The link below is to a 1953 recording of the song "Marriage Type Love," by Ted Straeter and His Orchestra.
The song was from the 1953 Broadway musical Me and Juliet. The play's songs were by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
Ted Straeter was a noted pianist, orchestra leader, and vocalist. He was also a director of vocal groups; in the late 1930s and early 1940s, his Ted Straeter Choir had been part of the cast of Kate Smith's radio show.
"Marriage Type Love" appeared on an MGM album featuring Mr. Straeter and his orchestra. The album included songs not only from Me and Juliet, but from the 1953 musical Can-Can; the songs for the latter show were by Cole Porter. Ted Straeter and my mother sang on the album, separately and together. They both sang on "Marriage Type Love."
Here is the song, which I like very much:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN6Y4GuT__8
The album was recorded in June of 1953, in New York; both Me and Juliet and Can-Can had had their Broadway debuts the month before.
My mother, who had moved with my father to the Boston area at the start of 1953, was well into her first pregnancy at the time the recording was made; the following month she would give birth to my brother.
Ted Straeter's singing style was idiosyncratic--low-key, easygoing, somewhat intimate. It is, I think, a pleasing style, one which has its own particular elegance. (I am guessing some listeners might need to get acclimated to his vocal manner. I was one such listener; his singing, indeed, grew on me.) His piano playing, too, is distinctive, and impressive. One notes, in particular, his interlude--it has a lush sound--on "Marriage Type Love." He doesn't stay, precisely, with the timing of his orchestra, accompanying him. His playing in the interlude diverges, in a handful of instances; he alternately comes in a little early, or comes in a bit late. The style is appealing.
Mr. Straeter's best-known record was "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World." The song was written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, for the 1935 Broadway show Jumbo. Mr. Straeter's version of the song was recorded in 1947 and released in 1948, and it became his theme song. He recorded the song again in 1951.
The link below is to the 1947/1948 version. Mr. Straeter plays the piano and sings; he is accompanied by the "Straeter Singers."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXOdX4kubvQ
Mr. Straeter died in 1963, following surgery. He was 49.
