio/drvp9QlP/Mario_Lanza_-_Trees.html
I think Mario's phrasing and vocal dynamics makes this song come
alive. Listen to the way he phrases "a tree that may in summer wear,
a nest of robins in her hair." And the way he builds from there to
the climax "poems are made by fools like me. (Then he immediately
pulls his voice down appropriately) But only God can make a tree."
Schmaltzy? Maybe. But I believe every single word Mario's singing
and every single expression he is emoting. Have a listen, see what
you think.

Ciao, Tony

[leeann]

Hi Tony, interesting you should bring up this piece. My mom used to
put poems it on the walls in our home when I was growing so that we
would memorize them, and this was one of them. I think she hoped the
hypnotic rhythm of the rhyming couplets and iambic tetrameter would
appeal to my brothers.

Honestly, I've never understood the appeal of this Joyce Kilmer poem,
but if it is schmaltzy, it's pretty respectable schmaltz. I'm clearly
off-base in my opinion, when you think of how regularly it's analyzed
and included in poetic anthologies, how many people have set it to
music, how many decades it remains meaningful to so many people, and
how many prominent voices besides Lanza's have sung it--among them
Paul Robeson, Nelson Eddy, and Robert Merrill.

That said, I think, as usual, Lanza knocks it out of the ballpark, and
it's such a stellar example of Lanza's interpretive genius. I even
forget the rhyming couplets as he moves slowly between verses, or
seems to pause within a line--for example, his brief pause on the line
"And lifts her leafy arms...to pray." Best, Lee Ann

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Lee Ann: Ironically, Mario's breaking of the line on "And lifts her arms to pray" is exactly the kind of thing that music critics would scold him for :) In fact, I remember listening to this recording once at the home of Lindsay Perigo, and after it was over, he commented, "You know, if Mario had sung that song like that at a singing competition, the judges would have given him a D."

Yes, there are musical and vocal faults in Lanza's rendition of Trees, but it's sung with such conviction and warmth that it deserves an A+ for feeling. I know that my father was listening to this recording just the other day, and became quite choked up by Mario's interpretation. It takes a very special kind of vocal artist to affect listeners in that way. George London knew that. As he told Armando in 1977, "In my opinion, Lanza, with the possible exception of Bjoerling, had the greatest voice of his time. His singing could move people to tears and, in my presence, frequently did."

[Derek McGovern]

Come to think of it, there are quite a few instances where Lanza deliberately breaks the line when he wants to emphasize a particular phrase or a word. He does this in his magnificent recording of If I Loved You, just to give one example.

I'm not so sure, though, that he meant to break the line between "languide" and "carezze" ("languid" and "caresses") on the Sunday Night at the London Palladium "E Lucevan le Stelle." It doesn't make much (grammatical) sense, and this is one instance in which the critics could have rightly chided him :)

[leeann]

I am wondering how Ciribiribin fits into Mario Lanza's magical effect on the mundane.  Lou selected it for her list of top Neapolitan/Italian songs. Derek, I believe, isn't too fond of it.

And yet, it seems to be another song that so many have sung in many different ways, and in fact, it's Pestalozza's score that's the constant to which many, many different lyrics are written.  It was interesting to find out that Lanza's lyrics aren't the same as Caruso's nor are they the same as Sinatra's who apparently sang this song with Henry James--whose trumpet, I might add, with apologies to Sinatra fans--seems to sideline the singer!  Lanza's voice anchors the swirling melody, gives weight to the light-hearted tune and words--much as James grounds some amazing trumpet feats in the score.

Here's a link to the variety of lyrics and who sang them:  http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/c/ciribiribin.shtml

Yes, apparently even Kathryn Grayson in 1953!  Best, Lee Ann

[Tonytenor]

Good candidate Lee Ann. Yes, I would imagine that "Ciribiribin" is for
many in the same squeeze-box class as That's Amore. You sort of
picture it as the background for a Ragu spaghetti sauce ad. Truth is
though I like the song and I've always loved Mario's recording. It
certainly isn't classiest of Italian songs but to my ear it's fun! I
actually like it as much if not more than "Funiculi Funicula". That's
probably sacrilege to admit that. You know Lee Ann, I think with
"Ciribiribin" you've just pointed out yet again the magic of Mario and
that is that he had the very special ability to raise the mundane from
that level and elevate it and give it a legitimacy that other singers
could only hope to do.