Stan Kenton & Tex Ritter- ST

This was $4.00.  It had a lot of promise.  An interesting collaboration between two artists and a decent song list.

This album is a collaborative effort between alcoholic pianist, composer, and arranger, Stan Kenton (1911-1979) and country singer and actor Tex Ritter (1905-1974), who was the father of Three’s Company Star, John Ritter as well as the voice of the Disney Bear Jamboree’s Big Al.

This effort was released in 1962 for Captiol Records and features Ritter’s low country voice with Kenton’s Big Band orchestration. I had high hoped for this album but quite frankly, it does not work.  The two styles mix as well as oil and water. They do not compliment each other at all. In all honesty, it probably would have  been better served with a singer with a higher register.   Critics and fans felt the same as this album did not sell well.

There are a couple songs that I normally like such as “High Noon”, “Cool Water”, and “Red River Valley”. There are also a couple of big band standards such as “September Song” but really all of them kind of fall a bit flat.  After some thought, I went with “Cimarron”.  

Meh.  Pretty lackluster album and I had such high hopes for it.