Mel Torme Quotes

25 quotes in 390 categories

• To me, nostalgia is nothing more than a mindless plundering of the past for the commonplace.
• I want to sing for the broadest possible audience.
• 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…
• Since the advent of Benny Goodman, there have been too few clarinetists to fill the void that Goodman left. Ken Peplowski is most certainly one…
• But, in fairness to them, too, the popular song per se is really a pretty shallow medium to perform in.
• 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…
• I got into radio when I was eight, and I was one of the busiest child dramatic actors in America.
• Because Chicago was to radio what Hollywood was to films and Broadway was to the theatre: it was the hub of radio.
• 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…
• 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,…
• As a singer, the biggest joy I have are the arrangements.
• Because obviously the whole purpose of putting records out is purely and simply to make money.
• Talking money is crass; so I'm not going to tell you what I made last year.
• See, I never wrote arrangements for the band for Judy Garland; I did strictly special material, special lyrics, put together all of her medleys.
• My initial career, really, as a baby, was as a singer.
• How many radio shows I did is lost to memory now; it's in the hundreds - maybe even close to being in the thousands -…
• 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…
• 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…
• I was a singer professionally when I was four years old, and I did not really begin to play any instrument - the first one,…
• 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…

Browse Mel Torme Quotes by Category