Now largely forgotten by modern ears, Ronnie Hilton was quite the star in the fifties though he picked the wrong time to start forging a career as a crooning balladeer. His preferred style was rapidly running out of time and on 'No Other Love' there's a temptation to picture some Tomcat Murr practical joker transposing the lyrics to a different score of music before passing them to Ronnie and then giving the orchestra something different again from the realm of the Avant Garde to play. How else to explain Hilton's wild phrasing and sudden shifts of key and tone while the backing music breaks into rolling crashes of sound for no apparent reason? For what's meant to be a loving ballad, 'No Other Love' is about as tender and soothing listening to a hailstorm from inside a tin shed; Hilton's voice is solid enough, but it's bland enough too and if there was some japery afoot behind the scenes (which, alas, I very much doubt), then he proves himself a top class straight man by rolling with everything that's thrown at him without missing a beat. And that's my main problem with this - his poker faced delivery is bone dry and it makes 'No Other Love' a turgid affair on every level. "Hurry home, come home to me, set me free, free from doubt and free from longing" - leave it out Ron.
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