Eight weeks in, and we've arrived at a dubious honour: this is the first album where the top-billed performer (Helen Merrill in this case) is still alive—as I write this in February 2025, she's a sprightly 95 years old according to Wikipedia. Perhaps more excitingly, we've also got our first duplicate track: we first heard "You Don't Know What Love Is" in week 4 (I give the edge to Merrill).

This album has an interesting gimmick. For each "song," there's two tracks: the first is a spoken word version of the song's lyrics in Italian; the second is the real song (with Merrill singing in English). Is it completely unnecessary and self-indulgent? Yes. Do I love it, and does it make me pretend I'm living on the Amalfi Coast in Ripley? Also yes.

Also, this is the third album to feature a lovely leading lady, and I have a confession to make: while there's no denying the sublimity of Merrill's singing, it's pretty clear to me by now that this isn't what I want out of my jazz—I'd almost always sooner reach for any of the instrumental albums we've heard, or Armstrong's bombastic vocals.

One final bit of trivia for the week: this might be the first you've heard of Helen Merrill, but you surely know one of her son's songs: he wrote the original version of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll."

Favourite track: Why Don't You Do It Right