Tenth Batch of Reups

Here are some of the recent reup requests that have come in. Sorry I am a little late on the Christmas records!

As before, links to all the reups are in the comments to this item. The links below take you to the original posts, where you can read my snappy, insightful commentary (or ignore it, if you prefer).

All but the Mickey Spillane are in one lossless format or the other.

Complete Manhattan Tower

This is the second time I've reupped this popular item - Gordon Jenkins' expanded second go at his Manhattan Tower. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Ellis Larkins Plays Harold Arlen

I almost forgot I had posted this superb album by a very tasteful pianist. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Beecham Conducts the Nutcracker Suite

The Nutcracker has appeared three times on this blog - this version was a contribution by my pal anonymousremains. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Mickey Spillane as Mike Hammer

An odd early LP with author Mickey Spillane appearing as Hammer and rescuing a damsel in distress, accompanied by bongos. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Erik Tuxen Conducts Nielsen's Third Symphony

A favorite recording - and the first of any Nielsen symphony. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Cor de Groot - Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4

The excellent Dutch pianist in Beethoven's most sublime concerto. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Christmas Music from M-G-M

A collection of Christmas music for children as issued on M-G-M singles and collected on an M-G-M spin-off label. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Dancing with Ralph Flanagan

Way back when on this blog, I presented Ralph Flanagan's LP "The Freshman-Sophomore Frolics," noting that the bandleader was a Glenn Miller clone - but a good one!

That opinion has not changed, and I have to admit that I still enjoy his music a great deal - so much so that I have re-ripped "The Freshman-Sophomore Frolics" and have supplemented that with a first-time transfer of its companion LP, "The Junior-Senior Prom".

Flanagan was indeed popular at the time (1954) with the college set, so I imagine he was appearing at many dances. However, these are not live recordings or even a facsimile of what the bandleader might have programmed on such an occasion. They are, instead, miscellaneous recordings made between 1949 and 1952 with a variety of musicians. The records are, nonetheless, quite consistent in their sound.

Click image to enlarge

I didn't matriculate (you should pardon the expression) until 12 years after these records came out, but I don't recall attending a "Freshman Frolic" - or a "Sophomore Splash," which is the title of one of the spin-off EPs from this set. But perhaps the world had changed in the interim. I do recall that there was a protest at the university I attended because the annual formal was being held at a private, racially segregated club. That was a long time ago.

As noted, this is a new transfer of the freshman-sophomore selections, and a first-time transfer of the junior-senior disc. The sound is very good. The downloads include complete scans, including cover scans of two of the spin-off EPs, discographies, etc. There are photos of Flanagan in his oversized suits - the early-50s fashion was apparently to wear your clothes five sizes too large (see below).

Gordon Jenkins' Seven Dreams

I've had a couple of requests for this record, another musical fantasy by Gordon Jenkins, less popular than Manhattan Tower but still worth hearing.

It's not hard to figure out why this never achieved the renown of Manhattan Tower - that composition had a story arc, the romance of New York and some relatively well-known songs.

This work - which indeed is composed of seven dream scenes - has no such continuity and a dark undercurrent, and is punctuated by an annoying alarm going off every few minutes. There are no hit songs, unless you want to consider "Crescent City Blues" a hit song because much of it was "borrowed" a few years later by Johnny Cash for his "Folsom Prison Blues". "Crescent City Blues" is performed here by Jenkins' wife, Beverly Mahr.

Bill Lee with his own record

The "dreamer" on this LP is studio singer Bill Lee, one of the Mellomen singing group along with Thurl Ravenscroft (who also makes an appearance on this LP). Lee did extensive work for Disney, and was a well-known vocal double, dubbing the singing voice John Kerr in South Pacific and Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music, among others. He is very effective here.

John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan

Appearing on the corny but affecting "The Pink Houseboat" is the husband-and-wife team of John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan, who were fixtures on American television for many years. Also prominently featured on the concluding "The Girl on the Rock" is the excellent Laurie Carroll. I don't have any information on her, but would assume she was a studio singer.

The cover on this LP is by Alex Steinweiss, signing as "Piedra Blanca". It is one of his more effective post-Columbia designs, although the background looks like something the cat brought up. You may notice among the murk on the center left that Gordon Jenkins autographed my copy of the record.

This was a very long record for the time (1953), and as a result the sound was cut at a low level. The first side was mastered a half-tone sharp, probably to make the side a little shorter and the cutting easier. I have corrected the pitch in this transfer.

As I said, you will find much to like here if you enjoy Manhattan Tower. The first song is recognizably the same sound world as the earlier work, and the final number has a similar ecstatic feel. However, it is, as I mentioned, a curiously dark work, and at the end, the dreamer remains asleep permanently, forsaking reality and yielding to his fantasy.

LINK to remastered version in ambient stereo (April 2025)

The Conrad Salinger LP in Stereo

Very grateful thanks to blog follower StealthMan for his generous offer of this stereo version of the 1957 Verve album of Conrad Salinger arrangements.

I have had a mono copy of this rare LP on the blog for several years, but haven't heard the stereo edition until now. This is in a painstaking transfer by StealthMan with some slight remastering by yours truly.

Conrad Salinger

If you are a fan of the classic M-G-M sound, this is for you - a full LP of arrangements by the acknowledged master, led by Buddy Bregman.

More about Salinger and this record in my original post. Also see Buster's Swinging Singles for a new post of Salinger arrangements from The Barkleys of Broadway. Finally, here is a very fine tribute to this wonderful musician.

Willard Robison's 'Deep River Music'

The fine and highly individual composer Willard Robison gets little attention today, but he was a favorite of many musicians during his career, which lasted from the 1920s into the 1950s.

This very early Capitol LP was likely inspired by the admiration of fellow songwriter-singer Johnny Mercer. It contains six Robison songs, two sung by Mercer, three by Robison and one, anonymously, by the great studio singer Loulie Jean Norman.

Robison in the 1920s

The title is "Deep River Music," an evocative term derived from Robison's old Deep River Orchestra, which he led on the radio and records from the 1920s into the early 1930s. Robison was from Missouri, and his music reflects the rural and religious sensibilities of his youth. His songs often have a sense of trying to hold on to something that is slipping away - even in songs where he didn't write the lyrics, such as "A Cottage for Sale" and "Old Folks," possibly his most famous number, which he recorded several times, including for this album.

Johnny Mercer

There is much to enjoy here, with fine contributions from Mercer, who is on his best behavior, and from the reedy voiced Robison. But the best number is certainly Loulie Jean Norman's "Deep Summer Music," an entrancingly beautiful performance.

Loulie Jean Norman

I have to assume that Robison knew the singer: he once wrote a piece called "Poor Loulie Jean", and how many Loulie Jeans can there have been? She was a fine musician who is worth remembering as well as Robison. Here is a link to a remembrance of her.

This record came near the end of Robison's recording career. He made another LP for Coral a little later and some other items. Most of his records were made much earlier in his career, both as a bandleader and as a singer-pianist.

My copy of this particular record is worn, but the sound is certainly acceptable - and the sounds are worth getting to know.