Eddie Fisher - Eddie Fisher Sings (1952/2018)

Eddie Fisher's recording career was launched by the Top Five success of "Thinking of You" in the fall of 1950, but it took another year for him to start scoring big hits consistently. After he had placed four consecutive singles in the Top Ten, however, RCA Victor decided in the spring of 1952 that the time had come for the first Eddie Fisher LP. The label, which had opposed the LP format when rival Columbia originated it a few years earlier and even introduced the 45 RPM single to combat it, still wasn't much interested in wasting a lot of effort on such a 10" disc, however, and instead of having Fisher record new material for his inaugural long-player, simply gathered together a bunch of stray tracks he had recorded as far back as the fall of 1949, when he'd just been signed. Of the eight recordings, only three, "Just Say I Love Her," "If You Should Leave Me," and "Thinking of You," had been released previously on singles. But the rest were really just single rejects, minor songs recorded with an eye toward getting something going on a singer who hadn't yet found a handle. Fisher displayed a good voice and didn't always belt, even turning in a calm, measured performance of "A Little Bit Independent." He covered Leon Payne's country hit "I Love You Because," and gave hints of his affinity for Italian-style material on "If You Should Leave Me." On the whole, though, these were lesser recordings and not a good indication of why Fisher was fast becoming the hottest act in the music business. The heat he was generating, however, was felt on the album charts, where this album quickly climbed into the Top Five.