The lovely and talented vocalist Marlene Cord was born in Springboro, a small community near Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1938. She began studying piano at nine and, by 14, was performing at a local radio station as a pianist and occasional singer. Before graduating high school, she was a regular performer at an Erie television station. At 18, she traveled across the country and Canada with dance bands and performed in small nightclubs, accompanying herself on piano. Later, she married, settled in Kenosha, Wisconsin, had a daughter, and became a house wife. Still yearning for a recording career, she convinced her husband to finance a session at Universal Studios in Chicago, where he hired four top musicians to support her as she recorded soft versions of several standards. Randy Wood of the Dot Record label heard the tape, liked it, and released an album titled “Marlene Cord.” What may seem like worldliness is, in fact, her sensitive approach to the songs she sings.

—Jordi Pujol (Taken from the back liner-notes of FSRV 143)