Title: Perry Covering Peggy and the Rat Pack
Product review: As RCA's cleanup hitter of the day, Perry had to cover the hits of his contemporaries on other labels. Fortunately, I don't recall his doing Peggy's tunes other than "It's a Good Day." He does several covers of Frank's Capitols here, very well. Perry's weakness in this role is that his emotional range is limited (you can't be noncommital about "hearts full of passion, jealousy and hate") in addition to which the Ray Charles Singers springing out of the closet at the climax of that ultimate expression of aloneness "In the Still of the Night" is downright grotesque.I've compared the small-group recordings of "We Get Letters" to Dean Martin's "Swingin' Down Yonder" to Dean's considerable advantage. Perry's great in the grand settings in which his hits, from "Temptation" on, were scored. I'd rather direct new listeners there.
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