Title:
The
Early
Years
Artist:
Polly
Bergen
Catalogue
No:
SEPIA
1093
Barcode:
5055122110934
Release
Date:
7
May
2007
The
looks
and
poise
of
a
1950s
Vogue
model;
the
mentholated
singing
voice;
the
actresss
approach
to
words
all
these
helped
launch
Polly
Bergen
on
a
career
that
began
in
the
late
40s
and
still
thrives
today.
TV
audiences
saw
her
being
panel
of
that
eras
number-one
TV
game
show,
To
Tell
the
Truth.
Onscreen
in
the
classic
thriller
Cape
Fear
(1962),
she
played
the
terrified
wife
of
a
lawyer
(Gregory
Peck)
stalked
by
a
man
he
helped
convict.
A
year
later,
Doris
Day
gave
her
a
brutal
Swedish
massage
in
Move
Over,
Darling.
In
the
1980s
she
partnered
Robert
Mitchum
in
the
hit
TV
mini-series
The
Winds
Of
War
and
its
sequel
War
And
Remembrance.
Polly
became
a
cosmetics
mogul,
a
Park
Avenue
party-thrower,
a
boldface
name
in
social
columns.
She
wore
so
many
hats
that
music
seemed
like
just
another
feather
in
one
of
them.
But
singing
had
made
her
famous,
and
it
brought
her
back
in
2000
after
a
long
absence
from
the
spotlight.
This
CD
contains
almost
every
side
she
cut
before
1957,
when
she
burst
into
prominence
with
an
Emmy-winning
TV
portrayal
of
the
legendary
torch
singer
Helen
Morgan.
Earlier
on,
Bergen
had
recorded
a
scattered
pile
of
hillbilly
tunes
(the
by-product
of
her
birth
in
Tennessee),
novelty
kitsch,
and
a
fine
first
album
of
torch
songs,
heard
here
in
its
entirety.
Nellie
Paulina
Burgin
was
born
in
1930
in
the
town
of
Bluegrass.
At
fourteen
she
got
her
own
radio
show
in
Richmond,
Indiana;
by
nineteen
she
had
made
her
New
York
club
debut
and
played
a
singer
in
Across
the
Rio
Grande,
a
Monogram
B-western.
Other
films
included
three
Dean
Martin-Jerry
Lewis
films:
At
War
With
The
Army,
Thats
My
Boy,
and
The
Stooge.
RCA
signed
the
new
starlet
in
1950,
and
on
her
early
recordings,
Bergen
sounds
relaxed,
good-humoured,
and
vocally
effortless.
In
1955
she
made
a
ten-inch
LP
of
intimate
club
material,
Little
Girl
Blue.
The
small
ensemble
gives
the
album
a
floating,
inebriated
midnight
feel;
untied
to
tempo,
Bergen
pores
over
words,
her
heart
on
her
sleeve.
When
The
World
Was
Young,
a
then-new
French
chanson
with
English
words
by
Johnny
Mercer,
typifies
the
three-act
story-songs
she
favoured;
portraying
a
jaded,
world-weary
sophisticate,
Bergen
sings
with
tearful
eyes
and
full-tilt
drama.
Reminded
of
her
early
singles
in
2007,
she
exclaimed:
Oh
my
God!
Ive
never
heard
of
these
songs.
I
dont
remember
ever
recording
them.
But
the
roots
of
the
marvellous
singer-actress
she
became,
and
which
she
remains,
are
here
on
even
the
most
trivial
of
these
50s
souvenirs.
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