New Pop Records

By the Beautiful Sea (Shirley Booth, Wilbur Evans; Capitol LP). Mostly ordinary show tunes by Arthur Schwartz (music) and Dorothy Fields (lyrics), but Actress-Singer Booth puts a few of them over with a fine, plaintive twang that helps explain the success of the Broadway production. Best tunes: I'd Rather Wake Up by Myself, Lottie Gibson Specialty, both sung by Booth, and Coney Island Boat, sung by the chorus while Booth at the same time sings In the Good Old Summertime to form one of those two-headed duets (e.g., You're Just in Love, from Call Me Madam).

Louis Armstrong Sings the Blues (Victor LP). The great jazzman, his trumpet, and the voice that sounds like gravel tossed into a malted machine. There are a dozen tunes (originally recorded from 1933 to 1947), including Basin Street Blues, St. Louis Blues and Rockin' Chair, an exemplary duet with oldtime Trombonist Jack Teagarden. Other supporters: Pianists Teddy Wilson and Johnny Guarnieri, Trombonist Kid Ory, Trumpeter Bobby Hackett, Drummer Cozy Cole.

Three Coins in the Fountain (Frank Sinatra; Capitol). Crooner Sinatra sings in a strong, wide range about the Fountain of Trevi in Rome, a wishing-well attraction for the tourist. Result: plenty of coins in the jukeboxes.

Chet Baker (Pacific Jazz LP). Young (24) Baker, of California's cool school, is popping out like the measles. One record, Chet Baker Ensemble, features furious, close work by a small group; they play mostly original exercises with such titles as Ergo, Bockhanal and Pro Defunctus. Another disk, Chet Baker Sings, has eight old standards, e.g., But Not for Me, The Thrill Is Gone, I Get Along Without You Very Well, Look for the Silver Lining, crooned by Baker in a light, untrained voice that nevertheless has a moving quality. His soft, appealing trumpet is heard too.

The Pajama Game (John Raitt, Janis Paige, Eddie Foy Jr., Carol Haney, Stanley Prager; Columbia LP). The song list of the George Abbott-Richard Bissell hit has a few nifties: Hey There, Her Is, There Once Was a Man (a satire on hillbilly tunes), and Hernando's Hideaway (a take-off on tangos).

The Genius of Art Tatum (Clef LP). Five recordings produced by Jazz Impresario Norman Granz in testimony of Tatum's famed skills. Pianist Tatum, 44 and nearly totally blind, can make any song sparkle with his dextrous, imaginative ideas. Spontaneously, he ripples off complex chords, melodic figures and moods that should make the most devoted Liberace fan cry with shame. Some of the 34 titles: The Man I Love, Body and Sold, Yesterdays, My Last Affair, This Can't Be Love, and I'm Coming, Virginia.

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