Steve and Eydie Sing the Golden Hits

Married couple and singing partners Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme launched their duo on records with two LPs released in 1960 by ABC-Paramount Records, We Got Us and Eydie and Steve Sing the Golden Hits; the albums are combined on this CD, albeit in reverse order of their initial appearance. We Got Us (tracks 13-23) finds Lawrence and Gorme hunting through then-recent film theme songs and among standards for some classic duets, and presenting their versions of them. Numbers like "Side by Side" are naturals, but anything requiring something in the way of characterization tends to be beyond vocalists who are most concerned with the sound of their voices, not the meaning of the lyrics. They do fine with "No Two People," a Frank Loesser composition from Hans Christian Andersen in which two lovers trip over themselves to express their sweet devotion. But the erotic undercurrent of Loesser's "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is not something they choose to express, and there's no bite to "I Remember It Well" from Gigi, in which Alan Jay Lerner's lyrics are supposed to express a gentle joisting between the old lovers. Lawrence and Gorme are much better on the songs from Golden Hits (tracks 1-12), which, by the way, are not their golden hits. This album was not a best-of, it was the two singers (separately and together) reviving a bunch of songs from the swing era. They had a natural affinity for these songs, since they could concentrate on the rhythms and act like band singers.