Deuces Wild

Though he's aiming a pistol at the camera on the cover, Frankie Laine isn't singing outlaw songs on Deuces Wild. No, these are gambling songs, not rambling songs, and he ranges through several decades for his material — from "Camptown Races" and "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" to "Luck Be a Lady," and his own "Horses and Women." Similar to his other rugged records from the late '50s and early '60s (Frankie Laine, Balladeer, Wanderlust, Call of the Wild), Laine is only partially successful at giving these songs the treatment they deserve. He often injects a dose of gravitas into tunes that don't need it, such as when he tears into the title track or enthuses over the doo-dahs in "Camptown Races." The Laine treatment works best on songs that already possess elements of jaunty theatricality, such as "Moonlight Gambler," "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo," or "The Roving Gambler." The arrangements of Johnny Williams battle Laine for the listener's attention, never sounding as though written in sympathy with Laine himself.