Sunny Side of the Street

The latest in our series of disembodied-head covers is also the latest in our series of soundtracks on 10-inch LPs. This one is a real obscurity, a 1951 effort called Sunny Side of the Street.

The two disembodied noggins, which appear to be singing to us from the windows of a shocking pink apartment building, belong to tune-shouters Frankie Laine and Billy Daniels, who played themselves in the film. To discover the movie's lead actors, you need to look at the back cover below, where you will find Terry Moore and Jerome Courtland in the upper right corner. (Poor Jerome doesn't even get his name on the cover.)

This record seems to be one of those "songs from the film" rather than "songs from the soundtrack" LPs. While Laine does sing these tunes in the film, these particular recordings were all released by Mercury some time before the movie was made. In 1951, Laine had moved on to Columbia.

Not that these performances are bad; far from it. These were among Frankie's first efforts, and they show the freshness and drive that made him popular. I May Be Wrong, one of his early hits, is particularly good.

Daniels is another story. His mannered belting and bellowing - popular in the cabarets - may have been great in person, but on record the effect is unendurable. The back cover captures him in characteristic pose -arms flung about, in the throes of some nameless rapture. I don't get it.

As far as I can tell, Daniels didn't sing either of these songs in the film, although both songs are used in the movie. In the film, Daniels did sing I Hadn't Anyone 'Til You, but here that is presented by Vic Damone. Neither Tony Fontane nor his song are in the film.

I should mention that the end of side one of this record is badly worn, affecting mainly the Damone tune (sorry I couldn't find a clean copy of this record to substitute). I believe this wear was caused many years ago by the record being played on an auto-changer turntable with the hold-down arm off to the side. At the end of the record, because no LP fell, this would cause the mechanism to think you wanted to repeat-play a 7-inch record. If you forgot about this and left the room, the end of the record would play over and over - and eventually wear out, as happened here.

UPDATE - I did find a copy of the Damone record among my 78s, so I've substituted it in the file linked below. While not worn out, this copy is pretty noisy, so it's not much of an improvement, I'm afraid. There is also a link to download only the Damone record.

UPDATED LINK | DAMONE ONLY

Elgar's 'The Fringes of the Fleet'

A few unusual works by Edward Elgar have come my way recently, and I thought I might write a bit about them.

The first is The Fringes of the Fleet, one of the lesser-known Elgar works, dating from 1917. It has been issued in an outstanding recording by the superb baritone Roderick Williams with the Guildford Philharmonic conducted by Tom Higgins, who prepared the performing edition. It's been written that this is a "lost masterpiece" by Elgar, but that's not so. It's been recorded at least three times, and while it's a fascinating work, it's not what most people would consider a masterpiece.

The composition is Elgar's setting of four poems by Rudyard Kipling, from a short book of the same name dealing with naval life during wartime. Kipling was gifted with an ability to summon atmosphere and storyline in a few words; and the poems are intended to provide vivid impressions of the naval service. Elgar, similarly gifted, set these poems to memorable tunes. The resulting work was heard not in the concert hall but as part of a wartime variety show at the London Coliseum.

Frederick Stewart, Harry Barratt, Charles Mott, Frederick Henry

As you can see from the production photo above, this was very much a popular entertainment. The four singers were baritones Charles Mott (the solo voice), Harry Barratt, Frederick Henry and Frederick Stewart. But being popular did not mean it lacked depth. Although the first song, "The Lowestoft Boat," is a comic ditty that indulges in unlikely-soldier stereotypes that will be familiar to anyone who has seen a Hollywood war movie, it also acknowledges the possibility of death more than once. That possibility is made real in the eerie "Submarines," where "we arise, we lie down, and we move / In the belly of Death."

Shortly after the first performance, Elgar added a fifth, acapella song called "Inside the Bar," to words by Gilbert Parker. This forms a conclusion of sorts - it's a hearty sailor's song, telling of home and his fine lass.

After the work had been taken on tour, with Elgar conducting, Kipling objected to the performances and the work was mostly forgotten. The usual reason given for this is that Kipling was bereft by the death of his own son in war; however, his booklet was not published until after that happened, so the reason seems improbable. It may be that he did not like the variety-show approach to his work - or even that he did not like how "Inside the Bar" had been tacked on to his efforts.

Elgar recorded the work for HMV with Mott and the other singers three weeks after it opened. I have dubbed their recording from an out-of-print LP and rebalanced the elderly sound using the new recording as a guide. The results are very listenable, keeping in mind that this is an acoustic recording from 1917. [Note (June 2023): I have cleaned the transfers up considerably. They are now in ambient stereo, which brings the elderly sound forward.] The link is in the comments, as usual, containing the transfer along with the texts. Here is a link to a PDF of Kipling's booklet.

When I posted the transfer above, I had been listening to a fascinating BBC reconstruction of The Starlight Express, a children's play by Violet Pearn based on a book by Algernon Blackwood, with music by Elgar. This is one of those conceits that posits that children are pure and adults are spoiled, and somehow if we all were more sympathetic, the world would be a better place. (And because this was mounted for the Christmas season of 1915, presumably the point was that there would be fewer wars.)

Charles Mott

The play is a period piece, but certainly will strike resonances with people who love its near-contemporary, Peter Pan, or one of the other Edwardian evocations of a make-believe time when children behaved with perfect manners and spoke with perfect diction - and had a mystical bent as well. The BBC performance of the play, from 1965, was offered years ago over at the classical music blog The Music Parlour, where it is no longer available.

The original lead male voice in The Starlight Express, as in the Fringes of the Fleet, was Charles Mott. He was called to active service during the run of Fringes of the Fleet, and was killed in France in 1918. There is a remembrance of him on Music Web International.

On the Twelfth Day

I recently called The Twelve Days of Christmas "inescapable and seemingly endless," so here we have a 25-minute version of it!

This is the soundtrack of a short comic film from 1955 called On the Twelfth Day, which is built around the narrative of the song - that is, it shows what would happen should your true love send you all those partridges, dancing ladies, leaping lords, milking maids, etc.

The film was devised and directed by Wendy Toye and designed by artist Ronald Searle, whose unmistakable style is on display above. Producer George K. Arthur was so impressed with his own work on the project that he manages to have his full name printed on the packaging an amazing 16 times. (Oh wait, I just thought to look on the spine - make that 17.) Too bad there weren't more days of Christmas or he could have worked himself into the rotation.

Although the carol certainly makes its appearances, the soundtrack consists mostly of music to accompany the gifts arriving at the the beloved's house (not to mention bird calls, cow noises, etc.). And it is this music that I am interested in, because it is the work of the fine but little known English composer Doreen Carwithin. She produced both film scores and concert works, but stopped composing after she married the better known composer William Alwyn in 1961, resuming her work following his death in 1985. Carwithin passed away in 2003. There have been a few CDs of her concert works, but this is the only record of her film scores that I have seen.

As far as I can tell, the film On the Twelfth Day is not commercially available, nor is it on YouTube. This LP version has not been reissued.

The record also includes some standard carols in standard arrangements with the Canterbury Choir directed by composer-conductor Macklin Morrow. I believe this is a repackaging of sides that may date back to as early as 1947.

REMASTERED VERSION (JUNE 2014)

Digression No. 19

When I got into the blogging game, I had no idea that it would lead to such wondrous occurrences as having a post of a Bobby Breen LP dedicated to me. But that has now come to pass over at the the Capt's Christmas Yuleblog, one of the web's main purveyors of musical holiday cheer.

Breen is the fellow on the left in the photo above - he made a living as a juvenile crooner and film star during the 30s. He is duetting here with Ned Sparks, a true hero of the early talkies and a fellow whose dyspeptic screen personality is closer to my real personality than is that of Bobby Breen, whose very name sounds sunny and radiant.

The Capt came by his interest in Breen through hearing him mentioned in Ernie Kovacs routines. Those of us of a certain age can tell you that Breen was kind of a stock reference point for comics like Kovacs during the 50s. Hearing Breen's name got the Capt interested in him, eventually led to him acquiring Breen's Christmas LP, and then dedicating the post to me because said record is of the 10-inch variety.

To the Capt, I say thanks for the kind words, and to all of the readers of this blog, I say head on over to the Christmas Yuleblog for Bobby Breen and many other Christmas goodies, including Dragnet - The Christmas Story, one of my all-time favorites.

Christmas in Berlin, 1955

Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft and its pop label, Polydor, produced many fine Christmas records during the 1950s, including this collection from 1955.

The artists are Willy Schneider (a popular baritone), the Berlin Motet Choir, Erich Bender and his children's choir, strings and organ, and the results they produce fully live up to the title on the cover, which means "the glow of Christmas candles."

It could be that this cover was also used for other Christmas records because the catalog number, artists' names and repertoire are on stickers. On the record itself the title is given as "The Songs and Sounds of Christmas Time." Well, whatever its provenance and packaging, the music and performances are appealing and very well recorded.

REMASTERED VERSION - DECEMBER 2014

Sargent, Royal Choral Society at Christmas

Malcolm Sargent, the most famous British choral trainer of the 20th century, was the conductor of the Royal Choral Society for nearly 40 years. Together they produced this collection of carols for release during 1954.

The garish cover may give you the impression that this is a small choir recorded in a parish church. Not at all - it actually is a very large chorus and the recording location was probably the Albert Hall, which the chorus called home - at least it sounds like that cavernous site. The recessed recording gives a very good sense of how the chorus sounded in person, at the loss of some detail and presence.

Many of the arrangements here are by Sargent; my favorite, however, is the soaring version of the hymn While Shepherds Watched.

In the download I've included HMV's four-page Christmas advertising insert from the December 1955 Gramophone Record Review - page three (with this LP) is below.

REMASTERED VERSION - DECEMBER 2014

Christmas with the Weavers

This is one of my favorite Christmas albums. There is joy and optimism in the Weavers' presentation of these songs, and their approach manages to sound both plain-spoken and sophisticated at once. All these songs (with the possible exception of the inescapable and seemingly endless Twelve Days of Christmas) have a freshness that is rare in the genre.

This 1951 LP was issued towards the end of the Weavers' first period of popularity, which ended in the McCarthy era due to their leftist politics. They were perhaps the first folk group to achieve broad appeal, one of a number of blues and folk acts who began appearing in New York clubs in the 1940s. We have already encountered Josh White on this blog; Leadbelly was another. The Weavers were brought to Decca by Gordon Jenkins (who has made several appearances here himself). Completing the circle, the Weavers' biggest hit was Leadbelly's Goodnight Irene, with backing by Jenkins - a song that has since been recorded by everyone from Mitch Miller to the Meat Puppets.

My copy of the original Weavers LP has some damage. The title song is unplayable, so I have patched in a reissue of that item. As is common these days, the reissue was both heavily compressed and re-equalized to have a strong upper mid-range emphasis. I corrected the latter, but the former can't be changed. It results in the singers sounding distinctly closer to the microphone on that tune than on the other songs. There also is a bit of damage on the second song, and a little noise elsewhere. But the basic sound is quite good.

At the time of the group's Decca recordings, its members were Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, Fred Hellerman and Lee Hays. I plan to feature one of Seeger's Folkways LPs here in the future; perhaps also a Ronnie Gilbert album.

Ferrante and Teicher - New Transfer and Scans

I first shared this 1954 Ferrante and Teicher 10-inch LP last year, even though I was dubious about its merits, commenting, "The musical results are interesting if a bit relentless, witty but also kind of tacky. Not really my thing, but the pianists and woodland creatures seem to be enjoying themselves. Perhaps you will, too."

There is no doubt that many of you did enjoy yourselves, despite my reservations. It was far and away the most popular item I have ever featured here. Therefore I am bowing to the tastes of readers here and bringing Art and Lou back for an encore, in a new, improved version.

Yes, friends, this is a new transfer in FLAC format, and new scans, including the back cover for the first time (below)! However, my opinion of the music remains exactly the same, proving that neither the holiday season nor the passage of time have improved my disposition.

There's more about the LP at the original post.

Boult Conducts and Rehearses Britten

A break from the Christmas tunes - here we have some of Benjamin Britten's finest music in both performances and rehearsal by Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic.

The recordings were made in late 1956 by the American company Westminster in conjunction with the British Pye-Nixa. Included were the Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from Britten's Peter Grimes and his Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (a set of variations and fugue on a theme by Henry Purcell).

The latter was written for a 1946 educational film that was conducted and narrated by the urbane Malcolm Sargent (there's an excerpt on YouTube).

Westminster issued the Boult-LPO Young Person's Guide in two versions - with narration and without, and then for good measure added a rehearsal recording. I've gathered all these versions together for this post. In brief, we have the unnarrated Guide and Peter Grimes music in stereo (cover above) and the narrated Guide and rehearsal in mono (cover below).

The transition from mono to stereo recording provided some interesting experiments in recording, illustrated to a degree by the rehearsal recording. As producer Kurt List says in the liner notes, the seating arrangement used for his recordings "never coincides with concert seating; thus quite a different span of attention is required of the conductor and the orchestral musicians." List's practice was to spread the orchestra out and use multiple microphones, and then fix the balances in the control room. He then has the conductor do a run through and asks him to adjust the balances further. The rehearsal recording on this disk is in fact a session where List asks Boult to change balances for recording purposes.

The irony of asking a conductor who was noted for stressing clarity and balance to rebalance the music because you have exploded the usual seating arrangement and put microphones all over the hall apparently doesn't occur to List. But to be fair, the results are not bad, if not to my own taste, in both mono and stereo.

The Young Person's Guide is nicely done, even if Boult doesn't capture Britten's mock pomposity very well. The fugue is predictably wonderful. The Peter Grimes music is also beautifully rendered, and if the struggles seem external more than internal, that also may demonstrate the difference in temperament between conductor and composer.

As a bonus to this post, I've added a recording of the original Purcell theme (a rondeau from his Abdelazer theatre music) in a performance by the Bath Festival Orchestra and Yehudi Menuhin.

A Musical Version of Junior Miss

In recent weeks, we have been exploring some of the remarkable programming that was presented on US commercial television in the late 1950s, including an original Cole Porter musical, Aladdin. The sponsor of the Porter production was DuPont, which only a few months earlier had mounted yet another original musical from a famous composer, Burton Lane, and lyricist, Dorothy Fields.

Unlike the score for Aladdin, which is still remembered today, Lane's music for Junior Miss is largely forgotten, as is the program that evoked it. Perhaps even more surprising, the Junior Miss stories themselves are no longer remembered.

Those Sally Benson stories, originally published in the New Yorker, were collected into book form in 1941, and then became a play, film and radio show - and finally this televised musical. Set at Christmas in New York, the superb 1945 film once made occasional appearances on television but hasn't been seen lately (at least by me). Its disappearance is very strange - the film is both delightful and touching, with wonderful performances by Peggy Ann Garner in the title role and Allyn Joslyn as her father.

The TV musical featured Carol Lynley as Judy Graves, our protagonist, and Don Ameche as her father. Unlike other more famous TV musicals, such as Aladdin and Cinderella, there was no soundtrack recording to keep its memory alive - only this EP of performances by Columbia artists Vic Damone, Jo Stafford and Norman Luboff. I would have to assume this was issued in advance of the program, which aired on December 20, 1957. (This site says there is a poor quality bootleg of the performances by the TV cast, but I have never encountered it.)

The performances on the EP are as good as you would expect, and the recording as hollow as you might expect if you are familiar with Columbia's 50s pop output. The songs themselves are quite enjoyable, even if the lyrics of Junior Miss are reminiscent of Gigi and if I'll Buy It brings to mind I'll Buy That Dream. Let's Make It Christmas All Year 'Round also is not the most original concept.

It's fascinating to look through the listings for the DuPont Show of the Month in 1957-58. As I mentioned Junior Miss came just two months before Aladdin. And two months after the latter show, DuPont and CBS mounted a version of The Red Mill with the following cast: Shirley Jones, Harpo Marx, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Donald O'Connor, Elaine Stritch, Evelyn Rudie and Edward Andrews. It was a different time.

REMASTERED VERSION (JULY 2014)

Jo Stafford Christmas 45s

I recently acquired this Christmas EP that pairs Jo Stafford with frequent collaborator Gordon MacRae. For this post I've coupled the EP with a number of Christmas songs Stafford recorded in the 40s and 50s. Paul Weston directed the ensembles on all these records.

The EP is from 1955, although recorded in 1949, and combined the soloists with choir in two medleys of familiar carols. It was unreissued until a CD several years ago that combined it with a Stafford Christmas LP from the early 60s. That later production, with multitracked vocals, Hammond organ, and electric guitar, is the aural equivalent of an aluminum Christmas tree. It may be the worst thing ever done by the Westons that wasn't issued under the names Jonathan and Darlene Edwards or Cinderella G. Stump.

The 45s include a Capitol release of White Christmas and Silent Night, originally from 1946, an excellent version of the Christmas Blues from 1953 (see below), and a 1952 duet with frequent partner Frankie Laine on the country tune Christmas Roses.

Christmas with Dorothy Collins

When I decided to start a blog nearly two years ago, one of my inspirations was my friend Ernie of the blog Ernie (Not Bert). And it so happens that the first record I ever shared was this one - with Ernie in December 2007. I didn't even know how to upload music then; Ernie had to explain it to me.

So now I offer it here with a tribute to the genial Ernie, who has started on his annual frenzy of Christmas shares, which is not to be missed.

This 1958 LP features the long-time star of US television's Your Hit Parade, who in later years became a Broadway star in Sondheim's Follies. She's a fine singer, and this is a very good if quite conventional Christmas record.

Collins was married to Raymond Scott during the 50s, and many of her records were arranged by that maestro. Not this one - the tasks are handled here by Hollywood orchestrators Nathan Van Cleve and Joseph Lilley, and very well, too.

(By the way, Ern, this is an improved transfer!)

REMASTERED VERSION - DECEMBER 2014

Christmas in Leipzig, 1955

We begin the Christmas season with this live recording made in Leipzig's St. Thomas Church in 1955, with the famous boy's choir of that church directed by Günther Ramin.

This was to be the last Christmas concert led by Ramin, who died in 1956. Successor to Bach as cantor of the church and leader of a choir that was formed in the 13th century, Ramin was a central figure in the musical life of the city during the Nazi and then Communist regimes. And as the notes to this recording say, for Leipzig residents, this particular concert was "the epitome of Christmas, especially in the serious war and postwar years."

Similar to the King's College Choir featured here last Christmas, the St. Thomas choir is the product of a choir school, with 80 boys aged 10-19.

I believe the recording on this Cantate issue from circa 1960 is derived from a radio broadcast, as are the Bach cantata recordings that have been issued more recently from Ramin and his choir. Here is a link to an excellent article on Ramin, the choir and those radio broadcasts.

NEW LINK

I Love Melvin

Two of the young stars of Singin' in the Rain got their own movie after the success of the earlier film, and while it was not the hit that Singin' was, it did well and is well-remembered.

The songs on this 1953 soundtrack LP are good - if not as good as the music from its predecessor. They are done nicely by the enduringly likable Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Connor, with an assist by young Noreen Corcoran.

The music is by Josef Myrow, who had a short but notable career in Hollywood, with songs for Three Little Girls in Blue, Mother Wore Tights, the French Line and Bundle of Joy. Here he is paired with the prolific lyricist Mack Gordon. None of the songs here were big hits, but elsewhere Myrow was responsible for some very popular numbers, including You Make Me Feel So Young, Somewhere in the Night and Give Me the Simple Life.

The sound here is good, allowing you to enjoy the typically polished M-G-M arrangements (by Skip Martin) and performances (led by Georgie Stoll).

REMASTERED VERSION

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

It's time for something different from the diet of symphonies, singers and musicals that have been on the menu here lately. So here is the powerful-voiced gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe on an early 1950s LP made for Decca.

Tharpe was an early crossover artist - in two senses. She crossed over from gospel music to sing with jazz bands, and she crossed over to achieve considerable success among white audiences. This LP is an example of Decca attempting to broaden her appeal among the new audience for folk music that had been created by such artists as Leadbelly, Josh White and the Weavers. Tharpe's repertoire here includes the most well-worn gospel songs (Amazing Grace, Rock of Ages) and the liner notes are by folklorist Alan Lomax.

When this LP was made, Tharpe's greatest successes were behind her, but she had not lost a bit of her skill. The melismatic singing style that she represents has been enduringly influential - almost to the point of being unendurable as today's singers compete to cram as many notes as possible onto one syllable. Few if any of today's vocal phenoms can compete with her power and presence, captured well on this record.

Unfortunately, this pressing has seen much use over the years - and while Sister Rosetta's voice is undimmed, it also is accompanied by some unwanted noise, for which I apologize in advance.

REMASTERED VERSION - OCTOBER 2014

Portraits by George Siravo

Here by request is George Siravo's circa 1956 LP, Portraits in Hi-Fi. Siravo's records have shown themselves to be quite popular hereabouts, much to my surprise.

This album comprises Siravo compositions, and for some reason he ventures into what I would have to assume is deliberately trite material on several cuts. Not sure what the point of that is.

Nor can I tell you what is supposed to be happening on the cover. The unspoken assumption seems to be that all women are housewives, and they are getting dressed up for a portrait. But what of the man? If he is a painter, is he supposed to be Siravo himself? And if so, why is his coat four sizes too large and his hair and beard so odd?

Enough of this pointless musing (I hear you saying) - on to the sounds. I have to tell you, then as now, when you speak the words "hi-fi" to an engineer, he eagerly plugs in the reverb unit. So here, Siravo's music is bathed in an echo that only Mantovani could love.

However, I will say the LP was in excellent shape. and admit that I enjoyed the music a great deal - there is much here to like. I just wish someone had hidden the reverb machine. (Also the xylophone.)

Bernstein and the NYPO in Venice, 1959

A while ago, I wrote about the original musicals presented on US commercial television in the 1950s. Classical music also had a presence on commercial TV back then, and its face and voice were those of Leonard Bernstein, then the music director of the New York Philharmonic.

I remember seeing Bernstein on the television program Omnibus when I was just a wee Buster. He later made a series of programs sponsored by Lincoln and then Ford. Four of the programs in that series were issued on promotional LPs by Ford's advertising agency, Kenyon & Eckhardt. The particular program represented by this record was presented on CBS in November 1959.

The agency didn't do such a good job with the record production, though, and the sound is subfusc. Little Buster with his 3-inch tape recorder might have done as a good a job taping the thing off his parent's Philco. Big Buster has done his best to compensate in the transfer, and the results are at least listenable.

As I know from personal experience, having met him once, Bernstein was a magnetic personality, and that comes through on this record. He is an eloquent speaker, convincing even when superficial - and I dare say that goes for his music-making as well. Here you get a bit of the Marriage of Figaro overture and two-thirds of a Mozart piano concerto, along with as much commentary from the conductor.

While Bernstein is not a favorite of mine, his influence and importance are undeniable and his charisma unmistakable.

REMASTERED VERSION - MARCH 2015

Rich, Young and Pretty

Would that Rich, Young and Pretty - or any of the three - applied to the proprietor of this blog, but no. It instead refers to the star of this M-G-M musical of 1951, the glorious Jane Powell.

On this soundtrack LP, Jane shares the singing chores with Danielle Darrieux and Fernando Lamas (with him, the listening also is a chore). Vic Damone was the love interest in the film, but was under contract to Mercury at the time, so does not appear here.

Powell has most of the numbers, notably "Wonder Why" and "Dark Is the Night." Those songs and most of the others are by Nicholas Brodszky (his Flame and the Flesh was featured here recently) and the ubiquitous lyricist Sammy Cahn.

By the way, the orchestrations here are by M-G-M stalwarts Leo Arnaud and Wally Heglin. David Rose conducts.

LINK to Rich, Young and Pretty (remastered in ambient stereo)

The Real Joy of Living Is . . . Beer?

Back in the late 50s, the Schlitz Brewing Co. came up with a slogan insisting that you could "know the real joy of good living" by drinking its beer. A dubious proposition to be sure, but one that was powerful enough to propel to the top of the beer market for some years.

Schlitz's agency turned the slogan into a jingle, as was the practice back then, and then the jingle was turned into a song. Or maybe it was the other way around - I'm not sure. But whether chicken or egg came first, eventually Nelson Riddle got involved and a number of records ensued.

What we have here is a Schlitz promotional EP featuring Riddle, with the commercial jingle and the song, Know the Real Joy of Good Living, featuring chorus. As far as I know, these Riddle arrangements are otherwise unissued. Riddle did include the song on his Capitol LP, the Joy of Living, although in a completely different, instrumental version. The Schlitz EP depicted the cover of the Riddle LP on its back (see below).

The flip side of the EP contained two Riddle instrumentals that are not on the Joy of Living LP. I'm not sure if they were otherwise released, although I would assume they were. The download includes all the material from the promotional EP and the instrumental version from the Joy of Living LP.

One parenthetical note: singing on the commercial is Jamie Silvia, of the J's with Jamie, one of the leading commercial voices of the time. A superb singer, she, her husband Joe and their group first became well known for their commercial work, and then began making records for Columbia in the 1960s. I have an LP they self-issued that is half Columbia material and half commercials. Also in the group was Len Dresslar, who later made many records (and commercials) with the Singers Unlimited.

REMASTERED VERSION

More Tchaikovsky from Indianapolis

Many of you enjoyed the recording of Manfred from the Indianapolis Symphony and Fabien Sevitzky, so here is another pseudonymous Tchaikovsky record from the same forces.

As I explained last time out, in the early 50s, RCA issued many old symphonic recordings on its budget Camden label under made-up names. In this instance, the Indianapolis orchestra became the "Sussex Symphony" and Sevitzky became anonymous.

This particular recording was made late in the orchestra's tenure with RCA, in March 1946. By that time, the band had become a very good one, and this performance gave me much pleasure - but then I love the lesser Tchaikovsky symphonies. Here we have the first symphony, sometimes called Winter Dreams (or Winter Daydreams, as RCA has it).

Adding to the my pleasure is the simply miked, coherent recording, with just enough of the hall resonance to give the sound picture a vivid sense of reality. This type of recording could not be more out of style, but I find it very satisfying.

REMASTERED VERSION (JUNE 2014)

Stravinsky's 1950 Recording of Apollo

This is the final installment of LPs of Igor Stravinsky conducting his own works on labels other than Columbia, which handled most of his recordings throughout his career.

The major work on this RCA LP is Apollo (also known as Apollon Musagète), a neoclassical ballet score from 1928. This, Stravinsky's first recording of the piece, comes from 1950 New York sessions.

Also here is the 1946 Concerto in D, sometimes called the Basle Concerto, one of the many important works commissioned by Paul Sacher. This recording, also made in New York, is from 1949. The violin soloists are John Corigliano and Michael Rosenker. (I believe Corigliano was concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic at that time.) As far as I can tell, this is the only commercial recording of this piece by Stravinsky.

The sound and performances are very good.

NEW LINK

Digression No. 18

There's a post of unusual interest over at a blog of unusual interest called Rand's Esoteric OTR. This post contains a transcription of a 1948 concert that originated in the Hollywood Bowl sponsored by M-G-M. The Hollywood Bowl Symphony was conducted by Miklós Rózsa, with vocal soloists Kathryn Grayson and Mario Lanza.

Pertinent to today, the major work on the program was a Halloween Suite, composed by Lionel Barrymore - a delightful work with Barrymore in characteristic form as narrator. I can't recommend this too highly. I had read that Barrymore liked to compose, but had never encountered his work before. This composition is certainly enjoyable. The only downside is a low bit-rate transfer, but the sound is listenable.

I've prepared a declicked and rebalanced version of this for my own use. If anyone is interested, leave a comment and I'll make it available. But please visit Rand's blog; he has many fascinating transcriptions there.

Night Music with Victor Young

Composer and arranger Victor Young made a long series of single records for Decca that were periodically compiled into LPs. This one, titled Night Music, is from 1954.

Many of those singles consisted of film music, and here we have, among others, Young's hit version of the theme from The High and the Mighty (Dimitri Tiomkin), Smile (Charlie Chaplin), the Rear Window theme (Franz Waxman), and Magnificent Obsession (Frank Skinner).

The High and the Mighty has an unearthly quality that, while suited to its theme of a imperiled transoceanic flight, also was quite common in post World War II music. Here it is conveyed by Muzzy Marcellino's eerily perfect whistling; more often it was embodied in celestial choirs or sopranos like Loulie Jean Norman. A similar influence could be seen in the commercial art of the time, and the back cover of this LP (below) is a good example. As for the film, the theme of coming through an ordeal safely - perhaps through the intercession of some higher power (or at least John Wayne) - was strong in a world that had endured the Great Depression followed by a world war and was very much imperiled by the threat of nuclear destruction.

REMASTERED VERSION

Kathryn Grayson in So This Is Love

When the Warner Bros. were casting the 1953 film So This Is Love, they needed a good looking woman who could handle both popular and operatic material. Who better than Kathryn Grayson, the wide-eyed, bow-mouthed wonder, to grace the screen as Grace Moore, a famous personality of an earlier generation.

Moore is forgotten today, but when this movie was made, she was well-remembered as a star of the opera and musical stage, films and records who died in a 1947 plane crash.

Grayson was similarly versatile, and she had to be to handle what is presented here, everything from Mozart and Puccini to "Everybody Ought to Know How to Do the Tickle Toe," a dreadful 1918 novelty number. She is better used in Berlin's waltz, "Remember," where her wistful quality is most affecting.

I don't believe this soundtrack LP has been reissued, so it makes a nice addition to our earlier posts devoted to this enduringly popular artist.

Flame and the Flesh

Here's a real obscurity - a soundtrack EP from the 1954 film Flame and the Flesh. The songs here are by Nicholas Brodszky (his name is spelled various ways in various sources) with Jack Lawrence's lyrics.

Brodszky's main claim to fame was working on several popular Mario Lanza vehicles, including The Toast of New Orleans with its big hit Be My Love. The RCA LP from that film will probably be making an appearance here later on.

Brodszky did not have Lanza to work with here. Instead the star/singer was Carlos Thompson, an Argentinian actor of Swiss-German extraction who here was playing an Italian. Thompson could not provide Lanza's volume, but his singing was convincing enough for his role as a saloon singer. (I haven't seen the film so can't attest to his acting. Thompson did play the lead in several Hollywood films in this period.)

The plot was one that had been used for two earlier films - Thompson dumps good-girl Pier Angeli for bad-girl Lana Turner. Eventually the bad girl does the noble thing and clears out so the good girl can have her man back. It's not real deep.

Apparently the curvaceous figure on the right is supposed to be Turner, who undyed her blond hair for this film; presumably for the publicity. (Do I seem cynical?) And just so that there is no doubt from her posture that she is a bad girl, she is leaning on a streetlight. The demure figure on the left is Angeli.

The songs are tuneful enough, so if you like The Toast of New Orleans, The Student Price, Love Me or Leave Me, Rich, Young and Pretty or Serenade - all Brodszky's work - you should try this. Rich, Young and Pretty also will be featured here soon.

Cole Porter's Aladdin Demo

Back in television's early days in the US, the networks scheduled prestige programming on an occasional basis, including new musicals from the leading lights of the theatre. The CBS network presented Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in 1957 and Cole Porter's Aladdin in 1958.

While neither were considered the best that the composers had to offer, Cinderella was better received than Aladdin, which was Porter's final score.

While the music for Aladdin is not well remembered, in truth it is not as bad as its reputation would suggest. This may be because the songs were presented on the program by character actors (Cyril Ritchard, Dennis King) and weak singers (Sal Mineo, Anna Maria Alberghetti). The music itself is far better served by this single-sided promotional LP that CBS issued some time before the telecast, using unidentified but quite good vocalists and elaborate choral and orchestral arrangements, presumably the work of Robert Russell Bennett.

It's not at all clear how this LP was to be used for promotion. The show was scheduled for the DuPont Show of the Month, but the LP doesn't mention the sponsor at all, so it wasn't DuPont's doing. Because the show was part of an ongoing series, the LP probably wasn't used to drum up a sponsor. It could well have been instigated by Porter himself, in the twilight of his career, and the LP is introduced by the great man himself.

If you have the CD reissue of the Aladdin LP issued by Columbia after the television show, you will have heard these four promotional recordings, but not Porter's brief introduction. So what's new here is Porter's voice and the record covers. Perhaps a meagre offering, but a fascinating one - and one of the personal favorites from my collection.

For our non-US friends, the giant orb below is the CBS logo, as seen on the LP's back cover.

REMASTERED VERSION - JANUARY 2015

Beecham and the Nutcracker Suite

It's always a pleasure to have contributions from our friends, and here's one from anonymousremains. It is a joyful performance of a suite from The Nutcracker by the Royal Philharmonic and its founder, Sir Thomas Beecham.

The recording, a very good one, was made in December 1953 in Walthamstow Town Hall. The transfer, which I have cleaned up a bit, is excellent.

Beecham had a way with this music, and there are few more exhilarating recordings than this version of the Waltz of the Flowers. Even if you have heard this music many dozens of times, you should hear this.

I've been trying to find identifications for the dancers on the cover, without luck. I think the woman may be Alicia Markova.

Thanks again to anonymousremains for his thoughtfulness.

A Visit to the Record Shop, 1939

If you were a Cleveland record collector in 1939, you might well have put Moore's Magazine & Music Shoppe on your itinerary. For one thing, it had an inventory of relatively cheap used records - and this was one of them, two worthy items from Kay Kyser's band, which came in the record sleeve above touting all the many features of Mr. Moore's emporium.

Step Up and Shake My Hand (vocal by Harry Babbitt) and Tears from My Inkwell (with Ginny Simms) were not among Kyser's many hits, so that's probably why this record was available inexpensively. The sleeve says Moore's received a fresh stock of records twice a week, likely from a distributor or juke box outfit offloading old stock.

That would be enough to keep me coming back, and indeed Moore's sounds like my kind of place in many ways - besides used records, it had magazines, newspapers, and books, and it was open until midnight. You also could rent a camera, order scratch pads, buy a greeting card, and get a Lock-a-Phone to make people pay to use your telephone.

If you had been the one to purchase this Kay Kyser disk back in 1939, you would be in possession of two enjoyable if unexceptional tunes, with arrangements would have seemed dated even 70 years ago. Both songs are well played, nonetheless, and Ginny Simms does wonders for Tears from My Inkwell. Listen via the link below.

LINK

Manfred in Indianapolis

Here by request is Tchaikovsky's Manfred in an early recording from the Indianapolis Symphony and Fabien Sevitzky.

This is another one of the LPs that RCA issued on its low-price Camden label using a pseudonym. In this case it transported the US Midwest to the south of England, turning the Indianapolis band into the Sussex Symphony.

This recording was made in January 1942, at the same time as recordings of music by Harl McDonald and Leo Sowerby, which were never issued. Sevitzky programmed American music quite extensively.

Similar to the feelings about Stokowski, opinions were divided about Sevitzky, with some thinking he was a charlatan, others an effective conductor. The performance here is good and well recorded - although it also can be tentative and the strings do not sound especially glamorous. There also is some pitch instability, possibly introduced in the transfer via tape to LP.

Regardless, I enjoyed the experience a great deal, and will be transferring the same forces' recording of Tchaikovsky's first symphony at a later date.

REMASTERED VERSION (JUNE 2014)

More Borodin from Stokowski

A short while back, we heard from Leopold Stokowski and His Symphony Orchestra (how many other conductors were billed as having his very own symphony orchestra? Beecham? others?) in music by Falla and Borodin.

Here is another Borodin piece - In the Steppes of Central Asia - that Stoki recorded during the 1950 session that also produced the Polovtsian Dances. The two works apparently were combined on this 1954 issue to capitalize on the increased interest in Borodin's music occasioned by the musical Kismet.

I love the cover photo. Stoki looks like he is trying to halt an orchestra stampede. This kind of overdramatic pose is great fun; puts me in mind of ferocious middle linebackers or marauding stage juveniles.

The download includes only the Steppes; see the Falla-Borodin post for the other music. The pressing is a little crackly - it was one of those stealth bad pressings that looks nice but plays noisy.

LINK

Hey Mabel - It's Ol' Diz and Double D

The postseason for Major League Baseball begins this week, so I thought I would present some miscellaneous baseball-related items that I forgot to share at the beginning of the season.

For our non-US friends, baseball is a game where almost nothing happens for hours on end. Pitchers unaccountably stare off into the distance. Batters step out of the box after every pitch to adjust equipment and bodily parts. There are frequent beer ads. Occasionally wood hits horsehide and people run. And that's about it.

As you can tell from the previous paragraph, I think the Great American Pastime is past its prime. But then so am I. This post looks back to the days when we both were a little livelier.

One connection between the days of old and today is the persistence of beer advertising. When I was a young fella, too young to drink the stuff, baseball broadcasts in our local market and some others were sponsored by Carling Black Label Beer. Throughout the 50s and into the 60s, Carling used the slogan "Hey Mabel! Black Label" and an associated jingle to sell the goods. "Hey Mabel!" was sung to the "salt peanuts" figure - apt for a beer, I'd say.

This campaign was concocted by Carling's ad agency, Lang Fisher & Stashower. Sometime in the early 50s, the agency prepared a 78 of the music, containing two instrumental versions of the Hey Mabel theme and the Carling Black Label jingle. One was a dance band version (label above), which combined the Carling material with Take Me Out to the Ballgame, the other a Dixieland arrangement as played by a number of well-known LA musicians. There are no vocals on the record, so my guess is it was sent to the radio stations carrying the baseball games for use as filler before breaks, as was the practice on radio stations at the time.

I've also included two 45s by Hall of Fame pitchers, Dizzy Dean and Don Drysdale. Ol' Diz was quite a character who spent many years broadcasting games after his arm gave out. He adopted a country-cousin persona for this role, mangling the language and singing the Wabash Cannonball, which Roy Acuff popularized. Sometime circa 1960, Dean recorded a single of the song on the Colonial label. The record has no number, which leads me to believe it was produced as a item to be sold or given away at Dean's promotional appearances. The Wabash Cannonball is backed by a song called You Don't Have to Be from the Country, and from Dean's performance, I doubt he had seen it before stepping before the microphone.

Like Dean, Drysdale became a broadcaster after his career ended, but unlike Diz, he made his record (sleeve below) during his prime as a player - in 1963, when his team, the Dodgers won the World Series. Ferocious on the pitching mound (said Orlando Cepeda, "The trick with Drysdale is to hit him before he hits you"), Double D was a sensitive soul in the recording studio, sounding a lot like Pat Boone. And frankly, I'm not sure he isn't a better singer than Boone. Sinatra fans in the crowd will recognize one of the Drysdale songs, Give Her Love. Frank recorded it in 1966, and it became the flip side of Something Stupid. Drysdale's arrangements are by Jack Nitzsche, a talented fellow who worked with everyone from Doris Day to Link Wray.

LINK (ambient stereo - February 2024)

More Steve Gibson and the Red Caps

One of the first posts on this blog was an LP by an early R&B group, Steve Gibson and the Red Caps, that had a particularly gaudy cover. Let's bring Steve back for an encore with the EP above and a selection of 78s.

The record industry has a long history of trying to get you to buy the same things over and over again (new, improved Beatles records, anyone?), and this EP is a good example, containing as it does two songs from the LP I shared previously ("Sentimental Me" and "I'll Never Love Anyone Else").

Otherwise, it contains two songs that later became hits for rock and roll artists. "Blueberry Hill," which first appeared in 1940 on singles by Glenn Miller and others, was a giant hit for Fats Domino in 1956, as much for Fats' great piano and the wonderful reed riff on the bridge as for the song itself. And "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" was a big winner for Elvis. I guess it shows the continuity of musical taste that the latter song was first recorded in 1927, and Elvis' arrangement (including the spoken part) is similar to that of Steve Gibson's 1950 version - which also was recorded at the same time by Blue Barron and Al Jolson.

But what shows the continuity of musical influences just as much are the Red Caps' performances themselves, which include everything from a Count Basie lick and Mills Brothers echoes from the 1930s, to Slim Gaillard and Louis Jordan influences from the 1940s, and pre-echoes of the Treniers and doo-wop groups of the 1950s.

Both the EP and the 78s included in the download were cut in 1949 and 1950. In truth, the 78s are more lively that the EP. One of the 78s is called "I've Been Living for You" on the label (see below), but that's a mistake. It's really "I'm Living for You" - and the Gibson group (called the Toppers at that point) had recorded it several years earlier under that title. (If this doesn't confuse you enough, you can read more about the group's long and convoluted history here.)

Speaking of reusing materials, you will notice that the EP cover above bears a striking resemblance to a figure on the cover the Vic Damone's Amor LP I posted not long ago. The couple there have been transported from the banks of the Seine to Blueberry Hill, where they are about to find their thrill.

Stravinsky in Berlin

Continuing our series of recordings that Igor Stravinsky conducting his own works on labels other than Columbia. I believe this may be the only recording he made for Telefunken and the only session with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Stravinsky wrote Jeu de Cartes (or as it is presented here, The Card Game) in 1936-37. Its premiere was in 1937 in New York. This recording, made the following year, was Stravinsky's first of the work and I suspect was the first by anyone.

Jeu de Cartes, a ballet score, was among Stravinsky's neoclassical works. Neither the Berlin orchestra nor the resonant acoustic are what we associate with this style, but the musicians put the unfamiliar music across with aplomb.

This transfer is from Capitol's early 50s Telefunken series, which in my experience was otherwise heavily devoted to Willem Mengelberg's prewar Concertgebouw recordings.

NEW LINK