Les Paul & Mary Ford - Les and Mary (1955)

They met each other in 1945, when Lester (William Polfuss) was 30 and Colleen (Summers) was 21 years old. They began working together in 1948 (at which time Colleen adopted the stage name Mary Ford) and they got married next year. They had a son, adopted a daughter and their marriage lasted 15 years, until December 1964.

Between 1950 and 1963 Les Paul & Mary Ford recorded 10 great albums of originals, which remains until today a really trademark of the Fifties. This one, “Les And Mary”, is one of the very best. The duo treat the songs of Cole Porter, Hank Snow and Kurt Weill and others with an eclecticism and an unabashed love for the whole musical panorama. Instrumentals of brilliant virtuosity along with songs sung with facile sophistication by Mary Ford are fine examples of their best work, albeit less well known than some of their hits. In fact, it is the effortlessness of some of their songs that some modern listeners may find off-putting, believing in error that great art needs to be histrionic and born of turbulent emotions. The America reflected in the songs of Les Paul and Mary Ford is one of love and optimism and the can-do pluck that is characteristic of the resolve that Les Paul put into every endevor he attempted.

Tracklist:
01 Falling In Love With Love 2:09
02 On The Sunny Side Of The Street 2:36
03 Just One Of Those Things 2:20
04 Twelfth Street Rag 2:21
05 Lies 2:35
06 Turista 2:26
07 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot 2:17
08 Nuevo Laredo 2:58
09 The Best Things In Life Are Free 2:29
10 Moritat (from The Three Penny Opera) 2:27
11 Some Of These Days 2:09
12 Tico Tico 1:38
13 Baby, Won't You Please Come Home 2:03
14 Dangerous Curves 2:30
15 I'm Movin' On 1:49
16 Farewell (For Just Awhille) 2:24