Foggy

After a wonderful evening's entertainment at the Friday Night is Music Night Julie Andrews Celebration last night [more on that later, possibly], it's a bit of a chilled-out day (sheltering from the intermittent rainstorms) here at Dolores Delargo Towers - and, fittingly for that mood, we have a centenary to celebrate! One of the greatest vocal stylists of the 20th century, Mel Tormé was born on this day one hundred years ago.

As the estimable Russell Davies writes in today's The Telegraph:

Marking the centenary of the birth of Mel Tormé is bound to produce reactions ranging from a delighted “Ah!” to a baffled “Who?”, with nothing much in between. Treasured in his time – he died in 1996 – he was not quite a pop-star, not merely a jazz singer, and generally admired rather than loved.

Perhaps his name got in the way. He was born in Chicago 100 years ago this week, to immigrant Jewish parents from what is now Belarus. Their name had been Torma, and it might have been easier to stick to that, rather than add the complication of a French-style acute accent.

Actually it was the British who retained a special affection for Mel, after he’d married one of our glamorous film actresses, Janette Scott. That alliance ended acrimoniously with a court battle over their three children, but while it lasted, it made him the unlikely son-in-law of the redoubtable Thora Hird...(!)

Nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", his smooth style was equally suited to swing, jazz and crooning, and he certainly gave rivals like Nat King Cole and Dean Martin a run for their money when it came to interpreting the classics. In later years, he stuck mainly to the "scat" jazz style (a la Ella Fitzgerald), and kept on performing at festivals across the world until a stroke sadly ended his career. He was also a songwriter, his most famous co-composition being The Christmas Song ("Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire")

Needless to say, that one's not on my radar. However, by way of a tribute, here's a selection of numbers from the man himself:

Mel Tormé - You'd Better Love Me

Mel Tormé - A Foggy Day in London Town

Mel Tormé - Comin' Home Baby

Mel Tormé (13th September 1925 – 5th June 1999)