New Pop Records

At home, near London, Ont. last New Year's Eve, 14-year-old Priscilla Wright sang into her father's tape recorder. Father Don Wright had been too busy leading his own radio chorus to listen to her before, but when he heard the playback, he recognized the sound of a good pop voice. A record company agreed, and so he looked around for the right song for Priscilla to record profesionally. Six weeks and 120 songs later, the pretty little girl with bands on her teeth recorded a tune called The Man in a Raincoat for Sparton of Canada, Ltd.

It was a moody, modey tune that began with the sound of footsteps in the rain and ended on the indeterminate, to-be-continued note. Its words revealed a valid adolescent's dream: a chance encounter, a blooming love affair, a tragic ending when the man borrowed her money to buy her a ring and then "skipped out of town," never to be seen again.

Songstress Wright had done some singing in her high-school choir, but nothing like this. She threw herself into Raincoat like a pro, clipped out one or two phrases with the sting of an Eartha Kitt, brooded most of the time in very womanly tones indeed. The song caught on quickly in Canada and crossed the border (on the Unique label). Last week it was making news as a potential bestseller in the U.S.

Other new pop records:

The Best of Fred Astaire (Epic LP). Dancer Astaire has no voice to sing of, but he sings with nearly as much style as he dances. Included here are re-releases of some fine Gershwin tunes, e.g., A Foggy Day, Nice Work if You Can Get It, and some rosy-cheeked orchestral shenanigans by the Ray Noble and Johnny Green bands of the late '30s.

Damn Yankees (original Broadway cast; Victor LP). Gwen Verdon, whose dancing warms up this show onstage, duplicates the favor vocally for the record. It needs her. Except for the rowdy tune called Whatever Lola Wants (TIME, May 16). nothing quite matches the lines, written by the same team (Richard Adler-Jerry Ross), for last year's Pajama Game.

Ruth Etting (Columbia LP). One of the alltime torch-singing queens in reissues inspired by the current film about her life, Love Me or Leave Me (TIME, June 6). Ruth Etting is past mistress of the musical affectations of the jazz age--the faint hiccup, the tear in the larynx, the lilting dash into a phrase and the heartbroken sigh as it ends. Today, some of it sounds laughable, but Songstress Etting's languorous sweetness and warmth make most of it sound just fine. Songs range from the razzmatazz rhythms of Shaking the Blues Away and At Sundown to the seductive Mean to Me and I'll Never Be the Same. Columbia has also released songs from the sound track of the Etting film, with Doris Day warbling the lead role. It is replete--in fact it is gorged--with soaring strings, a chorus of vocalizing angels, and a rhythm section that explodes like the 1812 Overture. Doris Day is a competent singer, but beside Ruth Etting she is frozen custard.

The House of Blue Lights (Chuck Miller; Mercury). A boogie-woogie in uptempo, with some nonsense words about boogie-woogie. The disk is a bestseller. Does it herald the decline of rock 'n' roll?

Magnificent Matador (Billy Butterfield; Essex). About as noisy a record as possible, containing an overstimulated chorus chanting, "Matador! Matador!'', a brassy orchestration of the type usually reserved for grand finales, and Ace Trumpeter Butterfield giving his all. From the film of the same name.

Ooh That Kiss (Peggy Lee; Decca). The incomparable Peggy, in another of her very special arrangements. Kiss, an oldtime cutie-cute number, gets a Latin cha cha cha treatment and blossoms into sheer fantasy. "What is love but a helpin' of an angel cake," croons Peggy, and an insolent flute and a clanking rhythm section confirm the sentiment.

You Are So Rare (The Three Haircuts; Victor). Funnyman Sid Caesar's answer to the inanities of rock 'n' roll records, disk-jockey lingo, and the hyped-up state of pop music in general. With a screaming, honking, socking background, the Haircuts mimic the Crew-Cuts with their howl: "Yew are sooo rare to me! So very rare to me! So if I'm rare to yew, won't yew be rare?"

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