From the S&S archives: Down Front: Bob McGrath, Tony Bennett 'live' in Tokyo

Bob McGrath, a guy with a winning smile and a voice to match, opens next Tuesday night at the Hilton Hotel's Star Hill Club. Meanwhile, Tony Bennett took the spotlight at Shibuya Hall Tuesday night.

McGrath, as I explained before (when he was here for the American Festival a few months back), is a kind of rarity in this age of "soul," rhythm and blues and group sound.

He stands right up there — as clean as you please — and sings good old and new songs with a clear, tenor voice and by golly you can even understand the lyrics!

He figures to stay at the Hilton for three weeks and while in Japan he'll be cutting some new records for Sony/CBS.

When Bob left Japan the last time (this is his eighth visit to Tokyo), he circulated through some of the military clubs in Hawaii and came off quite well. Then, he got another shot at the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson in New York and that doesn't hurt a performer by any means.

By now, everyone knows that McGrath "grew up" on the Mitch Miller sing-a-long show. Several years ago, he decided to go out on his own and has been doing quite well as a single.

His records sell quite well in Japan and he has a strong teenage following here as well as fans from all age levels. The kids have formed Bob McGrath fan clubs throughout Japan and still meet regularly.

At the Hilton, he gets a chance to work with The Star Gazers, a small but excellent group of musicians who seem to blend well with almost any style of performer.

He'll sing one Japanese song to the accompaniment of "shakuhachi" music which must come under the heading of "something different" for foreign entertainers. It is "Kojo no Tsuki" (Moon Over the Ruined Castle.)

Bob now resides in Teaneck, New Jersey but is still an Illinois farm boy at heart. He has never tried to shed his clean-cut image nor his straight-forward style.

He is a handsome guy who should be making motion pictures. The Japanese companies have missed a bet along these lines although he has been seen numerous times on television here.

His present show at the Hilton will be many cuts higher than the usual Star Hill fare. They have been coming on lately with a variety of Japanese girl singers who really don't make it, or other Japanese acts which are merely aping American entertainers and who do a poor job of it.

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TONY BENNETT, the singer's singer, opened in Tokyo Tuesday night at Shibuya Hall, and through an unfortunate happenstance did not have a huge crowd to welcome him.

But Tony, the guy who made San Francisco into everybody's hometown, did a tremendous job of selling that old soft stuff to insure successes from this point on.

In conjunction with Tony's appearance here in Japan, Sony/CBS has released a fantastic new album entitled "Tony Bennett Sings San Francisco," which should go into every Bennett fan's record cabinet.

Tony is Mr. Cool himself and is at his best on the up-tempo numbers. Backing him for his Tokyo appearances is Nobuo Hara and the Sharps and Flats, the band which scored a terrific success at the Newport Jazz Festival a few years back.

Bennett turns it on in spades. He is a guy who oozes show business. He cradles up to a mike as if he is making love and undoubtedly he is. because every song he sings becomes his and becomes a standard at the same time.

He diversifies his program somewhat but you can expect to hear him do such tunes as "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," "Love For Sale" and "I Want to Be Around to Pick Up the Pieces."

As far as I'm concerned, Tony can do no wrong.

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"The Animals," a highly touted group sound gang failed to appear in Tokyo as advertised, cancelling out with less than 24 hours to showtime, claiming to have mistakenly entered into a "double contract."

It seems they had a previously scheduled date in Los Angeles and "forgot" about it.

This sort of nonsense gives "overseas" talent a very bad name in Japan and I don't blame the Japanese for starting to get turned off.

The publicity had gone out, tickets were sold and even teenage fans had made the trip to Kosei Nenkin hall in Shinjuku to get a glimpse of the r 'n' r group. When the notices went up outside the hall explaining the fiasco, some of the girls asked for their train fare back.

This kind of thing also gives Japanese promoters fits because it isn't their fault when they nave to cancel. "The Animals" performance had been set up by the New JBC, Inc. Now, they have to "foot the bill" for the blackout.

JBC could have sued the group and received something like $50,000 to $60,000 in violation of contract fees, but graciously decided not to do so when the management for The Animals said the group would come in November.

But this sort of junk is right out of the "Cry Wolf" stories. Who is going to believe anyone when they finally DO decide to come?

It seems The Animals thought they could get out of the Los Angeles contract to appear in Japan (where their records are sagging, incidentally) but at the last minute couldn't make the squeeze. Instead, the public was "squeezed."