Steve Lawrence

Portrait of My Love is Steve Lawrence's only hit album from the few years he recorded for United Artists in the early '60s. It features Lawrence singing love songs to the instrumental charts of a half-dozen arrangers, Don Costa and Jerry Fielding among them. Lawrence's phrasing is very similar to Frank Sinatra throughout (but especially on "Don't Take Your Love from Me"), which isn't surprising since Lawrence considered Sinatra his mentor and later recorded an entire album of his songs. Lawrence had an eager television and nightclub audience for his younger, smoothed-out variation on Sinatra's style as he carried the classic vocal pop tradition into a new era. Portrait of My Love has a few interesting tunes, including "When You're in Love," which Lawrence co-wrote with his partner, Eydie Gorme. Lawrence deserves admiration for the professionalism and finely tuned technique that went into creating albums such as this. ~ Greg Adams, Rovi