Crooner
Buddy Clark helped to establish the dependable and reassuring conventions of the early to middle 20th century pop vocal, distinguishing himself as a contemporary of
Bing Crosby,
Gene Austin,
Rudy Vallée, and
Al Bowlly while preparing ground for the successes of
Perry Como,
Frank Sinatra,
Vic Damone,
Steve Lawrence, and
Dean Martin. Released in 2005,
Here's to Romance is Living Era's 26-track survey of the all-too-brief recording career of
Buddy Clark. This outstanding portrait album, which covers a 15-year stretch, finds
Clark working with orchestras led by
Benny Goodman,
Johnny Hodges,
Mitchell Ayers,
Freddy Martin,
Lud Gluskin,
Nat Brandywynne,
Ray Noble,
Xavier Cugat,
Earle Hagen,
Ted Dale, and
Dick Jones.
Clark is heard in duets with
Doris Day and
Dinah Shore, pop singers who seem to have been perfectly suited to his tone and delivery.
Dinah Shore and the Charioteers are also heard on "Now Is the Hour," a choral pop arrangement of a Maori farewell song which was recorded only a month before
Clark's death in the wreck of a twin engine Cessna airplane on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles on October 1, 1949. Once again, Living Era has come up with a superbly constructed tribute to a great if somewhat overlooked artist.
Here's to Romance weighs in with the very best
Buddy Clark collections ever made available to the public.