STORIES FOR RAINY DAYS  -  FRANK LUTHER

YEAR:  196?
LABEL:  Vocalion
TRACK LISTING:  Jack and the Beanstalk,  The Tick Tock Shop,  The Raggleytaggletown Singers,  The Ugly Duckling,  Chicken Licken,  Sleeping Beauty
IMPRESSIONS:  Frank Luther has a really nice way with a children's story.  And how can an album utilizing the words "rainy day" fail to catch my interest.  I've found several Frank Luther recordings and they're all great listens.  Luther has some sort of simpatico with children (and even the adult listener); there is just something in his voice which is not only reassuring to children but also places himself on the same level as the children who are listening to him tell his stories.  Luther never talks down to his listeners.  Children hate that.  Frank Luther tells a story with such enthusiasm as if he's just learned of something really interesting and can't wait to share it with you.  If you have kids or know some, give 'em a couple Frank Luther records.  I'm sure they'd appreciate it.
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Come on now . . . once you follow along with Frank Luther you've got to go along to the end.  All of 'em.
FACT SHEET:  It's impossible to determine an accurate discography of Frank Luther's records.  Even the date of "STORIES FOR RAINY DAYS" is uncertain although the best guest places it sometime in the early 1960's probably.  He started out as a country music singer and a big band vocalist but in the mid-30's he happened to record a couple 78s of nursery rhymes at Decca Records and suddenly he was a children's record phenomenon.  His children's records began to sell enormous amounts and pediatricians and child psychologists endorsed his recordings.  Decca at one point claimed in 1946 that 85% of all children's records sold in the English-speaking world were Frank Luther's.