A Day At The Movies

They Say...

Review by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

This exceptionally well-programmed compilation album is a triple threat. First, it assembles, in chronological order, notable songs that Doris Day sang in her films during her first decade as a movie star; second, with titles like "It's Magic," "Secret Love," and "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," it functions as a hits collection; and, perhaps surprisingly, third, it arguably is a rarities album as well. Annotator Max O. Preeo, writing with the benefit of an interview with his subject, notes that the version of "It's Magic" included here is the actual original hit version recorded in 1947; apparently all subsequent reissues of the song have been of a re-recording Day did in 1952. Several other songs, including the title tunes from her second and third films, My Dream Is Yours and It's a Great Feeling, are given their first release since they came out initially, and the version of "I Love The Way You Say Goodnight" from Lullaby of Broadway is released commercially for the first time. While making a series of musicals for Warner Bros. pictures in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Day benefited from the opportunity to sing old and new songs by such classic pop writers as Sammy Cahn, Vernon Duke, Ray Evans, Sammy Fain, E.Y. Harburg, Lorenz Hart, Gus Kahn, Jay Livingston, Richard Rodgers, Jule Styne, Harry Warren, and Vincent Youmans, and to perform (on these, mostly non-soundtrack studio versions) backed by such bandleaders as Frank DeVol, Percy Faith, Ray Heindorf, Harry James, Axel Stordahl, and Paul Weston. She made the most of those connections, using her band-singer background and warm tone to create performances that were the highpoints of the often flimsy films in which they appeared. The results are here to enjoy.