In addition to his singles, which were hitting the Top Ten one after another,
Eddie Fisher recorded about one new album a year starting with 1952's
I'm in the Mood for Love, continuing with 1953's
Irving Berlin Favorites, and reaching 1954 with
May I Sing to You. The album was subtitled "Eddie
Fisher Salutes Some of the Great Singers of Our Time," and it consisted of seven songs associated with male pop singers who had preceded the 25-year-old star in the spotlight, from
Al Jolson ("April Showers") to
Tony Martin ("Begin the Beguine"). The final track, the title song, was a newly written tune on which
Fisher, presumably, saluted himself. The point wasn't hard to grasp:
Fisher was the rightful heir of such singers as
Rudy Vallée,
Bing Crosby, and
Frank Sinatra. By implication, of course, several of these singers, who were still active and competing in the same marketplace, ought to get out of the way. With
Hugo Winterhalter's lively arrangements,
Fisher turned in competent versions of the signature songs of his elders without imitating them. But by taking on numbers that had been performed definitively by others, he gave himself an insurmountable challenge; you couldn't hear "Where the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day" and not think of
Crosby or "Nature Boy" and not think of
Nat "King" Cole. Other singers avoided these songs for a reason. RCA's series of
Fisher albums seemed designed to push him beyond his teenage fans by presenting him as a legitimate contender for adults who were buying
Sinatra and
Cole's LPs.
May I Sing to You, from its title to its contents, furthered that purpose. But its Oedipal underpinnings were not borne out by
Fisher's performances; he still sounded brash and immature in comparison to his heroes.