Julie London - Our Fair Lady (2012)

Julie London spent most of the 1960s recording middle-of-the-road vocal pop albums of varying degrees of worth before returning to West Coast jazz with a vengeance on 1965's All Through the Night. Recorded the same year as that excellent Cole Porter tribute, the bland Our Fair Lady comes off like corporate payback for a quick jazz rebellion. The arrangements on this release are lifeless, and though she projected a sexy, confident image on album covers, Julie London was always better at singing torch songs of unrequited love then whispering winking, come-hither tracks like "Never on Sunday" or kitsch songs such as "Theme From a Summer Place." While Our Fair Lady seems like a stopgap release, the balance between jazz and upscale pop was achieved on London's next release, the fine For the Night People.