Mel Tormé's California Suite is a 1957 studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by Mel Tormé

Mel Tormé

Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

, of his California suite.

Tormé first wrote the suite as a twenty minute piece in 1949, arranged by Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, tune writer, and arranger. He was perhaps best known for composing the theme music for the Batman television series of the 1960s, and for scoring the 1968 film The Odd Couple and the subsequent TV series of the same name.He began arranging...

 and Billy May

Billy May

William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...

, with Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

 providing vocals. It was expanded to this LP length version in 1957, the suite was later recorded by Sammy Davis, Jr..

Track listing

1. "The Territory (The Soil Was God)" – 2:57
2. "We Think the West Coast Is the Best" – 1:42
3. "La Jolla" – 3:04
4. "Coney Island" – 2:45
5. "Atlantic City Boardwalk" – 2:33
6. "They Go to San Diego" – 3:53
7. "San Fernando Valley" – 5:04
8. "Got the Date on the Golden Gate" – 4:21
9. "L.A." – 1:48
10. "Six O'Clock (It's Time to Leave the Set)" – 0:55
11. "Nothing to Do (But Shed a Tear)" – 0:22
12. "Poor Little Extra Girl" – 3:52
13. "West Coast Is the Best Coast (Reprise)" – 3:06

All music and lyrics written by Mel Tormé

Mel Tormé

Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...

, except "San Fernando Valley" by Tormé and Gordon Jenkins

Gordon Jenkins

Gordon Hill Jenkins was an American arranger, composer and pianist who was an influential figure in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s, renowned for his lush string arrangements...

.

Performance

• Mel Tormé
  Mel Tormé
  Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
  
   - vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  
• Marty Paich
  Marty Paich
  Martin Louis "Marty" Paich was an American pianist, composer, arranger, producer, music director and conductor....
  
   - arranger
  Arrangement
  The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
  
  , conductor
  Conducting
  Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...