America’s Little Darlins . At the time with musical styles being very defined, some  would question the pairing of a top 40 Do-Wop group with  a jazz-master like Pete Rugolo.  The Diamonds had  honed their formative skills on this style of music and the  vocal blend and the quality of sound was probably the  best of all their recordings. Vocal arrangements were very interesting, and resulted in a good quartet sound. Add to  that, some nice jazz solos by the members of Rugolo's  band. Personnel: Lead-David Somerville. Tenor-Ted Kowalski.  Baritone-Mike Douglas. Bass-Bill Reed.  (MERCURY MG20368)  1.   WRAP YOUR TROUBLES IN DREAMS 2.   BABY WON'T YOU PLEASE COME HOME 3.   THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE 4.   AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' 5.   UNTIL THE REAL THING COMES ALONG 6.   I'LL ALWAYS BE IN LOVE WITH YOU . 7.   WILL YOU STILL BE MINE 8.   TENDERLY 9.   FOR ALL WE KNOW 10. ONE FOR MY BABY 11. LULU'S BACK IN TOWN 12. YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONG Cuts Album Notes So you think you've heard the Diamonds! Sure you have if you've heard the rambunctious group that wailed Li'l  Darling and a frantic succession of hits that followed. But hold on. There is more flash to these Diamonds than has so far met the eye-or ear. When they met up with  orchestral master of the modern sound, Pete Rugolo, to record this album, the Diamonds emerged with a new,  smooth, high polish that nobody ever knew about.  Against the insidious mischief of these winging, ringing, swinging  Rugolo arrangements, the Diamonds sparkle with a solid musicality to excite the most demanding taste of the  modern jazz fan, as well as of the Diamonds' friends from the rock-and-roll idiom.  In this album of established standards, the Diamonds prove that they are an established contribution to the forward  flow of solid new sounds in popular music. Here is a whole new set of Diamonds to excite you.    Commentary Ted Kowalski reminisces about this recording. “Mercury Records decided it was time for us to do something other than rock 'n roll.  They set up a recording  session in Los Angeles with Peter Rugolo and the West Coast Jazz groups. The recording session took some time  (days) and we used two microphones.  One was for the lead and the other was for background voices.  When a  voice was to be featured, e.g. Bill Reed or myself, we used the second microphone.  A great deal of time was spent  in arrangements by Pete Rugolo.  There was quite a bit of time put into rehearsing. The songs were not recorded all at one time but at various times of convenience for the quartet and musicians.  In my opinion I believe this is what we originally started out to sing, however, at that time in order to "get anywhere  in the business", we had to do rock 'n roll.  We did continue to incorporate all types of music - not only rock 'n roll in  our shows.  As it turned out, we enjoyed doing the rock 'n roll very much.   I personally like this album”. - Ted  Kowalski - Original Tenor Commentary from Barry Worrell “Until 1958, what you probably knew about the Diamonds was what you heard on pop radio or American  Bandstand.  Then Mercury released "The Diamonds Meet Pete Rugolo".  Pete Rugolo was a very successful jazz  arranger  and with Mercury had a string of recordings with the "Meet Rugolo" series. Rugolo usually put together  bands with personnel such as, Maynard Ferguson, Jimmy Giuffre, Bob Fitzpatrick, Howard Roberts, and Shelly  Mann, to only name a few. So, the Diamonds were in some "heavy" company in their second completely new  album. As a fan, I was very surprised when I got it, not being privy to their formative years of growth. This was not  unfamiliar territory, but I dare say the Diamonds invested a lot of time and effort only to gain very little from this  project for I have never heard any cuts from this recording on the airways. That’s not to say it never had air play.  This is a very nice album”. Listen to samples on the player >>>