I’ve had quite a few questions regarding Matt Dennis the composer mentioned in my previous post, “New KN7000 Songs”. My recollections of Dennis were when he was playing at the Captain’s Table, a supper club just down the street from my photo studio on La Cienega Blvd. in L.A. In doing a Google search I found the following:

VOICES FROM THE PAST: Matt Dennis

I am not one who believes that everything that happened fifty years ago was good and everything that happens today is bad, but in the field of popular music, for my taste, at least, it is a truism. There was a glorious period between Rudy Vallee and the Beatles which was a golden age in every sense of the word. The writers were extraordinary, the big bands were wonderfully disciplined organizations, and along with them there were what we used to call "Lounge Singers."

They were different from "Saloon Singers," mostly in that they accompanied themselves on piano, and very often worked alone. Cabaret Performers, who formed a second leg of the triangle, were different; they often put together a program of music that told a story, and usually talked with the audience about the songs as they performed them. The lounge singers sang all types of popular music, and one could not estimate how many there were in the world at their peak. They worked in Cocktail Lounges, and if you were of a mind to do it, you could sit at the bar and nurse a 50 cent bottle of beer for most of the evening without feeling the least bit intimidated. There were dozens of them in every major city, and at least one in all small towns.

Two of the very best in that bygone time were Matt Dennis and Bobby Troup. They worked mostly in Los Angeles, and both of them made a few recordings, but they never caught on in the kind of big way that is necessary to stay in the public eye - or ear - these days. They and the others like them inspired no cover charge, no music charge and no minimum. They were there, courtesy of the management, and in that simpler time, no one thought anything about it. It never occurred to us that it was an era that would pass away. We expected it to go on forever. And in one sense it can. Their recordings are very hard to find, but if you persevere, you can do it, at a price. About fifteen years ago I decided that I would find a record from each of them that I remembered from the 1950's, and I did, although I could not buy the record. I had to settle for an audio tape, which meant I have none of the graphics on the albums, thus no picture of either one. There was an unusual record store on West 44th Street in Manhattan which specialized in hard to find items. It had been in business for a long time, and its secret was that the owner had a friend who had an extensive, and I mean extensive, collection. When someone came in asking for a specific record, he would call his friend and if the friend had it, they would make a tape and sell it the customer. It was obviously a breach of copyright, but it could not have been a secret, and apparently everyone who could be expected to be concerned about it just looked the other way. All of the records that they sold on that basis were out-of-print, and perhaps those who look after such things - and they have the eyes of eagles and the temperament of barracudas - thought it might help the singers if they could still be found in the market.

Copyright blockhead.com

Matt Dennis passed away in June of 2002 at the age of 89 leaving us with:
"Violets For Your Furs", "Free For All," "Will You Be Mine?," "Let's Get Away From It All," "Everything Happens to Me" and "Angel Eyes".

Frank