James Melton - You Are Love (1932)

Charted at #20 in U.S. in 1932. From the 1927 musical, "Show Boat". Released as part of a 1932 album entitled "Here Comes The Showboat" on Columbia records. The cast album also featured Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, Countess Albani and Frank Munn along with Victor Young and his orchestra. The James Melton record in the package had "Make Believe" on the other side. As far as I can ascertain, this was the first recording on which James used his full operatic singing voice style. On earlier records, he sang in a restrained crooning style. His previous single to this one, "Now You're In My Arms/Beautiful Love" displayed his voice halfway between the two styles of singing. I enjoy his operatic full out singing style records much better, as he seems to be holding back the extent of his voice on the earlier records. On all of his records starting with this one and continuing to his last, he sang with full voice and showed that he was one of the greatest singers we have ever had. I'm going to be posting several of these recordings for you to enjoy.