Julie London - London By Night

2021 reissue

1958's London By Night is a typically high-class, high quality Julie London album. The standards and original tunes on the disc are strung together in such a way that they form a narrative of a lovelorn woman finding true love, getting dumped, and wandering around sadly until finding romantic redemption in the final song. London specialized in downbeat numbers and even the positive love songs are languid and moody, so they jibe well with the wrist-slashers that make up the majority of the album.

Many of London's albums feature a song or two by her husband, Bobby Troup. London By Night is no exception and it features two Troup originals: the opening track, "Well, Sir," and "Just the Way I Am," which closes with the emotionally naked line "What a fool I was to dream that someday you could love me just the way I am." It's to London's credit that she could deliver lines like this so convincingly when she was famous for her beauty. It also shows how 1950s audiences were dealing with the same issues of self-worth and esteem that modern ones are grappling with, and why classic albums such as London By Night still have a place in music collections.

Nick Dedina