Doris Day - You're My Thrill (1949) Young at Heart (1954) (2LPs on 1CD)

Doris Day, the quintessential all-American girl, continues to be revered by her fans, while the media still celebrate her as an actress and singer with a legendary Hollywood "girl next door" image.
However, Doris Day's personal life, faced with steely resolve, was the very antithesis of how most fans perceived her super-stardom. The studios promoted her in screen roles highlighting her wholesome, vivacious blonde personality. However, in hindsight, this concentration on her image belied her great acting and musical talents; a full retrospective appraisal of her career in recent years has brought her fans a fuller appreciation of her gifts. Of her 39 films, Calamity Jane, Love Me or Leave Me and Pillow Talk remain popular favorites, and still run frequently on cable television. Paralleling her success in big-screen entertainment, a series of excellent albums recorded between 1956 and 1968 expanded her popularity, and are as relevant today as when they were first released.
Born Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, her parents came from German stock. Her father, Frederick Wilhelm Von Kappelhoff, was a music teacher, choir master and church organist and loved classical music. Her mother, Alma Sophia Welz, on the other hand, was an outgoing woman who enjoyed "hillbilly music." Doris was the youngest of three: she had two brothers, Richard, who died before she was born, and Paul who was a few years older. She was named after silent movie actress Doris Kenyon, whom her mother admired. Growing up in the 1930s Doris was attracted to music and dance, eventually forming part of a dance duo which performed locally until a car she was riding in was struck by a train, crushing her right leg, a severe injury that curtailed her ambition to become a professional dancer.
However, while recovering, Doris gained a vocal education by listening to the radio, becoming a fan of the embryonic records of upcoming Ella Fitzgerald. Her mother encouraged her to take singing lessons. Alma took Doris to see vocal coach Grace Raine, who was so impressed with Doris' natural talent that she offered her three lessons for the price of one. Doris credits Raine with impressing upon her the importance of delivering a lyric, and today Doris says that Raine had the greatest impact on her singing career.
At age 15, Doris began performing locally and while working with local bandleader Barney Rapp, she adopted the stage name "Day" after Rapp suggested "Kappelhoff" was too long and cumbersome for marquee appeal. After leaving Rapp, Doris worked with a number of other band leaders including Bob Crosby, and was eventually hired by Les Brown. She had two stints with Brown's band, with marriage to trombonist Al Jordan, birth of her son Terry and subsequent divorce in between. Her 1945 hit "Sentimental Journey," co-written by Brown and recorded with his band, was made at the ideal time, as it reflected the thoughts of weary troops as they returned home from service in Europe and the Pacific.
(Full version: dorisday.com)