"Amor" by Eydie Gormé & Los Panchos (1964)

Question: who was the biggest female pop star of Jewish origin on "Columbia" in the early 1960s? Wrong, it was not Streisand but another New York girl Eydie Gormé who started as Big band singer and was recording highly successful albums with themes of 1920s music, blues, dixieland and show hits. When funny girl declined "Blame It on the Bossa Nova", Gormé recorded the single and had the biggest hit of her career. As natural continuation of similar idea, "Columbia" immediately paired versatile singer with Mexican trio for Spanish language album of standards that worked as magic, giving beautiful spotlight to both artists and curiously it is still the one thing that the whole world remembers them for.

"Amor" (sometimes called "Eydie Gorme Canta En Español Con Los Panchos") is a polished, sophisticated effort that mostly follows carefully prepared pattern: Los Panchos gently strum their guitars and introduce song, with Gormé arriving slightly later as a star of the show. This girl had one of the most enchanting voices around and hers was the clear, bell-like instrument capable of great tenderness - on some other, later recordings she could be a bit overbearing but here her affection for material is obvious and she seems to genuinely enjoys herself. These are all classic bolero standards and its impossible to go wrong with titles as "Sabor A Mi", "Noche De Ronda" or "Historia De Un Amor" but the biggest surprise is original Spanish version of "Cuando Vuelva A Tu Lado" known in English as "What a Difference a Day Makes". It was deservedly a huge success and still sounds great after all these years, maybe also because the production was very simple and uncluttered with strings and choirs - its really only trio and a singer wisely left to create music they love.

It took me years to find the album that probably inspired Gormé and I am sure she must have been familiar with Mexican singer Elvira Ríos who in 1950s recorded what was spiritual predecessor of this album, "Tropic Nights" and almost half of that album was later covered note by note by this team. Ríos was different singer and hers was seductive shtick, while Gormé was all girly innocence but its basically the same repertoire.