Paganini Quartet in Schumann and Britten

I'm pleased to be able to present this recording of the great Paganini Quartet in music from Schumann and Britten. In doing so, I am adding to the revival of their recordings started by Benoît on his blog Quartier des Archives and Squirrel on his Squirrel's Nest.

As Squirrel writes, "These guys deliver some of the finest quartet playing on record, with a particularly gorgeous, elegant sound – thanks in no small part to the complete set of ex-Paganini Stradivarius instruments on which they performed."

Signage for an
Ann Arbor concert

As in all its incarnations, the quartet was led by violinist Henri Temianka. Second violinist Gustave Rosseels also was a founding member of the ensemble, which here also includes cellist Lucien LaPorte and violist Charles Foidart.


The quartet, founded in 1946, had recorded for RCA Victor and briefly for Decca before making this recording for Liberty circa 1957. Judging by its catalogue number, it might be the first classical LP issued on that label - one of the few that Liberty ever offered.

The sound is good. The Schumann was very clean, with the Britten more problematic, and some occasional minor noise remains on that side.

I'll also be transferring the Paganini's recording of Beethoven's Op. 59, No. 1 Rasumovsky quartet, at some future time.

Happy Holidays with Ray Noble and Mr. and Mrs. Radio

This 1949 recording is, as the cover proclaims, a "musical story," a genre that had been popularized in the 40s by Gordon Jenkins' Manhattan Tower.

The Jenkins work is one of the more popular items presented on this blog. Actually it's popped up three times - the original LP issue, Jenkins' later expanded version, and a post devoted to the graphics of the original 78 set.

Elliott Lewis

This set will remind you of the Jenkins work, if only because the male lead is the same - Elliott Lewis, who appears here with his wife Cathy. The Lewises were called "Mr. and Mrs. Radio" (at least by their publicist) and were quite active on the network shows of the time. Elliott was best known for his role as Frank Remley on the Phil Harris-Alice Faye show. Cathy was the "my" in My Friend Irma, who was played by Marie Wilson.

Cathy Lewis

The Lewises were pros and perform with the pleasing artificiality that was a feature of old-time radio. The anonymous script has the couple remembering notable holidays in their shared past; in truth, not much of a premise even for a 10-inch, 24-minute LP. Nonetheless, Cathy finds enough motivation to evoke anger, tears, fear, laughter, excitement and love. Elliott is less emotional. It might have been more interesting if they had switched roles, but this presentation is an entirely conventional one.

Cigarette card

Bandleader-composer Ray Noble leads the orchestra and apparently provides the underscore, which includes a wistful theme motif. But unlike Gordon Jenkins in Manhattan Tower, he doesn't compose the songs that are heard, except for The Very Thought of You (which Cathy presents). Instead he presents familiar songs representative of the various holidays.

Noble became a well-known English bandleader before leaving for the US in 1935. He was particularly associated with the superb vocalist Al Bowlly, even though Bowlly made hundreds of records with other bands. The Bowlly versions of Noble compositions Goodnight Sweetheart, The Touch of Your Hand, The Very Thought of You, and Love Is the Sweetest Thing are among the finest romantic pop records ever made.

Bowlly perished in the London blitz and no vocalist appears here. At the time these records were made, Noble had been backing fellow Columbia artist Buddy Clark on some popular disks, until Clark himself was killed in an October 1949 plane crash. (Many Clark records have appeared on this blog.)

Although this is only partially a Christmas record, its sentimentality and beautiful presentation make it a fitting conclusion to our offerings of this season. Happy holidays, everyone!

A Novelty Christmas

Here is a post mainly concerned with novelty songs of the season.

Slim and Fat Boy/Jelly Belly

We start, however, with a non-novelty, 1948's Christmastime Blues with Slim Seward and Fat Boy Hayes. My excuse here is that I thought it was a novelty when I picked it up. Slim Seward? Must be like Slam Stewart or Slim Galliard, I thought. Not so - it really is a blues record. Slim and Fat Boy otherwise recorded as the Back Porch Boys, or Slim Seward and Jelly Belly Hayes. They were based in New York, and apparently were a cabaret blues act similar to Josh White.

October 15, 1949

Let's move on to one of the most famous Christmas novelty records, Spike Jones' 1949 version of My Two Front Teeth, with a vocal by George Rock. This was a big ole hit, landing Spike (but not Georgie) on the front of Billboard with giant prop teeth. I can't imagine anyone listening to this more than once for each tooth, but my copy is kind of worn nonetheless. The other side, thankfully, is more fun and in better condition. It is called Happy New Year, and has new year's resolutions from Spike, George, Sir Frederick Gas and Doodles Weaver. The humor is quite conventional, but the record seems delightfully anarchic anyway, with its wonderfully choreographed sound effects. I've been a sucker for this sound all my life. This one is in response to a request by our friend David F.

Next up is another novelty that is highly evocative of the post-war era, 1950's I Want a Television Christmas, performed by Mindy Carson early in her career. This was not a commercial record - it was produced by the television manufacturers to stimulate sales and was given away in stores. Mindy rhapsodizes about all the things she would see on her new TV (and all before she's 17, she marvels) - plays, strange lands, etc. No mention of reality shows, wrestling or Jay Leno, who had not been invented. The song is presented in two very similar versions - one with bells and celeste added.

Fontane Sisters

We move on from a television Christmas to A Howdy Doody Christmas, as presented by the Fontane Sisters and Howdy himself. I have to admit I found Howdy a little "off" when I was a youthful Buster, and have not changed my opinion. Take a look at his troupe below and tell me they seem normal. The image comes from the cover of another Howdy Doody Christmas record, available here. This one is from 1951.

Country Washburne

The next item is on the Russell label, which made records for dance studios. Santa Has His Eye on You rather chillingly presents old Nick as a kind of parental spy in the cold war between adults and their offspring, perfectly apt for 1953. The performance by Country Washburne and a small band is quite good. Washburne was a vet of the Ted Weems and Spike Jones bands. Vocalist Marilyn King was the youngest of the King Sisters, but I don't believe she was a full-time member of the family ensemble. There are two versions of the song - vocal and instrumental.

Finally, Jose Ferrer presents the March of the Christmas Toys in his tuneless way. As sometimes happened, he was appearing on the flip side of a record by his wife, Rosemary Clooney. (That song, A Christmas Present to Santa Claus, has been widely anthologized.) Not sure why Mitch Miller kept parading Jose before the listening public as a vocalist. Ferrer was better suited to inpersonating Cyrano de Bergerac - which you can experience on this very blog, in fact.

Howdy Doody and ensemble (click to enlarge)

Christmas in Montréal with Raoul Jobin

Raoul Jobin, a Québec City native, was a well known exponent of the French operatic repertoire in the middle decades of the last century. With his large voice, beautifully produced throughout its range, he also branched out into Wagnerian roles in the prime of his career.

Jobin (left) at a recording session
in Canada

Jobin recorded these Christmas songs with the Montréal choir Les Disciples de Massenet in 1945, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia. Not sure if this is accurate or not, but this Canadian 10-inch LP would seem to date from about 1954, so the earlier date may be a typo.

Les Disciples de Massenet, who are still in existence, were founded in 1928 by Charles Goulet, who leads them on this record. The organist is Roland Roy.

The program is most enjoyable and the sound is excellent.

Christmas with the Bands

Tonight we have a quick collection of singles from the big bands of the 30s and 40s, starting with a singing duo who will be more familiar to people of my generation as television stars. They are Ozzie and Harriet before they were Ozzie and Harriet - when they were Ozzie Nelson, bandleader, and Harriet Hilliard, singer. On this 1935 Brunswick item they duet on the ubiquitous Jingle Bells. (Frankly, neither Oz nor Harriet was much of a singer.)

The Nelsons

Arrangers who wanted to make their scores seem extra-Christmassy tended to lead into the tune they were working on with a few bars of Jingle Bells. That's the case with the next two songs under discussion. The first one is the flip side of the Nelson opus - Santa Claus is Coming to Town. This is one of the few records by Joe Moss and his Society Dance Orchestra. The vocal is by Dick Robertson, who made a great many records during the 30s.

Frankie Masters

The next number is a particular favorite of mine - Hello, Mr. Kringle, here in a version by Frankie Masters and his band. This is from 1939.

Les Brown

We skip ahead a few years and to a much different sound world on Les Brown's 1946 recording of When You Trim Your Christmas Tree. We leave the bouncy numbers behind for this moody recording, which is reminiscent of the contemporary work of Claude Thornhill. Unfortunately, I don't know who arranged it, but the vocalist is Jack Haskell, who became a regular on Jack Paar's late night American TV show in the late 50s.

Finally we have two 1947 sides from Tiny Hill, a moderately successful band leader in the 40s into the 50s. He sings on Send Me Your Love for Christmas, and turns the chores over to Buddy Milton for Auld Lang Syne, our closing number.

Billboard ad

Christmas Hymns with George Beverly Shea

This lovely nostalgic image heralds the first Christmas album from the beloved bass-baritone, George Beverly Shea.

RCA issued this LP in 1953, only a few years after Shea had come to prominence with Billy Graham's crusades and recorded his first record for the label.

George Beverly Shea

The collection includes four of the most popular hymns of the season, together with two songs that were then somewhat unusual on a Christmas record - I Wonder as I Wander and Go Tell It on the Mountain - and two other even less familiar items - Thou Did'st Leave Thy Throne and There's a Song in the Air.

Bev Shea has appeared here twice before, but this is the first full LP from him that I've presented. The choir and orchestra accompanying him are unnamed but the pianist is Tedd Smith and the organist Paul Mickelson, both of whom were associated with Billy Graham. The sound is excellent.

Nutcracker Dances with Stock and Fiedler

To me the Nutcracker music never gets old and remains a magical evocation of Christmas time, even with the overuse of some of its most popular moments in television ads.

Today's post takes us back to a time before the first recording of the complete Nutcracker ballet music. Until 1954, all you could find were suites, mainly Tchaikovsky's own op. 71a suite, and that's what we have here, in a November 1939 recording from Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony, made in Orchestra Hall.

Frederick Stock

At that time, Stock had been the CSO's music director for 33 years and would continue in that post until his death in 1942. This 78 set, with its Alex Steinweiss cover, is actually a reissue that followed Stock's passing.

The other set of Nutcracker dances in this post makes a good complement for the Stock set, for it includes five other memorable dances that were not included by the composer in his suite, including the Waltz of the Snowflakes, the Pas de Deux and the final waltz. These were presumably chosen by the conductor, Arthur Fiedler, for this recording with the Boston Pops. As far as I can tell, it was issued in 1949, on an early RCA 45 set. At this time, RCA was color-coding its vinyl issues, with the Red Seal issues being pressed on red vinyl. (See examples of the different colors at this site, or in my basement.)

Arthur Fiedler

Fiedler was conductor of the Boston Pops for an amazing 49 years, until his death in 1979.

Both performances are quite good - with the strings of the Boston ensemble in particularly glorious form. The Chicago recording is more vivid, although will some distortion in the louder passages (which may be just my pressing - or my transfer, I guess). Stock is a little more yielding; Fiedler can be businesslike. But both are most enjoyable.

Christmas with the Crooners

A 1953 Julius LaRosa EP leads off tonight's share of Christmas records by some of the popular crooners of the postwar era, which also includes a passel of unusual songs by other singers.

The EP came out shortly after LaRosa's infamous on-air firing by American TV host Arthur Godfrey (a man who struck me as creepy even back then, when I was barely out of diapers). Julie has a reputation among vocal aficionados that is far greater than his popularity, and this record shows why. He performs these songs beautifully (a tendency to sing a little flat aside). He maintains his quality of voice even when singing loud, which is unusual for pop singers. And he is very involved in the repertoire. Excellent support by the Columbus Boychoir and Archie Bleyer. There is a small amount of groove noise on this EP - the second side was defective, but I managed to navigate around almost all the damage.

Billboard ad

We begin the assorted holiday singles with Johnny Mercer's 1946 recording of "Winter Wonderland," made with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston. This one's a little worn, but the rest of the evening's fare is in excellent shape.

We move ahead to 1950 and Frankie Laine's 78 of "Merry Christmas Everywhere" and "What Am I Gonna Do This Christmas." Also from that year is the first of two singles from that fine singer Johnny Desmond - "Sleigh Ride" and "A Marshmallow World."

Next up is "That's What Christmas Means to Me," a good song and performance by Eddie Fisher. Back to Desmond for 1954's "Happy Holidays to You" and "Santo Natale" (think "Santa Lucia").

Billboard ad

Finally, from 1955 we have Tony Martin's "Christmas in America" and "Christmas in Rio."

The songs on this set range from the overly familiar ("Silent Night") to sorta familiar ("Sleigh Ride") to sorta unfamiliar ("A Marshmallow World") to completely unfamiliar (most of the rest). Many of the non-hits are very worthwhile, and I think that makes for a good holiday listening.

Merry Christmas 1947 from Signature Records

It's almost the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, and that's not only the traditional beginning of the Christmas season, it's the traditional beginning of the Christmas music season.

I like Christmas music myself, and golly, do the visitors here like it! Holiday records are far and away the most popular things I share. Let's start things off with a most enjoyable 78 album from just before the LP era. It is called, sensibly enough, "A Merry Christmas" and it features several artists then associated with the Signature label, which was run by longtime industry figure Bob Thiele.

Ray Bloch gets top billing here. The orchestra leader was then active on radio, and later on TV (including with Ed Sullivan). Here he presents two songs ("Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow") with a good vocal group called the Eldorado Five. He also provides backing for the excellent vocalist Monica Lewis, who may remind you of Dinah Shore. She does a touching version of "White Christmas" and a good one of "The Christmas Song" (although her initial entrance misses the mark on pitch).

Also on board is bandleader Johnny Long, an exponent of the inexplicable swing era convention called the band vocal, in which the musicians form a tuneless chorale and bark out the lyrics of the song. Long had just had a big hit with "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" with Decca, which thanked him by showing him and the boys the door. They ended up with Signature, a much smaller label.

For this album, Signature had Long do "Jingle Bells" and "Winter Wonderland," and the results are surprisingly pleasing, mostly due to the fine band vocalist Francey Lane.

Lane and Lewis were both highly attractive, and had brief stints in Hollywood in addition to their singing careers.

Francey Lane

The sound on this 1947 release is quite good, and the records were in fine condition. I really enjoyed transferring this set - hope you like it as well.

Note (June 2024): This has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK

Sargent's Second Dream

Malcolm Sargent conducted one of the most famous of all recordings of Elgar's oratorio The Dream of Gerontius. This isn't it. This, rather, is his second go at the piece, which didn't receive much praise upon its issue in 1955, or thereafter.

Honestly, it's really not that bad! Gerontius is sung by the estimable Richard Lewis, in his first recording of the role. He is among the strongest proponents of the role. John Cameron provides a notably well sung Priest and Angel of the Agony. Marjorie Cameron is not to the level of some other Angels, but is certainly a fine singer.

The reviews would have you believe that Sargent skates over the surface of the music, but I don't hear that, although I will admit that it does not have the passion of Barbirolli's account.

Sargent's first recording of the piece has received ecstatic reviews almost since it came out in 1945. Heddle Nash was considered an ideal interpreter of Gerontius, and the praise has continued to this day. My own view is that this second version, issued to mark Sargent's 60th birthday, is not markedly inferior.

If you haven't heard this piece, a few words of introduction. First, Elgar's music isn't reputed to travel well, and this may be one of his most unexportable works. The work concerns the death of an old man (Gerontius) and his passage into the afterlife. It is based on Elgar's edited version of John Cardinal Newman's very Roman Catholic poem. These days, this kind of poem (and music) could hardly be more out of style. It is, nonetheless, a magnificent work, with sublime music perfectly married to the text by an inspired composer. I find it quite moving.

This is transferred from a mint copy of the original issue.

REMASTERED VERSION (JUNE 2014)

The Jazz and Poetry Movement

Once again we are exploring the intersection of jazz with other arts in the 50s, this time examining the short-lived jazz and poetry movement through this LP, possibly its most enduring artifact.

The idea of a poetry recital backed by jazz music is usually ascribed to the beat movement, specifically the San Francisco poets. This particular LP was midwifed by Lawrence Lipton, but Kenneth Rexroth was at least as involved in the movement. He made his own album about the same time, as did Kenneth Patchen.

This record features the work of San Francisco poets Philip Whalen and notably Lawrence Ferlinghetti along with Lipton. Also included are precursors Walt Whitman and W.C. Williams, along with Langston Hughes, whose poetry was influenced by vernacular music and who had experimented with jazz accompaniment back in the 1920s.

Lipton coined the phrase "jazz canto" to describe the fusion of jazz and poetry - although "fusion" is perhaps too strong a word for what is achieved here. This is not art song; the poetry is recited, although at times reciter Bob Dorough does fall into a sort of notated speech or even outright singing. Most often, the poetry and music seem to be in two different worlds; and although interesting and valid on their own, one doesn't add much to the other when heard together.

That is, except for one number that is gloriously successful - Dorough's recitation and music for Ferlinghetti's poem Dog. In this case, the music makes the poem leap vividly to life, and the result is one of the best things (and by that of course I mean one of my favorite things) produced in 50s music. It helps that Ferlinghetti's poem is based on the dog's journey through the streets of SF, which lends itself to being set to music that trots right along with him. It also helps that Dorough's wry Southern accent sounds just like you imagine this "real live barking democratic dog" would sound. It's a third-person (third-animal?) poem, but the poet identifies closely with his dog-tagonist.

Dorough also did the music and recitation for three Langston Hughes poems, with much less success. The LP contains music from Fred Katz, Ralph Pena, Buddy Collette, Jack Montrose, Bob Hardaway and Gerry Mulligan with speakers John Carradine, Hoagy Carmichael, Ben Wright and Roy Glenn. Mulligan's music accompanies Glenn's recitation of Philip Whalen's Big High Song for Somebody, and that cut has achieved a certain minor renown of its own, but I think the actor's hip baritonal presentation isn't right for the poem.

This was billed as Vol. 1 of a series, but I don't think there was a Vol. 2. The jazz and poetry movement, which started with a bang (or a rimshot) in 1957, was all but over by the time this record came out in 1958.

Do try this for Dog - who, writes the poet, has his head cocked sideways "into the great gramophone of puzzling existence with its wondrous hollow horn which always seems just about to spout forth some Victorious answer to everything." It's the perfect poem for a record collector.

LINK

The French Line

Movies in 3D are not new - there was a short vogue for the format in the 50s. They had the right idea back then, too. Why waste screen time on cute cartoon creatures or spurting blood when you can have Jane Russell's bazooms thrusting out at you?

And that was one of the main attractions of the RKO musical called The French Line, from 1953. As a reviewer on IMDb, who has seen the 3D version, writes, "When the posters outside of the theatre proclaimed 'JR in 3D!', they really meant what they said. During several musical numbers, when she would turn from profile and face the camera with her chest thrust out: watch out! You almost felt you should move away from the screen."

Of course, the soundtrack LP has no such advantages, and we are left with the vocalizations of Russell and Gilbert Roland. While both of them can sing, neither of them is a singer, if you catch the distinction. The songs here are by Josef Myrow (music) and the team of Ralph Blane and Robert Wells (lyrics). We have encountered Myrow here before with his songs for I Love Melvin. Blane is known for many films (Meet Me in St. Louis) and shows (Best Foot Forward). Wells' greatest hit was "The Christmas Song."

The results from this distinguished group are pleasant if hardly compelling. The best tune is probably "Wait Till You See Paris," but in this item Roland manages to be colorless and overwrought at the same time.

Oh well - it's a fairly rare LP, and I imagine connoisseurs of this kind of thing will enjoy the experience.

Note (July 2024) - This has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK

Digression No. 25

I was very pleased that this blog was named one of the best sites for classical music downloads by Nick Morgan of the magazine Classical Recordings Quarterly (previously Classic Record Collector). In fact, Big 10-Inch was the only blog named that isn't exclusively devoted to classics. Most of the other sites named have been cited here before - including Vinyl Fatigue, Serenata in Vano, The Music Parlor, Neal's Historical Recordings, Quartier des Archives, Bill Anderson's posts at RMCR, Sacqueboutier's at symphonyshare, and Bryan Bishop's shares, now available at his new blog, The Shellackophile. If it had been me, I would have added Fred's Random Classics, Satyr's 78 Toeren en LP's, and Pablo's El baul del coleccionista. (Hope I am not forgetting anyone.)

Speaking of Satyr's and Pablo's blogs, I want to mention that they continue to post wonderful Cor de Groot recordings for everyone to enjoy. Pablo has offered a Chopin recital and Satyr has presented Beethoven's second and third piano concertos (with the VSO and Otterloo). Highly recommended.

1917 record cover

Switching subjects - longtime readers may remember a 2008 discussion of the supposed "first record cover design" - a 78 album of music by Richard Rodgers with a cover by Alex Steinweiss. At that time, both your host and a reader named Jeff expressed extreme skepticism about the claim that this was indeed the first such cover, citing items in our own collections that predate the Columbia cover. It turns out we were quite right. The 2010 Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) conference presented a long and profusely illustrated talk by Mike Biel that explodes the claim that Steinweiss was first. Designed covers go back to 1917 (above right), and there were literally hundreds of them issued before the first Steinweiss cover - several of them in my own basement. My friend Mel mentioned a Pinocchio album that he had as a child that included an integrated design not just of the cover but of the end papers, record pockets and labels. This is one of Biel's exhibits. You can find both the recording of his fascinating talk and a slide show with hundreds of images on the ARSC site. I urge anyone interested in the topic to seek it out.

The ARSC presentations for the past few years are on line, and many of them are fascinating. I listened to Peter Muir's discussion of the early blues industry, including a convincing demonstration of how a good bit of the musical content of W.C. Handy's St. Louis Blues of 1913 was borrowed from a 1908 ragtime song. There are many other worthwhile subjects - just the thing for a record nut!

Canta Maya - From Berlin to Bachelor Pad

We'll never know what path led prewar Berlin cabaret artist Canta Maya to Morris Levy's Roulette records in 1958, but this LP is the result.

There's not much background available on Canta Maya (born Elizabeth Rimmer in Alsace). While we can place her in 1930s Berlin as a singer and perhaps a courtesan - one who was called the "Venus of the flesh" (not sure what that means, but it sounds good!) - it's likely that she was not a big star because she does not appear in recent books chronicling the cabaret scene of the time.

During the war years she emigrated to a German exile community in Mexico, but does not turn up again until she made this one-off record for Roulette in 1958. Finally, she resurfaces years later as an acquaintance of the artist Tamara de Lempicka, again in Mexico.

Canta Maya in Berlin

On the evidence here, Canta Maya was a kind of Teutonic Eartha Kitt, or perhaps a Marlene Dietrich who actually could sing. She is far more intense than most exponents of the bachelor pad genre. She puts across such kitsch as "I'm a Kitten" seemingly without irony, and complete with a glottal purr that's closer to a growl. This kitten seems more odd than sexy. Her version of Ray Noble's "Good Night Sweetheart" sounds desperate - not an effect the urbane Noble was aiming for, I'd guess.

Even so, Canta Maya certainly was a skillful singer who knew how to get the effects she was aiming for, and this record is worth hearing for more than its curiosity value.

This is in response to a request from my friend Jeronimo.

REMASTERED VERSION - MARCH 2015

Sweet Smell of Success

In a small tribute to the actor Tony Curtis, who died last week, I thought I might upload the soundtrack to one of his films. For some reason, Curtis appeared in a great number of movies that had notable scores, including Trapeze, The Vikings, Kings Go Forth, Spartacus, Taras Bulba, Paris - When It Sizzles, and others. Here is 1957's Sweet Smell of Success, which featured Curtis in his first "serious" role, and composer Elmer Bernstein in his best swaggering jazz mode.

Life Magazine ad

The ironically titled Sweet Smell was actually a particularly poisonous film noir tale of power and corruption - a genre that flourished in the supposedly placid and conformist 50s.

Whether you think Curtis was effective in such dramas or not, there is no doubt that he had a gift for farce, most notably in Billy Wilder's 1959 classic-in-drag, Some Like It Hot, in which Tony ends up with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon gets Joe E. Brown.

I think Elmer Bernstein is making his first appearance on this blog, unless my fallible memory and labelling system are both failing me. Bernstein has an enormous reputation among film music aficionados, although among the general public he doesn't have 1/100 of the reputation of his namesake Lenny - no relation. This is a relatively early score, and a particularly strong one.

I should point out that some of the music on the soundtrack was composed by jazz musicians Chico Hamilton and Fred Katz, who appeared in the film as part of Hamilton's quintet. Decca also released an LP of music from the film as performed by this group. The Hamilton quintet does not appear on this album, which features a studio group conducted by Bernstein. The back cover below has more information.

Gould from De Groot and The Hague

This is an unusual record in that the concert music of Morton Gould was certainly not being recorded in Europe at that time (mid-50s). Whatever possessed Philips to program Gould's music with orchestral forces from The Hague, conductor Willem van Otterloo and pianist Cor de Groot, we can only be grateful, for these are remarkably idiomatic performances, beautifully played and nicely recorded. They make a fine addition to our ongoing series devoted to de Groot.

Interplay, the piano piece here, is also known as American Concertette. I believe it was introduced under the latter name, and acquired the former when it became a Jerome Robbins ballet. An early work (1943), it echoes Gershwin and Ravel to good effect, being quite memorable in its own right. De Groot sounds at home.

Spirituals for Orchestra was also an early work - it is from 1946 - and one that became very successful for Gould, who was all over American music during this period. He was on radio, making mood music records, conducting, composing concert music and writing a Broadway show. It was during this period that he was compared to another wunderkind, Leonard Bernstein, who was more outgoing, photogenic and aggressive than Gould, and ultimately became more famous. Was Bernstein more talented? Perhaps.

Billboard item

This Philips recording was issued in the US in 1953, occasioning the characteristic Billboard headline at right, "Morton Gould By Dutch Ork." Well, the Dutch ork, their Dutch baton waver and Dutch ivory tickler really wail on these American riffs!

The wildly inappropriate and completely unattractive cover on this American Epic pressing is by A.F. Arnold, a fairly well-known commercial artist of the time.

This post goes out to my friend Mel, one of the first supporters of this blog. Hope you like this one, Mel!

Eddie Fisher

Eddie Fisher, who died a few days ago, was just beginning his career 60 years ago with the release of his first big hit, "Thinking of You" (the Kalmar-Ruby song from M-G-M's 1950 musical, Three Little Words).

"Thinking of You" is the highlight of this, Fisher's first LP, which came out in 1952. The singer had already shown himself to be a big-voiced, accurate vocalist with a good sense of time and an individual timbre. He also had displayed a few stylistic tics, such as suddenly belting a climactic note.

As this LP shows, at this time RCA was having Fisher record the tunes of the day, such as "Sorry" and the country song "I Love You Because," almost always with the support of Hugo Winterhalter.

Billboard ad

Our second memorial offering for Fisher is the 1954 EP below, titled for its first song - "A Girl, A Girl." That song has Eddie giving out with some Prima-style Italianisms - "I'm just a fella / who wants to ring-a the bell-a". (It's-a dreadful.) The second song is more of the same, but on the other side we switch to German repertoire with "Oh! My Pa-Pa," a sentimental item that became an enormous hit for Fisher in the US and for trumpeter Eddie Calvert in the UK.

Fisher went on to have several more hits, but soon became more noted for his love live than his singing. First he married Debbie Reynolds, leaving her for Liz Taylor after her husband (and Fisher's best friend) Mike Todd was killed in a plane crash. Taylor later dumped Eddie for Richard Burton. This American La Ronde played out in endless gossip columns and movie magazine covers.

It's hard to say what was more influential in derailing Fisher's career - his personal habits or changing musical tastes and styles. But he was a prodigious hitmaker for a time.

I had a number of Fisher records as a juvenile record aficionado, and remember being fond of "Oh! My Pa-Pa." But my special favorite was Eddie's version of "Lady of Spain," which I believe was on a promotional EP put out in association with Fisher's hosting of the Coke Time TV show. I played that one incessantly. This suggests two things - that taste is not inborn and my parents were among the most indulgent of people.