Singer Marelen VerPlanck has a new album—Ballads, Mostly. It's a delicious collection of moody songs with an upbeat feel. Seven of the 15 track were arranged by Marlene's late husband, Billy VerPlanck, who died in 2009. Though Marlene spent three decades starting in the '60s recording demos and jingles, she began her professional career in the bands of Charlie Spivak and Tommy Dorsey, and recorded many terrific jazz albums over the years.
Marlene also continues to perfom. On Saturday at 1 p.m., she will be singing at the Sheet Music Society of New York City, at 322 W. 48th St., just west of 8th Ave. AFM members are free, $10 for others. She will be joined by pianist, songwriter and singer Ronny Whyte. CDs and sheet music will be available, with all proceeds going to The Cancer Fund. For more informaiton: (212 245-4802).
During our recent conversation, Marlene talked about how she got her start and meeting a guy in the street with a glass of milk:
JazzWax: Where did you grow up?
Marlene VerPlanck: I was born in Newark, and we lived there until I was 16. Then my family moved to Bloomfield, N.J., about 15 minutes away. We needed a bigger house for me and my younger brother and sister. We were a very close Italian family. There are 13 of us in my generation, and I still get together with my first cousins.
JW: Was your family musical?
MV: No. My family was in the restaurant business. My grandfather started the biggest Italian restaurant in Newark—Biase's—and it was around for about 85 years. Originally my grandmother was in the kitchen there. My mother also was a master chef. My favorite recipe of hers was lasagna.
JW: Did you train as a singer? MV: No. Actually, I didn't start singing until I was 19 years old. I recorded my first album in 1955, a session for Savoy that Ozzie Cadena produced.
JW: How did you go from no experience to a Savoy record date?
MV: As a kid, my mother always had the radio dial on WNEW in New York, which played big band and pop music. I also used to sing along with records all the time. I used to go down to WNJR in Newark and pull records for Carl Ide, who had a show. I hung out there and one day decided I was going to sing. I never looked back.
JW: You really hadn't been singing professionally? MV: Just a little. Before age 19 I had never worked at a club. Then in the summer of 1955, I began singing at The Well in Caldwell, N.J. I was so young and green. My dad took me to the club and told them he was my agent.
JW: Who was playing?
MV: There was a trio. After I sang, one of the local piano players said, “You know, I'd use you on the job but you don't know any songs." So I went home and learned every song in a fake book. When I came back, there wasn't a song I didn't know, and I kept the gig for several months. That must have been where Ozzie first heard me. [Pictured: Marlene with the John LaSalle Quartet; if you have this one on CD, please let me know]
JW: Not a bad Savoy session in November '55.
MV: Oh, you mean Joe Wilder, Hank Jones, Eddie Jones and Kenny Clarke. Yes, I know [laughs]. They were brought in special to record my album.
JW: In early '56, Charlie Spivak [pictured above] asked you to join his band.
MV: For a singer, it was a great opportunity. The big band era was over, but there was still a market for people who liked to listen to band.
JW: Did you tour?
MV: Yes, right way. The band was leaving from the front of the President Hotel in New York in February 1956. My parents drove me in to the city and it was snowing. We sat in the car, and one by one the guys in the band began showing up. All of a sudden we see this one guy with an overcoat that was too small on him with a trombone case, carrying a glass of milk. My mother grabbed my arm and said, “I hope you don't get in the car with that one."
JW: What happened?
MV: I wound up sitting between him and another guy in one of the cars. He was so gentle and nice, we hit it off immediately and started talking. He was funny and everything I ever wanted in a guy. We were so compatible. After each gig we'd go and talk. He also had brought his records and phonograph. He was the only one in the band who did that, because he was passionate about music. [Pictured above, Billy VerPlanck]
JW: And the guy's name?
MV: Billy VerPlanck [pictured above]. We met in February '55 and married in October.
JW: In October?
MV: He proposed in an elevator. I didn't hesitate. I really loved him by then. We were together and in love until Billy died in 2009.
JW: How long were you with Spivak?
MV: Not long. We joined Tommy Dorsey's band for a short period. Billy worshiped Tommy. He thought he was the greatest player and a superb businessman. The last Dorsey band was great—it had Louis Bellson, Charlie Shavers and Sonny Russo. Billy wrote arrangements.
JW: How was it singing with the band?
MV: Our first gig was in North Carolina. There must have been 6,000 people in the audience. I figured that on the first night, Tommy would ask me to do one or two songs. So I learned the book to be sure I had them all covered. But that night he asked me to do them all. At intermission, Tommy called out to me: “Marlene! Marlene!" I'm quaking in boots. What did I do wrong? Tommy said, “When you take your bow, take a real one." I had been just nodding [laughs]. He was right. Tommy was a real showman.
JW: What was it about Dorsey?
MV: When Tommy walked out on stage, he was the last one to come out. Trombonist Vinnie Forrest usually did the intro. Then Tommy would stride on stage like a stallion. Big and broad and imposing. He had a presence. Jimmy was quiet and laid back. Tommy was the leader.
JW: A nice guy?
MV: You didn't get close to Tommy. The more you stayed away the better off you'd be. The night before Billy and I got married, Billy rode with him in his car to the next gig. Tommy said, “Don't get married, it's just trouble." Billy was so scared. After we got married, Billy was afraid to tell him. Then Tommy died in November, and Billy wouldn't let me continue with the band.
JW: Why not?
MV: At the end of '56, Tommy died and the band went to Las Vegas. Neither of us wanted to go out there. I said to Billy, “Let's stay in New York. If we don't do it now, we'll never get back here again." It was the best thing we ever did.
JW: Why?
MV: Because the work picked up for both of us. Fortunately, Billy said he didn't want me to be a musical moron. I could learn songs fast but I wasn't a sight-reader. So I studied with Helen Jordan. I put my nose to the grindstone and worked my tail off for six hours a day, seven days a week for three years. At the end, in 1960, I could read anything.
JW: Why was that important?
MV: I wound up with a ton of works for demos and ad jingles for the next 30 years. It was a very lucrative period. All the songwriters from the Brill Building would come in and I'd make demo records, which they'd then use to sell publishers on the songs, who in turn would use them to win record deals for artists.
JW: What about jingles?
MV: I was like one of the women on the show Mad Men. I started singing Mmm Good for Campbell's Soup. I sang the “Yeah" in the Michelob beer ads, I sang “Nationwide is on your side," and many of the most familiar ad tag lines.
JW: Did you work with Sinatra?
MV: Yes, on Trilogy. I sang on the date and contracted the 16 background singers in the choir. It's the album with Don Costa arrangements. His charts were to die for.
JW: Did Billy come to the sessions?
MV: Billy usually never came to my record dates. He didn't want to get in the way. But in this case, I said, “You have to come, you'll love it." Billy agreed. Up until that point, Sinatra was doing only one take of each song. When Billy came in, they just finished Just the Way You Are. But on playback, there was a mistake and they had to re-do it. Billy got to hear it live. You could cry it was so beautiful. We were two crybabies when we heard things that were great.
JW: What happened after?
MV: Billy saw Sonny Burke in the booth. He said to me, “I just have to shake his hand." If Billy liked something someone played or did, he'd always go up to the person to shake his hand. He tapped Sonny as he was walking out. Sonny turned around briskly. Billy said, “I just wanted to tell you I was on Jimmy Dorsey's band and played your arrangement of Lover every night. Sonny smiled from ear to ear. “That's my favorite arrangement," he said.
JW: You and Billy were quite a couple.
MV: We were. I miss him. He never went out with the guys and I never went out with the girls. We went out together and went to each other's sessions. We both got lucky.
During our recent conversation, Marlene talked about how she got her start and meeting a guy in the street with a glass of milk:
JazzWax: Where did you grow up?
Marlene VerPlanck: I was born in Newark, and we lived there until I was 16. Then my family moved to Bloomfield, N.J., about 15 minutes away. We needed a bigger house for me and my younger brother and sister. We were a very close Italian family. There are 13 of us in my generation, and I still get together with my first cousins.
MV: No. My family was in the restaurant business. My grandfather started the biggest Italian restaurant in Newark—Biase's—and it was around for about 85 years. Originally my grandmother was in the kitchen there. My mother also was a master chef. My favorite recipe of hers was lasagna.
JW: Did you train as a singer? MV: No. Actually, I didn't start singing until I was 19 years old. I recorded my first album in 1955, a session for Savoy that Ozzie Cadena produced.
MV: As a kid, my mother always had the radio dial on WNEW in New York, which played big band and pop music. I also used to sing along with records all the time. I used to go down to WNJR in Newark and pull records for Carl Ide, who had a show. I hung out there and one day decided I was going to sing. I never looked back.
JW: You really hadn't been singing professionally? MV: Just a little. Before age 19 I had never worked at a club. Then in the summer of 1955, I began singing at The Well in Caldwell, N.J. I was so young and green. My dad took me to the club and told them he was my agent.
MV: There was a trio. After I sang, one of the local piano players said, “You know, I'd use you on the job but you don't know any songs." So I went home and learned every song in a fake book. When I came back, there wasn't a song I didn't know, and I kept the gig for several months. That must have been where Ozzie first heard me. [Pictured: Marlene with the John LaSalle Quartet; if you have this one on CD, please let me know]
JW: Not a bad Savoy session in November '55.
MV: Oh, you mean Joe Wilder, Hank Jones, Eddie Jones and Kenny Clarke. Yes, I know [laughs]. They were brought in special to record my album.
MV: For a singer, it was a great opportunity. The big band era was over, but there was still a market for people who liked to listen to band.
JW: Did you tour?
MV: Yes, right way. The band was leaving from the front of the President Hotel in New York in February 1956. My parents drove me in to the city and it was snowing. We sat in the car, and one by one the guys in the band began showing up. All of a sudden we see this one guy with an overcoat that was too small on him with a trombone case, carrying a glass of milk. My mother grabbed my arm and said, “I hope you don't get in the car with that one."
JW: What happened?
MV: I wound up sitting between him and another guy in one of the cars. He was so gentle and nice, we hit it off immediately and started talking. He was funny and everything I ever wanted in a guy. We were so compatible. After each gig we'd go and talk. He also had brought his records and phonograph. He was the only one in the band who did that, because he was passionate about music. [Pictured above, Billy VerPlanck]
MV: Billy VerPlanck [pictured above]. We met in February '55 and married in October.
JW: In October?
MV: He proposed in an elevator. I didn't hesitate. I really loved him by then. We were together and in love until Billy died in 2009.
MV: Not long. We joined Tommy Dorsey's band for a short period. Billy worshiped Tommy. He thought he was the greatest player and a superb businessman. The last Dorsey band was great—it had Louis Bellson, Charlie Shavers and Sonny Russo. Billy wrote arrangements.
JW: How was it singing with the band?
MV: Our first gig was in North Carolina. There must have been 6,000 people in the audience. I figured that on the first night, Tommy would ask me to do one or two songs. So I learned the book to be sure I had them all covered. But that night he asked me to do them all. At intermission, Tommy called out to me: “Marlene! Marlene!" I'm quaking in boots. What did I do wrong? Tommy said, “When you take your bow, take a real one." I had been just nodding [laughs]. He was right. Tommy was a real showman.
MV: When Tommy walked out on stage, he was the last one to come out. Trombonist Vinnie Forrest usually did the intro. Then Tommy would stride on stage like a stallion. Big and broad and imposing. He had a presence. Jimmy was quiet and laid back. Tommy was the leader.
JW: A nice guy?
MV: You didn't get close to Tommy. The more you stayed away the better off you'd be. The night before Billy and I got married, Billy rode with him in his car to the next gig. Tommy said, “Don't get married, it's just trouble." Billy was so scared. After we got married, Billy was afraid to tell him. Then Tommy died in November, and Billy wouldn't let me continue with the band.
MV: At the end of '56, Tommy died and the band went to Las Vegas. Neither of us wanted to go out there. I said to Billy, “Let's stay in New York. If we don't do it now, we'll never get back here again." It was the best thing we ever did.
JW: Why?
MV: Because the work picked up for both of us. Fortunately, Billy said he didn't want me to be a musical moron. I could learn songs fast but I wasn't a sight-reader. So I studied with Helen Jordan. I put my nose to the grindstone and worked my tail off for six hours a day, seven days a week for three years. At the end, in 1960, I could read anything.
JW: Why was that important?
MV: I wound up with a ton of works for demos and ad jingles for the next 30 years. It was a very lucrative period. All the songwriters from the Brill Building would come in and I'd make demo records, which they'd then use to sell publishers on the songs, who in turn would use them to win record deals for artists.
JW: What about jingles?
MV: I was like one of the women on the show Mad Men. I started singing Mmm Good for Campbell's Soup. I sang the “Yeah" in the Michelob beer ads, I sang “Nationwide is on your side," and many of the most familiar ad tag lines.
JW: Did you work with Sinatra?
MV: Yes, on Trilogy. I sang on the date and contracted the 16 background singers in the choir. It's the album with Don Costa arrangements. His charts were to die for.
JW: Did Billy come to the sessions?
MV: Billy usually never came to my record dates. He didn't want to get in the way. But in this case, I said, “You have to come, you'll love it." Billy agreed. Up until that point, Sinatra was doing only one take of each song. When Billy came in, they just finished Just the Way You Are. But on playback, there was a mistake and they had to re-do it. Billy got to hear it live. You could cry it was so beautiful. We were two crybabies when we heard things that were great.
JW: What happened after?
MV: Billy saw Sonny Burke in the booth. He said to me, “I just have to shake his hand." If Billy liked something someone played or did, he'd always go up to the person to shake his hand. He tapped Sonny as he was walking out. Sonny turned around briskly. Billy said, “I just wanted to tell you I was on Jimmy Dorsey's band and played your arrangement of Lover every night. Sonny smiled from ear to ear. “That's my favorite arrangement," he said.
JW: You and Billy were quite a couple.
MV: We were. I miss him. He never went out with the guys and I never went out with the girls. We went out together and went to each other's sessions. We both got lucky.
This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.
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