Mercury Records Collection: MG-20165: Miyoshi Sings For Arthur Godfrey

MG-20165: Miyoshi Sings For Arthur Godfrey / Miyoshi Umeki

Label Type :	black Mercury type A
Matrix Number :	SIDE-A	MG20165A MS1 MSI A1 I
	SIDE-B	MG20165B MS1 MSI B1 I

Comments

Album cover being suffered from heavy browning.

A-5 “How Deep Is The Ocean?” was also available on Mercury 70838x45 (45rpm).

B-6 “Sayonara (The Japanese Farewell Song)” also available on Mercury 71216x45 (45rpm). Although the title is very similar, it's a different song from “Sayonara” (written by I. Berlin), which can be heard on Mercury 71243x45 (45rpm) and Wing MGW-12148.

Inside The Groove

Miss Umeki's first leader album full of Orientalism :)

Personal Impression (and brief notes)

Miyoshi Umeki, also known as Nancy Umeki, get several attention in 1948-1950, as a Jazz vocalist in Japan. However she made her mind to go to the United States to enter a new world. Since then, she recorded several albums, and even got popular as an actress, for she won the Academy Awards (performance by an actress in a supporting role).

Later this album reissued as “Miyoshi - Singing Star Of Rodgers And Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song” (Wing MGW-12148), with several songs replaced.

BTW B-6 “Sayonara (The Japanese Farewell Song)” is different from “Sayonara” (written by Irving Berlin), which was a title tune for the movie “Sayonara”; on the movie in 1957, when she won the Academy Awards.

Most tunes on this album are covered with “Orientalism”, compared with her 2nd album (with orthodox Jazzy moods) “Miyoshi” (MG-20568). For example, you can hear Japanese narration between English lyrics such on A-6 and B-1. I can't imagine how people in the US of that time hear and think of such kind of sound.

You say you like some Orientalism or Exisotism in this album? But wait, if it's exotic for you, it's NO exotic for us Japanese :-P The word "Exisotism" is, such a vague word. Yes you, European or American, created such term long long ago.... Anyway, the orientalism on this album is rather “strange” kind for most of us Japanese :)

Strictly Personal Rating (to what extent I could enjoy this album)

7 out of 10

Track Listing

SIDE-A
A-1	13884	If I Give My Heart To You (Jimmie Crane, Jimmy Brewster & Al Jacobs)	3:03
A-2	13886	China Nights (Shina No Yoru) (Sil Sedores)	2:08
A-3	13885	I'm In The Mood For Love (Jimmy McHugh & Dorothy Fields)	2:22
A-4	13887	My Baby's Comin' Home (Leavitt, Grady & Feller)	2:18
A-5	12184	How Deep Is The Ocean (How High The Sky) (Irving Berlin)	2:30
A-6	13888	Slowly Go Out Of Your Mind (Jack Carrington)	2:45
SIDE-B
B-1	13889	Teach Me Tonight (Gene De Paul & Sammy Cahn)	3:01
B-2	12187	Hanna Ko San (Dees, Schelb & Clinton)	2:30
B-3	12185	Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man (Oscar Hammerstein 2nd & Jerome Kern)	2:40
B-4	13890	'S Wonderful (Ira Gershwin - George Gershwin)	2:25
B-5	13892	Over The Rainbow (Harold Arlen & E. Y. Harburg)	2:35
B-6	13891	Sayonara (The Japanese Farewell Song) (Yoshida - Morgan)	2:22

Personnel

Personnel/recorded date/master numbers confirmed with the Ruppli's discography.
(“The Mercury Labels - A Discography” by Ruppli and Novitsky, Greenwood Press, 1993)

A-5, B-2, B-3:
Miyoshi Umeki (vo) with Hugo Peretti Orchestra.
Recorded in New York City, 1955.

A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4, A-6, B-1, B-4, B-5, B-6:
Miyoshi Umeki (vo) with Hugo Perreti Orchestra.
Recorded in New York City, 1956.

The Artist Also Appears on...

Miyoshi Umeki (vo) :

Mercury MG-20165 : Miyoshi Sings For Arthur Godfrey
Mercury MG-20568 / SR-60228 : Miyoshi
Wing MGW-12148 : Miyoshi - Singing Star Of Rodgers And Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song