Laurie Allyn - I'll Never Smile Again 1957

Laurie Allyn is an American jazz singer and former model. She is best known for her sole album Paradise, which was recorded in 1957 and amassed critical acclaim after a belated release in 2004.

Allyn was born into a musical family and raised in Waco, Texas. Upon coming of age in the mid-1950s, Allyn began to pursue a career as a singer, initially performing with local groups in the Waco area. She soon relocated to the St. Louis, Missouri area. While performing at events near Scott Air Force Base, Allyn auditioned for songwriter Tommy Wolf and began performing as house singer at the nightclub The Crystal Palace, owned by Fran Landesman, with Wolf accompanying Allyn on piano. Allyn was the first singer to perform Landesman and Wolf's song "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" in public; the song would later become a standard recorded by many artists.

In 1954, Allyn was hired and brought to Chicago to work as house singer at the nightclub The Cloister Inn. While working at the Cloister Inn, she met singer Tony Bennett for a breakfast date, and discussed her then-piano player, Ralph Sharon, with him. The conversation led Bennett to hire the pianist away from her. Ralph Sharon would go on to perform with Bennett for over forty years.

By 1956, Allyn had retired from performing, and had married Bill Doherty, part owner of the nightclub The Black Orchid. In 1957, Allyn was performing again at the nightclub The Nocturne, where the Chicago Tribune reported on the popularity of her "throaty, seated-on-a-piano, moody Julie London-ish" live performances.

Here is a real obscurity. Laurie Allyn sang jazz in Chicago in the mid-'50s and made this one recording for the Mode label. Unfortunately a week later the label ceased operations, and although this set was listed in its catalogs, it was not released for the first time until 47 years later. Allyn, who would later go by the name of Didi Pierce, apparently never recorded another jazz date, and that is a pity. Her voice is small but quite expressive, cool but inwardly emotional. Her choice of notes is excellent and she draws listeners into the music. Accompanied by a string orchestra on eight selections and a brass section on four others, with all of the numbers arranged by Marty Paich, Allyn is in superior form on such songs as "You Go to My Head," "Easy Living," a slow version of "The More I See You," and "Where Are You." Trumpeter Don Fagerquist, guitarist Al Viola, and pianist Paich are major assets in the backup bands. This ballad-oriented set is well worth acquiring by fans of 1950s jazz-influenced vocalists; some of the singing (particularly on "I'll Never Smile Again") is quite haunting.