Mario Lanza recorded "If You Are But a Dream" for his weekly radio show on July 27, 1951. (Also recorded that day was Victor Herbert's "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life.") This 1942 song by Moe Jaffe, Jack Fulton, and Nat Bonx was adapted from a melody from Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894)'s "Romance for Piano in E Flat Major" (1860).
Popularly associated with Frank Sinatra, who recorded it twice, Lanza's version was first released six years after his death on the 1965 LP of the same name, and subsequently on CD in 1998 on BMG's When Day Is Done.
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#17 Begin the Beguine (Radio, 1952)
Mario Lanza recorded this classic 1935 song by Cole Porter (1891-1964) for his weekly radio show on January 16, 1952. (It was actually Lanza's second version of "Begin the Beguine," following a rejected take exactly one month earlier.)This recording was first released on the LP "A Kiss and Other Love Songs" in 1954, and subsequently on CD in 1998 on BMG's When Day Is Done.
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