New Pop Records

Back in the '20s and early '30s, Bessie Smith was the rage of the blues world. She could punch a tune or wail it soft. She stood 5 ft. 9 in., weighed 210 Ibs., and she drank gin as if it were water. She died in an automobile crash in 1937. Her friends thought she was about 50, but nobody knew for certain.

Before she died, Bessie recorded more than 160 numbers for Columbia. This week Columbia released 47 of them on four LPs, and titled them The Bessie Smith Story. Bessie's album contains some of the best jazz of her day, features such instrumentalists as Armstrong, James P. Johnson, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Goodman, Frankie Newton, Jack Teagarden. Some of the titles: St. Louis Blues, Careless Love Blues, Empty Bed Blues, Yellow Dog Blues, Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair, Gimme a Pigfoot.

Other new records:

Mario Lanza Sings Christmas Songs (Victor, 2 sides LP). Tenor Lanza tears into The First Noel, O Come, All Ye Faithful, and six more, with as much zest as if they were Puccini arias.

Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Spike Jones; Victor). One of 30 current recordings of the song which was No. i on the small-fry hit parade last year. Jones packs away his customary fireworks, turns out a good disc for kids.

Shrimp Boats (Jo Stafford; Columbia). A folk song about Louisiana fishermen's wives awaiting the tide, the shrimp catch and their husbands, so they can all have a party. Jo Stafford gives it atmosphere and bounce.

You Go to My Head ("The Continental"; Capitol). "The Continental" is Renzo Cesana, intimate-patter man of TV (TIME, Nov. 5), who speaks these man-to-woman lines as if he were holding a glass of champagne in one hand and a swooning female in the other. Women will giggle, men guffaw.

I Only Saw Him Once (Rosemary Clooney; Columbia). Rosemary Clooney takes a sweet ballad for a gentle ride, proves again that she is one of the best female vocalists around.

Green Sleeves (Peter Hanley; Columbia). Vocalist Hanley, plus some French horns, a chorus and orchestra, in a polished arrangement of one of the loveliest of 16th Century folk songs.

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