Volume 177: Sammy Record 2

Here’s the second record of a two disk set that spent as much time among my own records as it did my dad’s. There was a point where neither one of us remembered whose collection it actually belonged in. Like I’ve said in the past, my dad and I had similar taste in music.

The featured artist is just as much among my favorites as he was my dad’s. I still remember sitting in the Richfield Coliseum awestruck at what I was witnessing him do on the stage. And I witnessed that performance with my dad and my mom.

When we get done with this episode you’ll know why they called him Mr. Show Business.

So get ready to hear music written over the course of four decades and then rearranged for one of the best overall stage entertainers the world ever saw in Volume 177: Sammy Record 2.

More information about this album, see the Discogs webpage for it. 

Promised link to a story on Sammy's conversion to Judaism.

Promised link to research used in above story.

Credits and copyrights

Sammy Davis, Jr. – Sammy
Label: Sessions (2) – ARI-1001
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation
Released: 1976
Genre: Jazz, Pop
Style: Vocal, Swing

We'll hear 7 of the 13 songs from record 2.

Chicago (Toddling Town)
written by Fred Fisher and published in 1922.
Sammy recorded it live several times.

Go right into next song
Birth Of The Blues
composed in 1926 by Ray Henderson, with lyrics by Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown
It was a song he recorded in 1955 for the album Starring Sammy Davis Jr.

You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You 
written by Russ Morgan, Larry Stock, and James Cavanaugh and published in 1944.
He recorded a studio version of that with Count Basie for the 1965 album Our Shining Hour

The Impossible Dream
composed by Mitch Leigh, with lyrics written by Joe Darion. 
Sammy recorded a version for the 1969 album The Goin' Great.

Exodus
composed by Ernest Gold.
This track was recorded sometime around 1972, and was never released on any of his official "albums", however it was also released in 1975 on this K-Tel LP entitled "The Sounds Of Sammy Davis Jr."

I've Gotta Be Me
composed and written by Walter Marks in 1967
Sammy Davis Jr. recorded the song in 1968, as the title track of Davis’ 1968 Reprise album.

Spinning Wheel
Written by David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1968.
This was taken from his 1970 LP Something for Everyone.

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.