Henri René (1906-1993) served as music director for RCA Victor from about 1946 until 1959. You can read a brief biography at Space Age Pop Music.
René managed to find time to record a bunch of albums under his own name, many of which consisted of light classical works or mood music and are of little interest today. Sometimes, though, he stepped out and swung, as he did on the 1958 release Compulsion to Swing. This album deserves to be heard in stereo, where René's offbeat arrangements really shine. A sample track, Whispering, is below.
Whispering
Riot in Rhythm is available as a legal download, but I would suggest listening to several samples before purchasing as the company behind it is Hallmark, which is notorious for its substandard dubbed-from-vinyl releases.
The album also turned up on CD (courtesy of the French label Jasmine) in 2009, paired with another of René's RCA releases, Compulsion to Swing, under the title Compulsion to Swing in Rhythm. A new copy can be had in the Amazon Marketplace for about $10.
Used, reasonably priced vinyl copies of both albums are also fairly easy to come by.
René recorded a version of Santo and Johnny's Sleep Walk for his album The Swinging 59 (1960 on Imperial). This later turned up on one of the Ultra-Lounge series of CDs and recently gained further exposure when it was used in the TV series True Blood. Here's the song from YouTube.
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