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Robert Harris host- Doris Day: I Hear Music, CBC Radio 2 . December 30, 2006

“‘The Night We Called It A Day’ sung with such grace by Doris Day from the 1958 album Day By Night.”

“I don’t want to sound like a broken record, myself, but nobody sings with such clarity of diction, with such a perfect sense of pitch and with such an effortless sense of phrasing as does Doris Day..”

“And one of the most interesting projects Doris Day created in the 60’s was a jazz album she made with Andre Previn, both solo and with his trio.”

“And although DD was never a jazz singer, few Big Band singers were, actually, she knew how to swing a lyric as well as anyone.”

“The Previn album really makes us think of one large what might have been; of what might have happened, if Doris Day, like Rosemary Clooney,  had decided to reinvent herself in later life as a jazz singer. Clooney was singing at her  best in her seventies,  Doris Day stopped at her absolute peak, in her mid-forties.”

“Here’s a real collectors item: Doris Day and Andre Previn from 1962 and ‘Close Your Eyes.’  Beauty on Doris Day and I Hear Music”

“Doris Day with Andre Previn and his trio in a swinging and tasty version of Close Your Eyes.  Day and Previn in a 1962 pairing for Columbia that unfortunately was one of a kind. Unfortunately, because, by 1962, Doris Day was just hitting her peak as a vocalist.”

“With a superb lyric sheet in her hand, the one coming up is by Dorothy Fields, and a fine musician as her partner, Doris Day achieved a level of musical excellence, of musical perfection given to few.”

“If a popular song is there to move us, to speak to us, to draw us in, to give us a moment of perfect pleasure only a musical genius can achieve at all effortlessly, a genius like Doris Day. Not kidding.

Song: Remind Me

“It makes you want to weep.  Weep for the beauty of it, weep for the pleasure of it , weep for the waste of it. Weep for the fact that the woman who could do that spent her days on the set of With Six you Get Egg roll. A musician of rare quality, of the highest quality. Doris Day.”

“Rodgers and Hart’s Little Girl Blue, Doris Day. I’ve heard dozens of versions of that song. That’s one of my very favourite songs and no one sings it like Doris Day. No one.  No one. This is a voice, artist , a soul to cherish.”

Song: I Got Lost In His Arms from Irving Berlin’s Annie Get Your Gun

“As I said earlier, it’s a bit crazy to call the career of one of the most popular, successful and  celebrated entertainers of all time tragic, and Doris Day’s career was not tragic, but there is no doubt in my mind that her career as a singer, as a musician of uncommon quality never fully developed as it should have. It was stunted, spotty, a bit hit and miss.” 

“Under other circumstances, Doris Day would be a name that would roll of our tongues with the Sinatras and the Fitzgeralds and the Garlands, as the greatest pop singers of all time. She belongs in that company, for certain The beauty of her voice, the intelligence of her phrasing, the clarity of her intonation and diction all lay her claim to that exalted status. “ “But more, as with all the greats, it’s her heart and soul that we must cherish, above all. A heart that she gave to us freely, happily, beautifully. This is really a woman to love, a woman of quality, a woman of taste and of passion. Still with us at 82., A gem of gems. And I’m Robert Harris I’ll see you in a week.”

Song: Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries

On Dec 30, 2006 at 11 AM on the CBC Radio 2 program called I Hear Music ,Robert Harris, the host, created a magical listening experience with his wonderful hour-long tribute to the music of Doris Day. Had my friend Karen not called to tell me about this program and tape it for me I would have missed this magnificent program.

I called the CBC in order to buy a transcript of this program, but I was told that they don’t do transcripts for Radio 2 ,so I’m indebted to Karen for recording this for me.

It took me hours , but I managed to type out half of the program.

Trying not to break copyright laws , I’ll share the wonderful words of Mr. Harris. I’m sure somebody will remind me if I did anything wrong. But I know that Doris Day has millions of fans world-wide who wonder why there are not more public tributes to one of the greatest singers, ever.

To satisfy their thirst for some recognition for Doris Day here are the highlights, and there are many, in ‘Doris Day: I hear Music’ by Robert Harris.

“…with absolute surety of pitch, beautiful diction and the gorgeous physical sound of the voice of Doris Day” describing for All We Know from the Love Album 1967

“Doris Day, finally after 20 albums for Columbia singing the way she always wanted to, the way she needed to without the producer, she said, running in to tell her to speed it up and make it more commercial.”
 ”And what an album. One of the most beautiful works of popular art I’ve ever heard. I want you  to do yourself a favour and ignore , everything you ever thought about or heard about Doris Day ,at least for the next hour.”

“ Because the real Doris Day I am here to try and convince you was a woman we basically don’t know. A musician of genius and taste and remarkable talent . A musician who never really had a chance to develop despite her enormous fame. A tragic figure, really, because only once in a generation does a voice like hers appear, .A voice of purity, taste, maturity. Really listen..”
“A beautiful mature voice, Day at 43 the very top of her form sounding assured strong with a darkness to her later voice that gave it a beautiful amber hue.”

“  Day communicated the lyric in the song like few others in her generation were able to do with her crystal clear sense of pitch and her unique understanding of the words she sang, as well as, the effortless physical perfection of the voice itself., priceless equipment for a singer to have.”

“  DD didn’t develop all these characteristics only in her later career . They were there right in the beginning. In 1948 in one of the most  fateful turns in her life she starred in first motion  picture, Romance On The High Seas. ”

“It’s a younger voice in 1948, but the same voice. Listen to the pure ethereal beauty of Doris Day at 24 .  It’s Magic”

“Doris Day filling her first film with her youthful comedy and good humour, as well as, the beauty of her first great solo hit ,It’s Magic.  A voice almost beyond description.”

“Doris Day was what she never stopped being, ever. She was one of the greatest big band singers in American history. .In 1941 at the age of 17 she joined the Les Brown Band and the music of Tin Pan Alley and war time America entered her heart and soul, never really to depart, ever.. To understand Doris Day you must understand the soul of the big band; a blend of jazz, of pop, of dance music, of romance The sound of war time America brought to life by Les Brown and Doris Day.”