It Hurts Me To Say This...

I grew up hearing a lot of Al Hirt. My grandparents had a couple of albums when I was little, and later, as a trumpet player, I checked out a lot of his material.

This is one of those albums that (in my head) I justify with the thought that he had to be recording it to make the record company happy (read: sell some discs to middle America*) so he could also make the New Orleans jazz-influenced discs that are the better side of his recording career. This album is schmaltz personified.


*It worked, to a certain extent - the album reached #39 in 1966 on the Billboard album charts.

 Al Hirt -They're Playing Our Song

1. "I Had the Craziest Dream" (Harry Warren, Mack Gordon)
2. "Paper Doll" (Johnny S. Black)
3. "You'll Never Know" (Harry Warren, Mack Gordon)
4. "It's Been a Long, Long Time" (Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn)
5. "The Song from Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart)" (Georges Auric, William Engvick)
6. "Autumn Leaves" (Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prévert, Johnny Mercer)
7. "There! I've Said It Again" (Redd Evans, David Mann)
8. "I've Heard That Song Before" (Jule Styne, Sammy Cahn)
9. "I'll Get By " (Fred E. Ahlert, Roy Turk)
10. "Deep Purple" (Peter DeRose, Mitchell Parish)
11. "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" (Louiguy, Jacques Larue, Mack David)
12. "I'll Be Seeing You" (Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal)