Jerry Lewis LPs with Maynard Ferguson

JERRY LEWIS, JERRY LEWIS JUST SINGS -- Decca Records DL 8410

Back in the 1950s when MF was a studio musician in Hollywood, Jerry Lewis, the great comedian, decided to do a "stright" album -- all music, no jokes. So Buddy Bregman pulled together an all-star studio orchestra to back Lewis on a number of classic jazz sides. Since Bregman used Maynard all the time on these types of gigs, there was speculation for a number of years that MF was in this orchestra. But a few years ago, one of our collector friends had an opportunity to ask Maynard himself about this session. Maynard said, "Sure, I was in that band. I remember it clearly. Lewis was cracking jokes constantly in between takes, and a lot of them were really profane, and the guys in the band were bantering back and forth with him. At times, I thought we'd never get the album recorded because Lewis couldn't be "straight" long enough to get the tunes recorded." So there you have it. An interesting LP. Lewis' voice kind of grated on me at first, but after listening to it a few times, I began to enjoy it. He's got a somewhat decent voice, and the band and arrangements are REALLY good.
COPY #1. Just in, the cover on this copy has a nicely repaired top seam. There's a little roughness on the spine, and on the back, there's some brownish toning along the bottom edge. The cover looks EX+, but due to the many little issues, I'm just going to rate it as VG+. The vinyl has quite a few surface scratches, and this translates to some definite noise on playback. It's VG-. Overall, this one is VG, just an average copy. It's yours for $6.00.

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