1953 Eddie Fisher: Outside Of Heaven

After the satellite bounce of Kay Starr, the former Mr Elizabeth Taylor brings us back down to terra firma with a treacly squelch of a ballad that would have got a pat on the back from Al Martino. Knee deep in self pity, the one time Mr Debbie Reynolds has lost the woman he loves to a new husband and rather than letting go, he spends his days hanging around outside their house remembering the good times they shared ("I pass your house with misty eyes, there stands the gate to paradise") while a counterpoint mass of backing singers egg him on in his mildly stalker-ish activities.

The problem with 'Outside Of Heaven' is the complete lack of grit - though overwrought in tone, the ex Mr Connie Francis sounds more like he's singing for his supper club than genuinely busted up inside, and though it's meant to provide an 'ahhhhh, love never dies' kind of statement, his lack of emotional involvement just makes him seem creepily obsessive; the only emotion shining through here is the retarded kind.

To be fair, Eddie is giving his fans what they wanted and as far as that goes he's bound by the then popular 'Big Book Of Ballads' template with the overloaded backing strings being just part and parcel of the same. That, however, doesn't make this any more palatable to modern ears and to mine, 'Outside Of Heaven' is the epitome of all that was 'bad' about early fifties music in the same the way that Kajagoogoo sum up all that was bad about the eighties.