Peggy Connelly & Russ Garcia Orchestra
Biography Peggy Connelly & Russ Garcia Orchestra
Peggy Connelly
was born in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1931 and soon after raised in Fort Worth Texas. Her debut album, Peggy Connelly with Russ Garcia—That Old Black Magic, would be her only solo recording for Bethlehem Records. This EP featured songs taken from that album and also featured the exact same cover that was used for the album. But one can’t really blame the higher-ups at Bethlehem for using it twice because it is a keeper—a dynamic mix of sex appeal, photographic trickery and post-Gigi styling that was on point for its time and is wonderfully kitschy today.
Peggy was also an actress who had a few bit parts in movies like The Girl In the Red Velvet Swing before making her recording debut; she would also star in Ernie Kovacs’ show Take A Good Look in 1959, defying the show biz conventional wisdom that pretty actresses couldn’t be funny. Her renditions of standards are not the best or the worst versions you’ll hear. Her version of “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” can’t quite compare to what Sarah Vaughn or Ella Fitzgerald brought to the song, for example. But it is a good example of a 1950’s mainstream approach to classic jazz standards, and I wouldn’t change the station if it came on the radio.
