Don't be Afraid, Darling, it's Only a Man's Apartment

Euro Charmer

Renzo Cesana, an Italian actor who was based in Los Angeles, developed a romantic character called The Continental for radio in the 50s. Cesana would whisper sweet-nothings into the ears of Los Angelenos listening in, conjuring images of love and romance, sprinkling a little Latin rakishness into the mix. No singer he, but the formula proved successful enough for the Euro charmer to make a number of recordings of talk-songs for Columbia and Capitol Records.

Truly Hidden Gems

You can find some of these recordings on Capitol's Ultra-Lounge series, compilation CDs of old exotica, lounge and cocktail music tracks. Cesana's tracks are typically hidden as unlisted tracks at the end of the CDs, so they need to be sought out. Truly hidden gems. (Apart from the one below.)

The Continental, I raise my bone-dry Martini to you, sir.