Search - Something for the Boys :: Something for the Boys [1943 Radio Cast]

Not Porter's Best, but Even 2nd Tier is Better Than Most Oth

ljs | Baltimore, MD USA | 06/09/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Cole Porter is probably my favorite musical composer, but Something for the Boys is usually considered one of his lesser works. In my mind, that puts it about even with the best of what people write nowadays. The music is very pleasant. Could It Be You is a very nice ballad. Hey Good Lookin' shows both leads off well. By the Mississississinewah is hilarious, but leaves you wondering why in the world a show has a paean to bigamy sung by two characters playing at being Indian squaws. I'm in Love with a Soldier Boy is one one of those songs that plays on and on in your head. He's a Right Guy is one of Porter's lesser rhumbas, and what is a "right guy," anyway?



Ethel Merman is the Merm, and the album is worth having just for her performance. Bill Johnson holds his own opposite her, which was no mean feat. The only other recording I know of with him is Pipe Dream (11 years later, as William Johnson). He sounds younger and less polished here, but could put a song across. Taken together, the two performance make you wonder why he wasn't a bigger star, and you suspect he would have been if he hadn't died a year after he did Pipe Dream.



One puzzling thing is that the Overture has a song in it that doesn't seem to show up anywhere else on the album. If I recall, it's the second section. It's something like When My Baby Goes to Town, but I don't think that's it. I don't know if the number was cut or just not recorded, but it's a shame because it sounds like it would have been as good as or better than the numbers that were recorded. Any info on this would be appreciated."