Calendar Girl (1956)

Even the cover art on this one—even the title, really—make it clear someone decided to market Julie London on her third album as a sex kitten, sultry and wanton. Sure, that’s already there in her singing style to some extent, which has range. But lay off the sledgehammer for pity’s sake. Unfortunately, the marketing conceit follows all the way into the musical arrangements, which feature horns, strings, and backup singers. Gone is the plain varnish of London’s voice backed only by soft electric guitar and bass. Whose idea was this? Calendar Girl is formally a concept LP, with one song each devoted to every month of the year (“June in January,” “February Brings the Rain,” “Melancholy March,” etc.), plus an extra, “Thirteenth Month,” to make a baker’s dozen. I don’t really know many of these songs, whose writers include Hoagy Carmichael, Arthur Hamilton, and many others. From my notes: ”’Sleigh Ride in July’ is a very bad Christmas song. ‘Time for August’ may be the most embarrassing sex kitten play of all.” The album is tainted by an unmistakable ‘50s style of upscale lounge music applied like frosting and it’s almost unlistenable to me for that. Yes, London’s singing and phrasing can be made out through the frippery, but these settings are so intrusive and repellent that it takes more work than worthwhile to get to them. I grabbed this up in the usual throes of a downloading frenzy, which is how it ended up on my list of albums to get to. Later research revealed for listeners like me that London’s second album, Lonely Girl (1956), and a follow-up to her first, Julie Is Her Name, Volume II (1958), are more like the obvious next steps after her first, done up very nicely much the same way. They all have the same producer too, Bobby Troup—even Calendar Girl. I don’t know what goes on there. And after that you’re on your own, because those three are plenty for me. I’m not one to listen to this kind of thing that much, for whatever reasons living in horrors of most popular music from the 1950s. Approach with caution. Trying to help you here.