The Gaylords, “The Best of the Gaylords: The Mercury Years,” Mercury Chronicles. (**)

One of the interesting things about this group--one of the most interesting of the male pop outfits in the years just before the birth of rock in the ‘50s--is how almost every song it recorded seemed imported from Italy, though most were written by American or British writers.

One reason for this could be that the two key members--Burt Bonaldi and Ronnie Fredianelli, who adopted the stage names Burt Holiday and Ronnie Gaylord--are both Italian. But the main reason, no doubt, is their first hit--a wonderfully inviting record called “Tell Me You’re Mine”--was, indeed, an old Italian pop song, which they sang in part in Italian. So, maybe they thought that was their magic formula.

They didn’t always throw in Italian choruses in subsequent hits, but there was often an Italian flavor in the songs. “The Little Shoemaker,” for instance, was a smash novelty hit in 1954 that sounded like an old Italian folk song, but it was written by the team of Ruby Revil, Geoffrey Parsons and John Turner. Similarly, “Isle of Capri,” also a big single in 1954, was a British hit from the ‘30s that was written by Will Grosz and Jimmy Kennedy.

There’s nothing essential about the Gaylords’ music, but there is a freshness and character to the vocals that stands apart from the somewhat sterile approach of most pop vocal groups in the early ‘50s.

*

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