In 1950
Dinah Shore signed to RCA for a reported deal worth $1,000,000. The nine years she spent with the label proved a disaster, approaching neither the commercial success of her previous Columbia singles nor the creative heights of her subsequent
Nelson Riddle-arranged Capitol efforts.
Holding Hands at Midnight is standard RCA fare -- there's no arranger credited, suggesting the album is little more than a hodgepodge of session scraps, and the result is something far less than the sum of its individual parts. But
Shore nevertheless contributes some remarkable performances throughout the set -- for all the sweetness and light of her public persona, here she reaches deep to deliver poignant renditions of songs like "Once in a While" and "Yesterdays," anticipating the complexity and maturity of her
Riddle sessions.