The Dick Haymes Society Reviews “Mr. Rhythm – A Tribute to Frankie Laine”

From Big Band Newsletter – Sept/Oct 2009

Lovingly assembled, this book obviously comes from Richard Grudens’ deep affection for both Frankie Laine the person and the performer. It is as much a scrapbook as it is a biography although it tells the singer’s story completely. It is as if you had access to Frankie Laine’s personal box of memory photos and newspaper clippings saved over the decades of his stardom. We counted 210 photographs, some very personal family pictures, some professional photos used to promote his recordings.

Foreword by Clint Eastwood

Grudens has collected comments and articles from several observers of the music scene. There is a foreword by Clint Eastwood recalling his boyhood appreciation for the singer’s “That’s My Desire” and his later work with him in the movie “Rawhide” for which Frankie Laine sang the theme. Music historian Henry Pleasants contributed a comment.

Connie Haines with Frankie

Tony Cooper of the Frankie Laine International Appreciation Society is quoted as are Connie Haines, Rhonda Fleming, Joe Franklin, Julius LaRosa and Maria Cole, among others.

Highlight of the book may just be the personal diary Frankie Laine kept on his overseas tour to Britain, France and Italy in 1952. In his own words, he writes of both his personal and professional experiences during that trip. One other key part of the tribute is an interview conducted by Gary James in 1993 when Frankie Laine’s autobiography “That Lucky Old Sun” was published. Random articles list the Laine gold records, lists of singers who inspired him, his dance marathon days and his meeting and marrying actress Nan Grey in 1950.

In those earliest days when Frankie Laine’s first successful recordings were released, the name Carl Fisher always appeared as musical director on the record label. Even when Laine moved from the Mercury label to Columbia Records and the orchestra conductor was noted as Paul Weston, Carl Fisher’s name was listed as the pianist. One of the parts of the book tells of the vital part Carl Fisher played in Frankie Laine’s stardom, explaining how important their musical partnership was and hot it ended tragically with Fisher’s death from a heart attack in 1954 at age 41.

Carl and Frankie Rehearsing

The other Laine influence given a key part in the book was Mitch Miller, the A&R director for Mercury Records, and then for Columbia Records when Frankie Laine moved to that label. While at Mercury, it was Miller who asked Laine to sing a cowboy song following the issuance of “That’s My Desire” and “That Lucky Old Son.” Laine argued he’d lose fans of those songs but Miller prevailed and the new recording turned out to have equal commercial and artistic success. It was “Mule Train.”

Frankie Laine was a San Diego resident at the end of his life, but never actually retired. He was active in charity causes and even recorded a CD in the nineties. This book tells it all.