Backgrounder: Bobby Hackett, Memorable & Mellow

In 1967 and '68, cornetist Bobby Hackett recorded a pair of gorgeous LPs with strings on the Project 3 Total Sound label—That Midnight Touch and A Time for Love. In 1979, both albums with sterling fidelity were released as a two-fer by Project 3 as The Memorable & Mellow Bobby Hackett. With the advent of the CD player in the 1980s, the double album was issued on CD in 1986.

Now, in 2023, I'm providing these beautiful albums to you as a Backgrounder. But first, some history. Hackett was a Chicago-jazz and swing-era, big-band veteran best known for his years in the Glenn Miller Orchestra on trumpet, most notably featured overdubbing his horn on the ballad At Last. The song, arranged by Bill Finegan, was included in the 1942 war-time film Orchestra Wives. [Photo above of Bobby Hackett in the late 1940s by William P. Gottlieb]

Vocals are by Ray Eberle and Pat Friday, who dubbed for actress Lynne Bari. Go here...



In the 1950s, Hackett switched to cornet and recorded similarly and extensively for Capitol on a stretch of mood-music ballad albums geared for dating and unwinding. By the late 1950s, he reprised his wandering sound on the many Jackie Gleason Orchestra albums that were arranged to accomplish the same goal.

For my ad-free Backgrounder this week, here's Hackett and his cornet, with far better fidelity, on Memorable and Mellow...