Singer Vic Damone has kind of a wide-ranging voice, which helps explain the fact that over the course of his career he laid down more than 2,000 songs, appeared in several motion pictures, and for a time had both his own TV show on NBC and his own New York-based radio series. This concert disc, recorded in 1985, showcases that range, with Damone dashing through more than a dozen tunes, a collection that might be considered highbrow and low.
A high school drop-out who took a job as an usher at the Paramount Theater in the Big Apple and squeezed some advice out of Perry Como, Damone’s career really took off just before his 18th birthday, when he won the acclaimed Arthur Godfrey Talent’s Scout program, then leveraged that into regular spots on the radio and gigs for the legendary Milton Berle. Signing with Mercury Records, Damone quickly caught on, and began recording albums.
On the Street Where You Live is named for one of Damone’s biggest hits, but it’s still a song that doesn’t carry the same, robust nostalgic weight as “New York, New York” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” two tunes included here that suffer in comparison to Frank Sinatra’s famously belted versions. Recorded at the world-famous Royal Festival Hall, this title finds
Damone accompanied by the Northern Dance Orchestra, and conductor
Norman Geller. From the strange cover files, Willie Nelson’s “To All the Girls” and “Always on My Mind” each receive surprisingly effective colorings, but a rendition of Lionel Ritchie’s “Hello” deserves no answer. Other songs include “When I Dream,” “Easy to Love,” “The Song Is You,” “Come In From the Rain,” “An Affair to Remember,” “That Old Black Magic” and show closer “You’re Breaking My Heart.”
Presented in a fuzzy 1.33:1 full screen transfer on a region-free disc housed in a regular Amray case, On the Street Where You Live runs just over 50 minutes, and comes with a Dolby digital tweaking of the original concert’s monaural soundtrack. A mezzo-mezzo affair, it’s a release best reserved as a stocking-stuffer or thoughtful little surprise gift for long-time Damone fans, but not one likely to wow those less familiar with the crooner’s canon. To order the concert via Amazon, click here. C (Concert) C (Disc)