Seasonal Songs - "Love Turns Winter to Spring"

 As we transition from Winter to Spring, let's sneak in another seasonal song!

We left off with The Beach Boys singing a Four Freshman-esque arrangement of "The Things We Did Last Summer," so let's hear The Four Freshmen themselves!

I think the Freshmen were the first to commercially record the 1941 Matt Dennis/Frank Killduff song "Love Turns Winter to Spring" on a Capitol single in 1954:

That's just a great record with typically stellar backing from Nelson Riddle. No wonder Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys was a fan!

I'm sure that June Christy was also a fan so she probably got the idea to record "Love Turns Winter to Spring" from The Four Freshmen.

"The Misty Miss Christy" included it as a cut on her 1957 Capitol album "Gone for the Day":

That's a great arrangement by Pete Rugolo, who worked with the Stan Kenton band back when June was its star vocalist.

The Four Freshman also worked with Stan Kenton and June Christy at times, but I'm guessing it was just a coincidence that Stan had an arrangement of "Love Turns Winter to Spring" back in 1941.

He played it on radio broadcasts, but did not record it:

That's tenor saxist Red Dorris on the vocal.

Also from 1941 is this "Soundie" of the song featuring former Benny Goodman vocalist Martha Tilton and the Bobby Sherwood band:

That's a lot of fun! 

Martha did not seem to record it for commercial release either. 

In addition to the Liltin' Miss Tilton and the Misty Miss Christy, "G.I. Jo" (Jo Stafford) performed the song on a 1944 radio show:

Jo even includes the verse! She did not record the song, however.

Jo Stafford was friends with composer Matt Dennis and got him a job writing songs for Tommy Dorsey in the early 1940s when she and The Pied Pipers were featured with the band. TD recorded a number of Matt's songs, but not this one for some reason.

Strange that the song had to wait a dozen or so years to get an actual recording!

And in what must be a coincidence, The Four Freshmen, June Christy, Stan Kenton, Martha Tilton, Bobby Sherwood and Jo Stafford all enjoyed success as Capitol recording artists!