So This Is Paris

Continuing our long-running series of obscure and semi-obscure musicals, here is the soundtrack from the 1955 sailors-on-leave epic So This Is Paris.

Musicals focusing on the antics of American military personnel at their leisure date back at least to the 1944 opening of On the Town on Broadway. I am not even sure this was the first musical that set sailors loose in Paris to pursue love and adventure. So there is nothing new here in that regard.

But we're concerned with the soundtrack and it is pleasant, if (like the story) hardly original. The songs are the handiwork of Phil Moody and Pony Sherrell.

A few words about this relatively unfamiliar team might be helpful. Phil Moody was a British-born composer and Doris (Pony) Sherrell was a lyricist and singer. They met when Moody became the music director for the act that Pony formed with her sister Grace. Phil and Grace married while Pony, who was then married to singer Gene ("My Blue Heaven") Austin, became Phil's musical partner.

In the mid-50s, Moody and Sherrell were assigned to a few low-powered musicals besides this one - including Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt and, in the 60s, The Second Greatest Sex. They also did songs for Paris Follies of 1956 and Fresh from Paris (I am detecting a theme here). Their two songs from those latter films were recorded by Margaret Whiting and can be found here on this blog. (Caveat: I called "All There Is and Then Some" an awful song when I posted that collection.)

Unusually, So This Is Paris starred Tony Curtis in a singing role. Of course I can't be sure that Curtis isn't dubbed; if so, the vocal double isn't that great a singer. Otherwise, we have Gloria De Haven, who can sing (she was a band vocalist), and Gene Nelson, who also can sing, although he was primarily known as a dancer.

The soundtrack was issued as a 10-inch LP and a double EP. The cover of my copy of the EP set is very worn but the records are in good shape, so the sound is pleasing.

Julius Baker in Works by Foote and Griffes

Flutist Julius Baker made any number of records in the 1950s. During much of the period he was a New York freelance musician, but when these recordings were made, in June 1952, he was the principal flute of the Chicago Symphony. He later was the principal of the New York Philharmonic for many years.

Julius Baker

The repertoire could not be more welcome, consisting of the Poem for flute and orchestra by the American Impressionist Charles Tomlinson Griffes and "A Night Piece" by the American Romantic Arthur Foote.

Assisting in the Griffes is a chamber orchestra led by Daniel Saidenberg, also a busy performer during the period. In "A Night Piece" Baker is joined by the then violins of the Stuyvesant Quartet (Sylvan Shulman and Bernard Roberts), violist Harold Coletta of the NBC Symphony, and cellist Bernard Greenhouse, later of the Beaux Arts Trio.

These are excellent performances that I recommend. The sound is good. They come from American Decca's spartan (no notes) 4000 series of 10-inch LPs, dating from the early 1950s. I have a few more from this series coming up.

By the way, if you are interested in the Stuyvesant Quartet, fellow blogger Bryan over at The Shellackophile offers three different recordings by the group, including one he just posted.

Rose Marie

Rose Marie - still with us - was already a well known entertainer more than 80 years ago, when she was appearing on stage as "Baby Rose Marie". (You can see her young self here.)

Closer to the present day, she was a welcome presence on US television, first as a comedy writer on The Dick Van Dyke Show, later on other sitcoms and game shows.

Frankie and Rose Marie

Today we're concerned with her in-between career as a nightclub entertainer. Starting in the 1940s, she had a combination music and comedy act in some of the better locales.

This 10-inch LP documents that phase of her stage experience. It comes from circa 1952, when she was on Broadway in Top Banana with Phil Silvers, and it was probably issued in an attempt to cash in on that appearance. The recordings themselves, however, were made by Mercury as singles from 1946 to about 1948.

Rose Marie's first single was "Chen-A-Luna," a version of a song that goes back at least as far as the 1830s and Rossini's "La Danza".

Oh, you don't believe that Gioachino Rossini would have originated a song that implores lazy Mary to get up because we need the sheets for the table? Well, consider that "Chen-A-Luna" is a phonetic version of the first line of the song, "C'è la luna in mezzo al mare", and the first line of Rossini's song is "Già la luna è in mezzo al mare." (Rossini's version did not invoke lazy Mary, however.) You can hear Enrico Caruso in "La Danza" here.

I am digressing, but the song has a complicated history (including versions by Lou Monte, Louis Prima and an unlikely paisan, Rudy Vallee). I'll soon explore it in more depth in an upcoming post on Buster's Swinging Singles.

Rose Marie's repertoire at the time - at least as displayed here - was mainly novelty songs, but she nonetheless was quite a good vocalist, singing in a strong alto with excellent rhythm and considerable personality. At least some of the accompaniments here are by Dick (later Richard) Maltby. The sound is good, but the LP transfer was quite sharp, which I have adjusted here.

Kiss Me, Kate with Stafford and MacRae

Two blog favorites for you today - Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae - in songs from Kiss Me, Kate.

This album was issued in March 1949 (so was I, come to think of it), and was designed to provide a lower-cost alternative to the 12-inch original cast LP. It consists of four 45s (and was also issued in a 78 package, and later came out on a 10-inch LP).

Jo and Gordon

The original cast LP is superb, and while this version is not on that level, it is still pretty good, as you might expect with Stafford and MacRae participating along with Paul Weston.

The artists duet only on "Wunderbar", then split the other songs, except for "Too Darn Hot", which is given over to an anonymous vocal group.

My set of records were unplayed store stock, and are in much better shape than I am after nearly 64 years. The sound is quite good. The download includes front and back cover scans, a scan of a Capitol ad insert, and a label and sleeve scan as well. The front cover was designed by Saul Bass, several years before he began doing movie title design, and is distinctly more modern looking than the general run of album covers of the time.

Grace Williams and Gustav Holst

It's been some time since we have had a classical LP appear here. This one features two 20th century composers, one familiar, the other less so.

Boyd Neel

The popularity of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" almost eclipses his other works, but most of his music is of considerable interest. The St. Paul's Suite is a very attractive folk-derived work named for the girls' school where the composer taught. Here it is well performed by Boyd Neel and his orchestra, which made many records for English Decca at mid-century.

Grace Williams

To me, the real interest is in Grace Williams' lovely Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes, from 1940. This, the first recording of any music by the Welsh composer, is from October 1948. It was made for the Welsh Recorded Music Society and issued on 78 in 1949. It then was reissued with the Holst on 10-inch LP in 1951.

Mansel Thomas

Mansel Thomas, a notable figure in Welsh musical life, conducted the Fantasia. He was at this time the director of the BBC Welsh Orchestra, although here he leads the London Symphony.

The sound is adequate. The download includes contemporary reviews from The Gramophone.