Mel Torme Quotes
"Whenever I did a good performance, my Dad and my uncles, who were rabid movie fans, took me to the movies. There began my underlying love affair with film."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Dad, Love, Movies, Performance, Fans, Film)
"As regards my feelings about drummers - there's Buddy Rich, and then there's everybody else."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Feelings)
"I hadn't been a recording artist all that long when albums came on the scene, and I was one of the first singers to point the way to how varied an album's contents could be."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Artist, First)
"See, I never wrote arrangements for the band for Judy Garland; I did strictly special material, special lyrics, put together all of her medleys."
- Mel Torme
"I want to sing for the broadest possible audience."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Want)
"I got into radio when I was eight, and I was one of the busiest child dramatic actors in America."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Actors, America)
"I was a singer professionally when I was four years old, and I did not really begin to play any instrument - the first one, of course, was drums - till I was about nine years old."
- Mel Torme
(Related: First, Old, Play, Years)
"I would be a liar if I said it wouldn't be lovely and soothing - that's the word - to have a hit single or a hit album."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Word)
"It may sound a bit like an army barracks, but the truth of the matter is: there must be some time laid aside for arranging, time for working on either a book or an article - I've written two articles in the last four months for the New York Times book review section."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Time, Truth, Army, May, Months, Sound)
"My initial career, really, as a baby, was as a singer."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Baby, Career)
"Right now, my career is in three directions: as a performer, as an arranger, as an author - and I don't give any one of them true precedent, or true top marks, as opposed to the other two."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Career, Now, Right)
"So I'm sorry, I'm going to continue to talk to the people, because I do believe that if they get to know you and what you are as a human being, they can more appreciate what you are as a performer."
- Mel Torme
(Related: People, Being, Talk)
"Talking money is crass; so I'm not going to tell you what I made last year."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Money, Talking)
"How many radio shows I did is lost to memory now; it's in the hundreds - maybe even close to being in the thousands - for the span of years from the time I was eight till I was about fifteen."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Time, Being, Memory, Now, Years)
"But, in fairness to them, too, the popular song per se is really a pretty shallow medium to perform in."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Popular, Pretty, Song)
"Buddy Rich is one of a kind; he's a genius, and that's all there is to it."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Genius)
"As a singer, the biggest joy I have are the arrangements."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Joy)
"Because Chicago was to radio what Hollywood was to films and Broadway was to the theatre: it was the hub of radio."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Chicago, Hollywood)
"As Buddy Rich, for instance, broke into the business at the age of three, I think it was, on drums, so indeed did I break into the business at the age of four as a singer."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Age, Business)
"I didn't really have an act per se - a theatrical performance, as opposed to just: here I am, folks, and you're all supposed to be dead quiet while I sing eight or nine songs, then get off the stage."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Performance, Act, Quiet, Songs)
"Because obviously the whole purpose of putting records out is purely and simply to make money."
- Mel Torme
(Related: Money, Purpose)