Bill Frawley Sings the Old Ones, Plus Reups

A quick post tonight to present one new item and a bunch of reups and remasters.

The new offering is by Bill Frawley, usually billed as William Frawley, and perhaps even better known as Fred Mertz of the 50s smash TV show I Love Lucy.

I confess that this is a record I transferred many years ago, and only resurrected because I wanted to listen to Frawley's version of "My Melancholy Baby" - a tune that he claimed to have introduced in 1912. Who knows if this is true, but Frawley was a vaudeville artist, and he probably did perform this number, and the other "Old Ones" on this LP as well. They all would have been heard in the music halls of 100 years ago, when Frawley was a trouper. The album dates from 1957, when Lucy was still on the air. Bill/William/Fred had little voice left at that time, but much style. You'll like this despite yourself.

Full disclosure: I only had mp3s of my original transfer, and I have no idea where the LP has gone to (they sneak away if you don't keep your eye on them). So I remastered the mp3s. This is something I usually don't do, but it is acceptable for material like this, I think, and the result sounds fine.

Here are the reups and remasters, by request:

Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 2 (Serkin, PO-Ormandy) (remastered). Superb pianism in Serkin's first recorded go at the Brahms First, one of three with Ormandy and the Philadelphians. From 1945.

Freddie Mitchell - Boogie Bash (remastered). Honkin' tenor sax from Mitchell and his band, taken from 1949-52 Derby 78s and an Label "X" LP reissuing Derby masters. I spent a lot of time getting the pitch right on these sides, which is more than I can say for the musicians. It's crude but vivid!

Ida May Mack and Bessie Tucker. Two obscure Texas blues singers as heard on a Label "X" reissue from 1955. mp3 only.

Jimmy Yancey - Blues and Boogie. More from Label "X" - this one from Chicago pianist Yancey as heard in 1938 and 1940 recordings. mp3 only.

Kings of the Blues. This final Label "X" offering presents mainly August 1928 Memphis recordings of Jim Jackson, Frank Stokes, Furry Lewis, and Ishman Bracey. mp3 only.

Julie Wilson and 'This Could Be the Night'

Cabaret legend Julie Wilson died this week, and I thought I might pay tribute to her by presenting this relatively obscure soundtrack recording from This Could Be the Night, a 1957 film where she played (what else) a nightclub singer. Wilson's vocal LPs of the period have been reissued, but not this item, as far as I can tell.

Wilson was 32 when the film was shot. She had already become a fixture at the posh La Maisonette at the St. Regis Hotel in New York, with her repertoire of standards and mildly risque material - a sophisticated mix for a high-end audience. She also had appeared in several shows, and this acting experience and her striking looks made her a natural for Hollywood.

Ray Anthony and Julie Wilson

Along with This Could Be the Night, Wilson was cast in the The Strange One (which soundtrack has also appeared here, although it does not feature her). The former film was set backstage at a nightclub. Quite a club - for a band, it employed Ray Anthony's ensemble, and for a stripper, it had the wonderfully attractive Neile Adams (who met her future husband Steve McQueen while making this film).

The movie sounds like fun, but the the soundtrack is nothing special, sorry to report. Anthony does a number of his set pieces - including two hits from 1952, "Trumpet Boogie" and "The Bunny Hop," that old-time wedding reception favorite. (The hop in this one is not as bouncy as the original version.) There also is something of a Sinatra flavor to the proceedings, with a cover of "The Tender Trap" and a rendition of "I'm Gonna Live Till I Die," which Anthony cut with The Voice back in 1954.

Neile Adams

The latter song has a solo by Julie Wilson, who admittedly did not have such a great voice herself. What she had was presence and personality. Her idol was Billie Holiday, who influence is apparent in two songs associated instead with other famous singers  - "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)" (Ivie Anderson) and "Taking a Chance on Love" (Ethel Waters). She also lets loose with the flapper-era favorite "Sadie Green," and one of the two versions of the title song, written by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn. There is a vocal for Neile Adams, who may have been a wonderful dancer and actor, but whose singing was more like squawking.

M-G-M's sound is uncharacteristically close and harsh, but good enough, I guess. (Note (August 2025): The sound has now been reworked and is somewhat better.) I don't have personnel for the band, unfortunately. The film credits suggest that at least some of the arrangements were by Billy May and Skip Martin.

LINK (remastered in ambient stereo August 2025)

Ray shows the chorus line his spit valve

Paul Weston's Melodies for a Sentimental Mood

I had a request for more from the estimable and inescapable arranger Paul Weston, so here we have his Melodies for a Sentimental Mood, from circa 1952.

These danceable, easy listening sides make a great contrast to the Elliott Carter sonatas I just presented, which may have many virtues, but certainly will not inspire you to roll up the rugs for a sock hop.

Paul Weston

One of the frustrations of records like this is that the excellent musicians are not identified. However, Weston did often work with a group of famous West Coast session hands, and other records he made for Columbia did specify the personnel, who included the following: Ziggy Elman, Clyde Hurley (tp) Joe Howard, Bill Schaefer (tb) Matty Matlock (cl) Babe Russin, Ted Nash, Eddie Miller (ts) Paul Smith (p) Barney Kessel, George Van Eps (g). The "Embraceable You" solo trumpet certainly sounds like Ziggy.

The sonics on this 10-inch LP are most vivid.

Early Elliott Carter: Cello and Piano Sonatas

As a follow-up to my post of Elliott Carter's Piano Sonata and Pocahontas Suite, here is the composer's 1948 Cello Sonata and a second version of the piano work. This is from a circa 1952 American Recording Society LP.

Bernard Greenhouse

Carter wrote the cello score for Bernard Greenhouse, then a young soloist. This was several years before the instrumentalist's long and illustrious association with the Beaux Arts Trio. Greenhouse and pianist Anthony Makas gave the premiere of the work in Town Hall in 1950.

On the other side of the LP, Beveridge Webster makes the Piano Sonata his own in a version that I prefer to the Charles Rosen account that appeared here a while back, not that the Rosen isn't a tremendous accomplishment in its own right. But Webster's approach in the stormier passages of the second movement does make the later reading seem deadpan.

Beveridge Webster

Like Rosen, Webster recorded the sonata twice - the second time for Dover, for which he produced seemingly the entire piano literature in low-priced editions that once were commonly found in bookstores.

I am certain this is the first recording of the Cello Sonata; I believe that is true of the piano work as well. The sound is very good.