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Doris Day and the music of Latin America: what a beautiful combination.  In November 1964, the singing superstar entered Columbia Records’ Hollywood studios to record what would become her final long-player for the label.  (Doris Day’s Sentimental Journey was released later, but recorded earlier.)  Latin for Lovers represents Day at her finest, featuring her warm, sensual, lovely interpretations of some of the era’s greatest songs.  Cherry Red’s SFE Entertainment imprint has recently revisited it as a 3-CD set containing the original mono and stereo albums each on one disc, plus a third disc rounding up “other Latin directions” and various singles from 1964-1967.

Naturally for any Latin-themed album released in the wake of the bossa nova boom, Latin for Lovers (produced by Allen Stanton) presented a number of songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim including “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado),” “How Insensitive (Insensatez),” “Meditation (Meditação),” and “Slightly Out of Tune (Desafinado).”  The Jobim quartet was joined by other familiar tunes including an intimate reading of Bart Howard’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” Richard Heyman, Lee Daniels, and Sol Parker’s winsome fifties oldie “Dansero,” band singer Sunny Skylar’s “Be Mine Tonight,” and the forties Cuban standard “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas,” a.k.a. “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.”  (The latter was used to memorable effect in director Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 film Strictly Ballroom.)  Arranger Mort Garson brought his own “Our Day Will Come,” a 1962 chart-topper for Ruby and the Romantics, to receive the silken Day treatment.  The richly alluring Latin for Lovers has proved one of Day’s most romantic and enduring albums.

The third disc in this slipcased package has eighteen more tracks encompassing both other lightly Latin-tinged recordings and selected singles from Day’s final years on the Columbia roster.  In the former category comes the 1956 original version of Doris’ Academy Award-winning signature song, “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” as well as a movie tune from Pillow Talk (“Possess Me”).  Carl Sigman and Herb Magidson’s “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)” dates back to 1950.  Among the mid-sixties singles featured here are the U.K. only single version of “Soft as the Starlight” (recorded in 1957 but released in England in 1966) plus title songs and more from The Glass Bottom Boat, Do Not Disturb, and Caprice.  The mono version of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil’s pop confection “Oo-Wee Baby,” produced for Doris by her son Terry Melcher, is also here as released on a U.K. single.

The colorful 24-page booklet features a new introduction from the luminous Ms. Day as well as the original LP liner notes and brief new notes from Stephen Munns.  Each individual disc is housed in its own paper sleeve.  Ted Carfrae, a veteran of Doris’ releases, has handled the remastering.  The new expanded edition of Doris Day’s Latin for Lovers is available now at the links below!

Doris Day, Latin for Lovers: 3-Disc Expanded Edition (Cherry Red/SFE 076T, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1 (Stereo: Columbia CS 9110, 1965) / CD 2 (Mono: Columbia CL 2310, 1965)

1. Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars
2. Fly Me to the Moon (In Other Words)
3. Meditation
4. Dansero
5. Summer Has Gone
6. How Insensitive
7. Slightly Out of Tune
8. Our Day Will Come
9. Be True to Me
10. Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps
11. Be Mine Tonight
12. Por Favor

CD 3: Other Latin Directions & Selected A and B-Sides 1964-1967

1. Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) (Mono) (Columbia single 40704, 1956)
2. Possess Me (Columbia single 41450, 1959)
3. Everybody Loves a Lover (Alternate Version) (rec. 1958, from Que Sera, Bear Family BCD 15797 EK, 1996)
4. Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think) (Mono) (Columbia single 38709, 1950)
5. Another Go Around (Alternate Version) (rec. 1965, from Move Over Darling, Bear Family BCD 15800 HK, 1997)
6. Rainbow’s End (Mono) (Columbia single 43153, 1964)
7. Do Not Disturb (Columbia single 43459, 1965)
8. Au Revoir is Goodbye with a Smile (Columbia single 43459, 1965)
9. Catch the Bouquet (Mono) (Columbia single 43314, 1965)
10. Oo-Wee Baby (Mono) (CBS U.K. single AAG219, 1964)
11. Swinging on a Star (from With a Smile and a Song, Columbia LP CS 9066, 1964)
12. Glass Bottom Boat (Alternate Version) (rec. 1966, from Move Over Darling, Bear Family BCD 15800 HK, 1997)
13. Soft as the Starlight (U.K. Single Edit) (CBS U.K. single 202229, 1966)
14. There They Are (Mono) (Columbia single 43606, 1966)
15. Every Now and Then (You Come Around) (Mono) (Columbia single 43606, 1966)
16. Sorry (Columbia single 44150, 1967)
17. Caprice (Columbia single 44150, 1967)
18. Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) (1964 Remake) from With a Smile and a Song, Columbia LP CS 9066, 1964)