The Very Best of Gale Storm

GALE STORM (Author) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Label: Teen Ager
• ASIN: B000E7KRO8
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #103,206 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

32 TRACKS

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably The Best Compilation Of Her Hit Singles, October 4, 2011

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AvidOldiesCollector (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Very Best of Gale Storm (Audio CD)

Born Josephine Cottle on May 4, 1922 in Bloomington, Texas and relocating to Hollywood when she was 17 after winning, at the CBS 1940 Gateway to Hollywood Contest, a one-year Monogram movie contract, she appeared in a number of 1940's and early 1950's films under her selected stage name, Gale Storm. Her roles, some with cowboy star Roy Rogers, led in 1952 to a starring role in the TV series My Little Margie. After that ended in 1955, she then hosted The Gale Storm Show from 1956 to 1962.

Meanwhile, she had also landed a recording contract with Randy Wood's Dot Records in 1955 where, with the backing of the Billy Vaughn orchestra, she would chalk up 12 hit singles to 1957, mainly specializing in cover versions of others' hits, and here you get from Teen-Ager, in order of their appearance on the charts, all 12 along with all but one of the uncharted B-sides with very good sound. However, liner notes are at a minimum (3 brief paragraphs on a single page) and there is no discography of the contents.

As things would turn out, her first was her best, a cover of the Smiley Lewis # 2 R&B hit, I Hear You Knockin', which climbed to # 2 Billboard Pop Top 100/# 15 R&B in Nov/Dec 1955 b/w Never Leave Me (regarded as a Billboard "follow-along" hit) on Dot 15412. In late December/January 1956 her cover of the Dean Martin # 1 hit, Memories Are Made Of This, made its way to # 5 on Dot 15436 b/w Teen Age Prayer, another cover which also charted at # 6, beating out versions by Gloria Mann (# 19) and Kitty White (# 68).

The cover approach continued in March when her version of the Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers # 1 R&B/# 6 Pop hit Why Do Fools Fall In Love? topped out at # 9 Top 100 b/w I Walk Alone (first recorded by Eddie Arnold in 1945 and later a hit for Marty Robbins in 1968) on Dot 15448. Both she and Otis Williams & His Charms then covered Cathy Carr's Ivory Tower, and both lost out to the Fraternity release as Cathy took her version to # 2 while Gale's settled in at # 6 early in the summer of 1956 b/w I Ain't Gonna Worry (Dot 15458). The Otis Williams rendition made it to # 5 R&B and # 11 Top 100.

Still another cover, this time of The Crew Cuts' # 45 Tell Me Why, finished at # 52 Top 100 in July 1956 b/w Don't Be That Way (Please Listen To Me) on Dot 15474. A decade later Elvis Presley would top them both with a # 33 rendition. Later in 1956 Gale reached back to a 1948 hit for seven different artists, Now Is The Hour (The Maori Farewell song), and saw it peak at # 59 Top 100 b/w A Heart Without A Sweetheart, which made it to # 79 on Dot 15492.

Her last three hits came in 1957, with her version of the 1938 Tommy Dorsey entry, On Treasure Island, stalling at # 74 in April b/w a cover of Ruth Brown's # 6 R&B/# 25 Pop hit Lucky Lips, which also struggled before settling at # 77 on Dot 15539. Then, later that April, one of two versions of Dark Moon released by Dot started it's climb to # 4 Top 100 on Dot 15558 b/w A Little Too Late (the missing B-side and one very hard to find), while on Dot 15550 they released the same tune by Bonnie Guitar after picking up her version from the small Fabor label. In the end, Gale's would win out, but not by much as Bonnie finished at # 6 Top 100 but also made it to the Country charts at # 14.

The remaining tracks, not in any order, were either failed singles and/or album cuts: Sweet Georgia Brown is from Dot LP-3011 "Gale Storm" while If I Had You is from Dot LP 3017 "Sentimental Me" - both from 1956; My Heart Belongs To You/Orange Blossoms (Dot 15515 - 1956 single); 1957 uncharted singles: Love By The Jukebox Light/On My Mind Again (Dot 15606) and Go `Way From My Window/Winter Warm (Dot 15666); 1958 uncharted singles: A Farewell To Arms/I Get That Feeling (Dot 15691); You/Angry (Dot 15734); Soon I'll Wed My Love/South Of The Border (Dot 15783); Oh, Lonely Crowd/Happiness Left Yesterday (Dot 15861); uncharted from 1960:Please Help Me I'm Falling (Dot 16111).

All in all a much better bet than the Varèse-Sarabande release.