Customer Reviews

Songs I Like to Sing

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4 star:		(1)
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This is perhaps a slightly overlooked album--but if you hear it you'll know why anyone who's heard it treasures it. Humes' voice is absolutely gorgeous (you'd almost believe the lyrics to "Million Dollar Secret" when she says she's 33!--she was 47), & she handles a challenging set of tunes & Marty Paich's complex arrangements effortlessly, modulating easily between intimate, plainspoken ballads & spirited numbers that bring out the joy & a certain steeliness too in her voice. The band's mostly West Coast musicians--Art Pepper gets the alto solos (this was one of the last things he did before getting thrown in the slammer for 6 years), Jack Sheldon the trumpet solos, Teddy Edwards gets one spot, & Barney Kessel, Andre Previn, Leroy Vinnegar & Shelly Manne are an instantly recognizable, blue-chip rhythm section. But the biggest pleasure is the presence of Ben Webster, who gets all over the ballads--just sample his work on the opening "If I Could Be With You", or his obliggatos on "Imagination". A few tracks have (discreet) string quartet accompaniment, which for once complements rather than oversweetens the music. Paich is respectful of Humes &, while there are plenty of modern touches to the charts, he always stays in touch with a 1930s/1940s big band sound & doesn't pepper the charts with cute touches (the bane of 1950s arrangements, I've found).

Virtually everything here is first-rate, but let me single out "If Could Be With You", "Mean to Me", "Every Now and Then", "My Old Flame" & "Imagination", all of them classic readings which bear out Humes' statement in the liner notes that "Primarily, I like to sing ballads." Somehow, despite the slight oddity of pairing Humes & Webster with a crack West Coast band, the results are a classic album. Do try.

Helen Humes who started out singing dirty blues in the 20's, also was Count Basie's "girl singer" in the 30's, but her biggest success was when she went out on her own in the 40's and made it big with her hit "E-Baba-Leba." Humes always had a bell like vioce, which is hihly appealing, her jazz phrasing is exquisitem, and she indeed gives Ella a run for her money on this essential 1959 set titles "Songs I Like To Sings" and they are songs we like to hear her sing. Included are essential versions of "If I Could Be With You" "Every Now & Then" and "Million Dollar Secret". All arrangementa are by Mel Torme's regular arranger Marty Paich, Paich's arrangements are perfect for Humes' honey dipped vocals. Humes' singing style had only improved with time(in fact she cut some great seesions in the 1980's) This is perhaps one of the finest jazz vocal LP's ever to be reissued on CD(another one is Lee Wiley's "West Of The Moon) This is essental music folks, buy a copy today.

This CD reissue of the 1959 LP "Songs I Like To Sing" by Helen Humes with Marty Paich's Orchesta is simply one of the best jazz vocal albums of all time. Helen Humes has a highly appealing voice and is able to swing and tackle ballads with ease. One of the most underrated singers of our time. THis CD comes highly recommended and should be in any serious jazz collectors library.

Can't really top  N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer"'s review except to say that sound is amazing. Classic Contemporary sound except it is Holzer instead of DuNann.

This former r&b superstar from the late 40's, had a huge hit in "Million Dollar secret", and she reprises that song on thsi classic cd, that has the quality of one of Sinatra's Capital concept albums. This cd is a classic thru and thru from the achingly torchy performance she gives on Mean To Me, to the Gospel preachy sassiness of Roof Over My head. She also delivers a saucy version of her old hit Million Dollar secret with kittenish sensuality. Her vocie is so appealing, and sweet, and at the same time completely rhythmic and bluesy, yet happy! Humes career started as a delta blues singer in 1929, then Count Basie's girl singer in the early 40's and then as a r&b singer in the late 40's, so by the time she recorded this lp in the late 50's, she had already had 3 careers, and thsi was her 4th as a jazz singer, or a swing singer, using her roots from r&b, to make thsi set not only swing hard, but rock and roll as well, as bouce, bop, jump, and stomp. this little lady is like a vitimen pill full of energy and style, yet she handles ballads as wel las rhythm numbers. A perfect vocal set!

Helen Humes started her great career at the age of 13 singing and recording dirty blues in 1929, she was a popular and succesful blues chantause. It wasn't until years later she would appear on record with Count Basie & His Orchestra, in the early 40's again she was popular as a band singer, singing sentimantal ballads. Then again in the mid 40's she appeared on records, under her own name, cutting r&b hits like Ebaba leba and Million Dollar Secret. So in a sense the had three careers in 3 decades, a blues singer, a big band girl singer and a rhythm and blues singer. So it's no surprise that in the 50's Mel Torme's regular arranger Marty Paich would arrange a suitable album for her, a great concept album, simply songs she likes to sing. Humes sings difinitive versions of If I Could Be With You, Mean To Me, Million dollar Secret, Roof Over My Head and Imagination. This classic lp was at least as good as anything Ella or Sarah were recording on Verve at the time. Humes' vocie was so appealing at this time, that one can't help but like this lp(now on cd), more then Ella's Verves. This cd shows just how great a singer Helen was, and she kept making comebacks in the 60's, 70's and 80's, a remarkable singer wit ha bell like voice, so sweet you just want to eat it up by the spoonful.

Wow! Helen Humes is awesome! Love this record and I wish there were more re-issues available of her work. This wonderful singer should be listened to!

Marty Paich arranged the best albums by everyone from Mel Torme and Anita O'Day to Sammy Davis Jr, so it's a bit of a head-scratcher why this one is so lacklustre. It alternates brassy big-band arrangements on some tunes with a rhythm-section-plus-strings approach to others, but none of it ranks with his best work. And rather amusingly in light of this album's title, even the selection of tunes isn't really spectacular, with only the old-time gospelly "I Want a Roof Over My Head" really making me sit up and take notice. None of this is to fault Humes, however. Her perpetually youthful voice, her infectuous joy and her innate feeling for a song are unmatched. Her real masterpiece was probably her next album on Contemporary, Swingin' With Humes, which put her in front of a small group of stellar proportions (pianist Wynton Kelly, along with West Coast stars Teddy Edwards, Joe Gordon, Leroy Vinnegar and Frank Butler) on a far-more memorable set of standards.