Gavin said, "Walking back to the Y, he fantasized about becoming the male version of his idol Peggy Lee, who combined pop stardom with an illustrious jazz reputation".

He wrote, "First, being a good piano player, he went into the Capitol studios and recorded a demonstration of each tune the way he heard it, accompanying himself.

[5][2] Morgan and Holman assembled a band of top notch West Coast jazz musicians.

Pianist Jimmy Rowles was an in-demand accompanist for singers such as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Jo Stafford, Anita O'Day, and Julie London.

[6] Rowles along with bassist Joe Mondragon and drummer Mel Lewis formed Peggy Lee's rhythm section and were hired for the recording date.

[7] Murphy biographer Peter Jones says the album is "rather uneven, and on some tunes one feels that Mark's heart isn't in it.

"The idea of doing a 20-minute medley was bold, and Mark swings comfortably through the numbers without a break, sounding relaxed throughout, ending with a clever restatement of all six".

"He was certainly gaining a higher profile on radio: in Billboard's 1959 poll of jazz disc jockeys he came in third behind Joe Williams and Frank Sinatra.

"[2] Will Friedwald said that the albums made during this period from 1956 to 1960 "reveal a young singer with a strong, dark, attractive voice, with a lot of good ideas and an obvious commitment to the jazz idiom-but one who stops just short of having a sound and a style of his own".

[1] Friedwald wrote, "As Murphy himself noted, the audience for these songs just wasn't his, and vice versa-even though he succeeded in doing something aesthetically interesting and indeed hip with material that no one would have thought could lend itself to such a treatment; this could be the start of something eclectic".

He sings in tune with a shrewd sense of phrasing, executes interesting ideas, and otherwise comports himself in a musical manner .

Murphy has all the qualities to endear him to instrumentalists, few (at this point) of those that fascinate people who dig vocals - such as strong flavor of individuality, projection of verbal meaning and a feeling of believing in the words.