Cole Porter in “Sleuth” (1972)

Hi everyone,

Hope you’re all doing well. I’m not sure if this is the right place for this post, but I think it works best.

For several months now I’ve been embroiled in a search for the identity of the singer who sings three Cole Porter songs (“Just One of Those Things,” “You Do Something to Me,” and “Anything Goes&rdquo  in the movie Sleuth (1972). Here’s a link to a clip of Laurence Olivier’s character dancing to the tunes. I’ve become this involved in the mystery because it has been going around the Internet for at least fifteen or twenty years (there was a post on the old IMDb Boards asking for it from right before the millennium), yet still no one has ever been able to figure out the singer’s identity. It’s a real head-scratcher. 

Anyway, I’m asking here because several Internet sleuths (pun intended, of course) have told me that it’s probably a studio reproduction of a ’30s singer. A music professor with whom I e-mailed back and forth informed me that there are a number of features in the recording that hint at the songs’ being recorded in the ’70s, when the movie was made. Needless to say, there’s no information on IMDb or anywhere around the Internet about this—nor, of course, in the movie’s credits. (The single music credit reads, “Words and music by Cole Porter,” with an asterisk to “by arrangement with Warner Bros. Publishing.” I’ve reached out to Warner Bros. several times and received no reply.) 

It’s entirely possible that the Sleuth production team worked with someone from the theatre, either Broadway or the West End (it was filmed in the U.K. with English actors), especially as it was based on a Tony-winning play. (The scene is not in the play.) 

Does anyone here recognize the voice or know a possible candidate for the singer? I know it’s a minuscule thing, but it would be a great relief to everyone who has searched for the singer over the years, especially those of us searching now on IMDb v2.0!

Best,

Nalkarj

Updated On: 7/10/18 at 10:50 PM

Nearly everyone associated with the production—the composer, the arranger, the director, producer, et al.—is deceased, unfortunately. The one crew member still living whom I was able to contact had no idea, and the only other person is Michael Caine. I’ve not been able to contact him, of course, but even if I did I doubt he’d know.

What’s curious to me is that no one knows the singer’s voice. Even if he were a studio singer, he would have had to sing somewhere else, no? 

Thanks for your reply!

Updated On: 5/14/18 at 07:31 AM

They sound very old, yes, but every expert to whom I’ve spoken assures me that they’re convincing studio fakes (I can pull up all the reasons from an old e-mail, but I remember one of them being that the sound is too good for a ’30s recording. The style, including a snare drum, is also off). Someone else tried discogs before I started looking into the mystery, to no avail. Thanks for helping, though! :)

Have you tried asking at http://theatreboard.co.uk?

There used to be quite a few people who specialized in Noel Coward-style renditions of Cole Porter classics- Peter Skellern springs to mind as the kind of person who used to do this.

The egg-heads at theatreboard may well remember- I think a West End or cabaret artist is most likely.

 

I've always thought it was the 1930s British sing Al Bowlly, from Mozambique. No?

 

https://youtu.be/0NAf7SZcOGc

 

Oh, definitely put me down as another Bowlly fan. :) And the voice is very close to Bowlly, but for the reasons I wrote above (5/14/18), I don’t think the Sleuth songs are from an authentic ‘30s recording. At the beginning of the search, I e-mailed to a music professor who told me that the recording doesn’t sound to him like ’30s—the sound quality is too good, for lack of a better term. 

Which is, I suppose, why I asked here—someone suggested it may be a Broadway or West End singer, like the guys from the wonderful Porter tribute Cole.

Cat Guy said: "Here is ten years of a forum dating back to 2006 asking the same question. Perhaps you participated? The general consensus seems to be: dunno. One suggestion is that Michael Caine was the singer.

http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/forum/displayquestion.php?topicid=7598


Thanks, Cat Guy. I’m the second-to-last poster there. (The earliest Internet post I’ve found of this was ’99.) 

Sorry just to pop up to bump this one silly thread, but someone on IMDb v2.0 found a promising lead—David Kernan, who sang Berlin, Coward, Sondheim, and Porter both on Broadway and the West End.

If anyone here knows of him, could you please tell me if he’s a likely choice? I tried asking at the Theatre Board devonian.t recommended, unfortunately to no avail.

Thanks!

Updated On: 9/29/18 at 10:12 PM

Niles Silvers said: "A possible lead would be to get in contact with Ben Mankiewicz, (TCM), Joseph's nephew.. Whoever it is, it does sound like a contemporary recording by someone imitating Leo Reisman's style. David Kernan may be a good guess, as he was active in films at that time, often in uncredited roles. The voices are similar."

I did reach out to Mankiewicz; he never got back to me, unfortunately. Thanks, though!

Thanks, Niles. I also love a good mystery, which is how I got involved in this silly thing. I’ve also found it intriguing how there seem to be absolutely no record on this person, and how every source comes up blank. (IMDb Pro, or whatever it’s called, lists the caterer and the script girl, but not the singer!) 

I’m sure it’s an arrangement with a professional singer as well, but that singer had to sing something else in his career, right? When Michael Feinstein posted this on his Facebook page, I was sure somebody would come forward, or someone would at least remember/know the voice—but nothing. 

I’m not sure why I’m so interested in this one, other than the general fondness for mysteries, but it has been on the Internet for 15 years now without an explanation. 

Best, and thanks,

Nalkarj

Nalkarj said: "Sorry just to pop up to bump this one silly thread, but someone on IMDb v2.0 found a promising lead—David Kernan, who sang Berlin, Coward, Sondheim, and Porter both on Broadway and the West End.

If anyone here knows of him, could you please tell me if he’s a likely choice? I tried asking at the Theatre Board devonian.t recommended, unfortunately to no avail.

Thanks!"

I know Kernan's voice well from SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM, live on Broadway several times and countless playings of the OLCR. I can't say that he couldn't imitate the Rudy Vallee-style voice on the SLEUTH recording, but his normal voice has more vibrato in it. Check out "I Remember" in SIDE BY SIDE (available to sample on iTunes) for a comparison.

Al Bowlly's voice--judging from the links in this thread--is much brighter than the SLEUTH singer. But again, I don't know that he couldn't alter his singing style. If Jane Horrock of LITTLE VOICE can sound so authentically Garland, etc., then almost anybody might have done the SLEUTH numbers.

I also listened to some sampling of Rudy Vallee himself, even though I feel sure someone else would have identified him if he were the singer in SLEUTH. Vallee comes closer than the two singers I reference above, but his voice is lower, in range and in timbre; the SLEUTH singer goes to what sounds almost like a falsetto effortlessly, but with Vallee the effort on the high notes definitely shows.

Updated On: 1/2/19 at 10:21 PM

Have you asked Shazam or Siri yet? (dumb, but honest question)