'Fans of any of the songwriters and performers should know about this album'

VINYL: EX. Wonderfully clean on visual inspection. Played just pre-listing and sound clarity is great throughout. No skipping, jumping, clicking or sticking. A decent listening experience to this first release.

OUTER SLEEVE/COVER: VG. Colours are unfaded. Superb laminated cover. Spine is undamaged. A couple of minor corner nicks. Top and bottom edges are fine and undamaged except for one small area on bottom by aperture edge. Aperture itself shows some mild wear but there are no tears. The reverse is generally clean. Some marks in centre and where the disc outline is. Flipbacks in good overall clean order and intact with only mild soiling and a few creases.

INNER SLEEVE: EX. White paper with centre hole. Clean and intact.

A1. Shirley Jones – Pepe

A2. Maurice Chevalier – Mimi

A2. Maurice Chevalier – September Song

A3. Sammy Davis, Jr. – Hooray For Hollywood

A4. André Previn – The Rumble

B1. Bobby Darin – That's How I Went All Right

B2. Judy Garland – The Far Away Part Of Town

B3. Johnny Green – Suty's Theme

B4a. Bing Crosby – Pennies From Heaven

B4b. Bing Crosby – Let's Fall In Love

B4c. Bing Crosby – South Of The Border

B5. Shirley Jones – Lovely Day

In the wake of Mexican clown Cantinflas' winning performance in the film Around the World in 80 Days (1956), Columbia Pictures built a big musical comedy film around him. The gimmick behind Pepe, released for the 1960 Christmas season, was that it included "35 guest stars!," performing in cameos. Maybe that was why it ran a stunning three hours and 15 minutes in its initial run.

Sammy Davis, Jr. builds a typically bravura six-minute act around "Hooray for Hollywood," complete with impressions and special lyrics; Maurice Chevalier sings his signature song, "Mimi," as well as "September Song," and Bing Crosby performs a brief medley of standards with Cantinflas.

There was also an excerpt from Johnny Green's score ("Suzy's Theme"), though the main composer associated with the film was André Previn (the pianist on "The Rumble" and the songwriter); along with Previn's lyricist wife, Dory Langdon (later known as '70s singer/songwriter Dory Previn), of "That's How It Went, All Right," sung by Bobby Darin, and the Oscar-nominated "The Far Away Part of Town," sung by Judy Garland (who did not actually appear in the picture).

Langdon also contributed English lyrics to two Spanish songs to create "Pepe" and "Lovely Day," both sung by Shirley Jones. Though craftsman-like, the new material is quite distinguished.

Fans of any of the songwriters and performers should know about this album.

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