Debbie Reynolds: "Best Of..." The Girl We Called "Tammy"
Written: Dec 28 '02 (Updated Dec 29 '02)
Product Rating:
Pros: Features four Top 40 hits, including the Top 5 tunes "Tammy" and "Aba Daba Honeymoon."
Cons: CD booklet of only 4 pages.
The Bottom Line: Epinions database incorrectly lists this title as "Greatest Hits," but the ISBN #715187743526 and the photo shown are for "Best Of Debbie Reynolds" which is the album's correct title.
Don_Krider's Full Review: Greatest Hits by Debbie Reynolds
The official Debbie Reynolds website is boldly titled "The Incomparable Debbie Reynolds."
To add the word "incomparable" to your name might seem a bit of an ego-trip for most people, but not in Debbie Reynolds' case.
Born in El Paso, Texas, on April Fool's Day of 1932, Debbie turned enough heads with her good looks and wholesome charm to win a beauty contest at age 16.
From there, Debbie quickly became a major film star of the 1950s and 1960s with roles in films such as "Singin' In The Rain" (she hadn't turned 20 yet when she made the classic Gene Kelly musical), "The Singing Nun," "How The West Was Won," "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (winning an Academy Award nomination), "Mother" (a classic comedy in which she played Albert Brooks' mother in 1996) and "In & Out" (another comedy, this time playing Kevin Kline's mother in 1997), among her many films.
She's had her ups and downs along the way, including losing husband singer Eddie Fisher to Elizabeth Taylor and sadly seeing her Las Vegas casino go out of business. Through it all, Debbie remained a class act who always seemed to maintain a smile in good times and in bad.
Her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, became a major movie star, as well, with her three-film performance as Princess Leia in the first "Star Wars" trilogy, among other roles. Carrie also scored as an author with the New York Times best-seller "Postcards From the Edge."
Early success as a singer:
Debbie's vocal abilities were showcased in some of her early films (before "Singin' In The Rain" made her a major star in 1952), such as "Three Little Words" (with Red Skelton and Fred Astaire) and "Two Weeks In Love" (with Jane Powell and Ricardo Montalban," both released in 1950).
In the latter film, her duet with Carlton Carpenter of "Aba Daba Honeymoon" was a Top 5 hit (on the published charts of the time; Billboard didn't track hit singles until 1955).
"Abba Daba Honeymoon":
Written by Arthur Fields and Walter Donovan, "Aba Daba Honeymoon" seems pretty dated more than a half-century after its release, but it fit the time period perfectly. These days, if anyone records the tune it is usually for a children's record rather than an adult audience.
It is charming in its own way, though, I must admit (my father enlisted in the Korean War the year this first charted and he's a huge Debbie Reynolds' fan, so my exposure to her music has been life-long).
The crazed lyrics, sung with an increasing, frenzied pace as the song progresses over some crazy instrumentation and the sounds of tap-dancing, include:
"...ab-a dab-a dab-a dab-a dab-a dab / said the chimpie to the monk / bab-a dab-a dab-a dab-a dab-a dab-a dab / said the monkey to the chimp / all night they'd chatter away / all day long they were happy and gay / swinging and singing in their / honky tonky way..."
The music career:
Despite the early fling at pop stardom, several more years passed before she became a pop singer (with some better songs, too).
In the middle of her busy acting career, Debbie was cast in the 1957 film, "Tammy And The Bachlor" (the "bachelor" being Leslie "Naked Gun" Nielson). Her popularity in the film led to three sequels with Debbie becoming firmly identified with the role of "Tammy."
Although she had recorded for musicals and soundtracks before, this film established Debbie as a solo recording artist.
The title tune from the film, "Tammy," went straight to # 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the summer of 1957.
"Tammy":
Written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans (who also wrote such classic songs as "Mona Lisa" and "Silver Bells"), "Tammy" was nominated for the Best Song Oscar as performed by Debbie.
As a single for Coral Records, the tune went to # 1 for five straight weeks in 1957 and spent an unheard of 31 weeks in the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart (The Ames Brothers took that same tune to # 5 that same year).
It's a lovely Livingston-Evans ballad (one of seven Academy Award nominations (including three Oscar wins) for the songwriting team), full of lush orchestration that lifts Debbie's gorgeous vocal from the record's grooves:
"...does my darlin' feel what I feel / when he comes near? / my heart beats so joyfully / you'd think that he could hear! / wish I knew if he knew what I'm dreaming of! / Tammy! Tammy! Tammy's in love!..."
"A Very Special Love":
As 1958 kicked into gear, Debbie scored her second Billboard Top 40 hit with "A Very Special Love," which rose to # 20 in Billboard.
A gentle ballad, without the massive orchestration of "Tammy," "A Very Special Love" captures Debbie's very smooth, silken vocal perfectly. Debbie sings with the tenderness of a teenager in love (though she was mid-20s in age at the time):
"Any time at all you're near me / because you're near you cheer me / that's a very special reason / for a very special love / we don't need to speak a word, dear / still each word is heard, dear / that's a very special reason / for a very special love..."
"Am I That Easy To Forget":
Debbie may have been wondering if she was forgotten so easily since it was 1960 before she scored another Billboard Top 40 hit with the aptly titled "Am I That Easy To Forget."
A bit of slow rock mixed with country that reminds one of Patsy Cline, "Am I That Easy To Forget?" rose to # 25 (spending 17 weeks in the Hot 100) in early 1960. Written by Carl Belew and W. S. Stevenson, the tune rose was also a # 18 hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1968 (it was also covered by Jim Reeves, among others).
Debbie ponders: "...they say you've found somebody new / but that won't stop my loving you / I just can't let you walk away / forget the love I had for you / guess I could find somebody, too / but I don't want no one but you / how could you leave me without regret? / am I that easy to forget? ..."
It was Debbie's last Top 40 hit (she scored one final Hot 100 Billboard chart single in with "City Lights" in 1962, which peaked at # 55; that song doesn't appear in this collection however).
This CD:
Released in 1991 by Curb Records, this CD collects all of Debbie's major hits and includes tracks from her albums.
Included in the set are such standards as "Mean To Me," "Time After Time" and "S'posin'." A standout among these tracks is Debbie's version of "Moonglow" ("...it must have been moonglow / way up in the blue / it must have been moonglow / that led me straight to you..."), which is done in a sultry, almost Peggy Lee-style with a wonderful 1940s' Big Band arrangement.
The CD booklet:
A pretty weak CD booklet of 4-pages is a drawback. There's a color, cover-shot of Debbie on page one. Page 2 is a list of songs. Page 3 is nothing more than an advertisement for other Curb Records' CDs. Page 4 is very brief bio by Don Ovens.
The tracks:
All original recordings, the 11 tracks are: "Tammy," "A Very Special Love," "Am I That Easy To Forget," "Moonglow," "Time After Time," "Mean To Me," "Love Is A Simple Thing," "S'posin'," "You Won't Be Satisfied," "Hooray For Love" and "Aba Daba Honeymoon" (with Carlton Carpenter).
Recommendation:
Should have strong appeal to fans of 1940s-1950s pop and of Big Band arrangements. True romantics will love it and the kids will adore "Aba Daba Honeymoon." If albums were rated like today's Hollywood films, this would be rated "G".
On the web:
Official website: http://www.debbiereynolds.com/
Official chat site: http://www.debbiereynolds.com/online_chat.htm
Official site for Debbie's daughter, actress Carrie Fisher: http://www.carriefisher.com/
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