The recent Gordon Jenkins post led to a number of requests for his long-form composition Manhattan Tower. This is the original version of that piece, which was inspired by the composer's own love of the city and experiences in it.
Manhattan Tower was considered quite influential in its day, with its mix of narrative, song, and dialogue, combining in such a way that it conveyed the romantic, intoxicating effect that New York had on many people, and still has. The same effect is captured in different ways in so many popular arts that it wouldn't be possible to catalogue them all.
Manhattan Tower was first issued in 1945 or 1946 in a 78-rpm album. As was often the case, the packaging for the 78 set was more attractive than this 1949 LP issue. The LP also contains California, another long-form composition that Jenkins and Tom Adair wrote for a radio program celebrating the 100th anniversary of the California gold rush. The subject does not have the emotional tug of Manhattan Tower, and can be downright corny, what with such characters as "Barbary Ann of the Barbary Coast." (Oh my.)
The narration on this version of Manhattan Tower is by Elliot Lewis. He and his wife, Cathy were both well-known radio actors, and together they made at least two song-story records with Ray Noble in the late 1940s. I have one of them, Happy Holidays, which I'll feature toward the end of the year.
Singer Beverly Mahr, Jenkins' wife, appears in both Manhattan Tower and California. In the 60s, the two made an album for Impulse called Gordon Jenkins Presents My Wife the Blues Singer Beverly Jenkins. I'm not sure I would called her a blues singer, rather someone who sang blues songs.
Manhattan Tower remained popular and Jenkins expanded it to both sides of a 12-inch record for a Capitol issue of 1956. The piece also was recorded by Mercury with Patti Page, and later in stereo by Columbia with Robert Goulet.
Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteThank for sharing this, and the backstory as well.
ReplyDeleteOh, forgot to mention, there's another reissue of this same LP with a slick color cover, but that doodle of the Manhattan skyline shows up on the backside. And being the doodle affectionado that I am, I noticed that there's more of the doodle on the reissue. :)
ReplyDeleteBuster...thanks for posting this. Jenkins also released a wonderful album of Academy Award winning songs...starting way back in the 1930's, with things like "The Continental". Just wondered if you were also familiar with that one? As I recall, it had a black album cover, perhaps with gold lettering.
ReplyDeleteGil,
ReplyDeleteI do have that one, it does start with The Continental, and it has a black cover with gold lettering, so your memory is quite accurate. I'll see what I can do about a copy, although I am quite a ways behind with the requests!
I just found your site, and I love it! I was able to download the Complete Manhattan Tower, as well as both sides the other 12" Jenkins AA album. The Other two, thr Original MT, and Time to Dance with downloaded, but I can't get them unzipped. The ".zip" part of the file may be corrupted, as I get a download that looks like: Gordon_Jenkins_-_Manhattan_Tower__California.7z
ReplyDeleteI tried to do it twice, and I tried to manually "fix" the extension, as a last resort. I'd love to hear the older version for comparison!
Thanks for making thest rarities available!!!
Jim
@ Jim,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your note. The files you mention were archived using freeware called 7-Zip, which is available at http://www.7-zip.org/. I've mostly stopped using it because it confuses the heck out of people.
Thank You! It works like a charm!
ReplyDeleteJim
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ReplyDeleteThanks! I've loved the song in the middle of Manhattan Tower, "New York's My Home", ever since I had heard it sung by Sammy Davis, Jr. in a 1950s recording.
ReplyDeletegrew up with these and still have my parents copies of all these variations on 12". Any chance you might have and post Jenkins' 'The 7 Dreams?' on Decca? I have a REALLY well worn LP and used to have a pristine 45 box set unfortunately missing 'The Nightmare' arguably the best track of the LP. Your attention would be most appreciated and I think many others might also enjoy it if you posted it.
ReplyDeleteSurprised the link is still alive, but it is. Thank you. Is there some reason these tracks are only in the left channel, or is it just my system being odd? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, Kwork, but will check into it!
DeleteI checked - it's a mono file that should play in both channels - it does on my equipment. I went ahead and remastered the files for much better sound - new link will be posted below in a few minutes.
DeleteRemastered version:
ReplyDeletehttps://mega.nz/#!aZ1hDSSA!3-3xcJRROVspGMxsxZDp-C-KalmSwRvolLJr0e9s-xc
Buster, thank you so much. This sounds wonderful.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, after reading your comments I tried other players. Winamp is my usual default, and the old files played in the left channel only. But when I ran them through Foobar and MPC-HC, and even iTunes, they played in the center as expected. The remaster now also plays in Winamp in both channels. Who knows what evil lurks in the innards of digital media players. Not even the Shadow knows.
Thanks for working with me on this, and now for the remaster. This one certainly deserves it in my opinion. And the California offering is a nice addition as I don't think I knew it existed before this post.
Kwork - You're welcome! Look here for a newly remastered version of the 1956 recording:
ReplyDeletehttps://big10inchrecord.blogspot.com/2009/04/complete-manhattan-tower.html
Many thanks indeed for the first version! And all good wishes for 2020.
ReplyDeleteP