Mega Remaster Collection, Featuring Buddy Clark

I enjoy remastering the old posts on this site because I can usually wring much better sound from my earlier efforts – and I don’t have to do any transferring or scanning. Everyone wins! So here is the latest collection of reups, all bright, shiny and as new as I can make 60-year-old recordings sound.

The featured artist for today is the wonderful 30s/40s crooner Buddy Clark, in a group of his earliest solo efforts. When I first offered these, a vocal collector huffily complained that the original issues were not pitched properly and I should have fixed that malady. Well, I have finally got around to doing so, and have added new transfers of two additional records to make belated recompense.

The collection contains almost all the singles Clark made for the budget Varsity label in 1939-40, now for the first time including “You Are Too Beautiful” and “Robert the Roué,” as reissued later in the 40s on the Sterling label. As a bonus I have added one of the singer’s earliest solo discs, “Lost” and “The Touch of Your Lips,” which he recorded for Melotone in May 1936.

Just a digression about “Robert the Roué”: this is a quite risqué (for the time) song that I believe came from the 1939 Broadway review Streets of Paris, where it was introduced by the vaudeville comic Bobby Clark. Music and lyrics are by the distinguished team of Jimmy McHugh and Al Dubin. Buddy delivers the double-entendres with great enthusiasm.

Here is the rest of today’s collection. Some of these benefit from a fuller explanation, so I have included links to the original posts, where you will find the download links in the comments. Links to all downloads are included in the comments to this post.

Juanita Hall. Hall achieved fame as Bloody Mary in South Pacific, but this post collates a blues LP she made in the 1950s and a choral collection she led in the 1940s.

Kathryn Grayson in Grounds for Marriage. Soundtrack from a 1951 Grayson romantic comedy, mainly operatic arias with the addition of a “toy symphony” from David Raksin.

Gordon Jenkins - 26 Years of Academy Award Winning Songs. An obscure Jenkins-conducted compilation of the various songs that had won Oscars.

Carole Simpson - Singin' and Swingin'. A fine singer in a enjoyable collection of Steve Allen songs, from am early stereo budget LP.

Marc Blitzstein - Songs of the Theater. Muriel Smith and composer Blitzstein perform some of his theater songs in this rare early LP.

Sheila Guyse - This is Sheila. Interesting vocal LP from a good singer; another rarity.

Stubby Kaye - Music for Chubby Lovers. The beloved actor/singer (Guys and Dolls, L’il Abner) in a vocal collection that shoulda been better – but is still pretty good. I have ironed out some of the pitch problems on the original.

Sue Raney – Singles. A collection of 50s and 60s Capitol and Imperial records from one of the greatest singers alive today.

Tonight We Sing. Soundtrack from the bizarre 1953 Sol Hurok biopic, with Ezio Pinza as a blustery Chaliapin, joined in the musical selections by Roberta Peters and Jan Peerce.

Young Vic Damone. One of the several early Vic Damone LPs and EPs to be featured here – and a very good one! Terrific singing.

Music for Mid-Century British Films. Contemporary British recordings of music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lord Berners, Mischa Spoliansky, Allan Gray, Richard Addinsell – and one American ringer, Miklos Rozsa. A favorite of mine.

Jerry Fielding's 1953 Band

Jerry Fielding is remembered today as a film and television composer, but before that experience, he was an arranger, radio conductor and bandleader. It’s in the latter guise that we hear him today, in this 1953 10-inch LP for the short-lived Trend label.

A friend of mine posted this record on his blog, and observed that Fielding seems so young on the cover that he does not look like he’s begun to shave. Perhaps so, but by this time he had been a professional for nearly a decade, writing big-band arrangements and conducting the orchestras for a number of radio shows.

Fielding was born Joshua Feldman, and the claim is made that in 1947 the producer of Jack Paar’s radio show made him change his name as a condition of getting a job on that program. However, by that time the young bandleader had already made records under the Fielding name.

By whatever name, he was a notable success, and this record is testimony. It documents a working band that Fielding had assembled, with three or four trumpets, two trombones, four or five saxes, and rhythm. The soloists include Maurie Harris (trumpet), Hymie Gunkler (alto), Buddy Collette and Sam Donahue (tenors) and Gerald Wiggins (piano). The leader’s arrangements are varied and imaginative, making for a fine album. (Perhaps not as good as the review below, which touts this disc as “the best band album ever recorded,” to the surprise, no doubt, of Ellington, Basie and many others.)

Billboard ad - click to enlarge

The LP has 11 cuts, five of which are devoted to Fielding’s theme song, “Carefree,” which is heard in snatches at the start and end of each side of the record, and complete on the first side. It’s an attractive piece, but maybe not deserving of all that exposure.

As a bonus to the LP, I’ve added Fielding’s first single for the Trend label. It includes a band treatment of “Here in My Arms” backed by a vocal on “A Blues Serenade” by the young Ruth Olay, who was under the influence of Mildred Bailey at the time. Olay went on to record a number of albums, and was backed by Fielding on one of her records for Mercury.

The Trend label was started by Albert Marx, who had owned the Musicraft label and was at the helm of Discovery for many years. Trend also recorded blog favorites Matt Dennis and Claude Thornhill, among others. These masters later were reissued on Kapp.

After Trend’s demise, Fielding moved on to Decca. I’ll post one of the records from that association if there is interest.

Latest Group of Reups and Remasters

A large number of reups and remasters today, from the requests of loyal readers (at least I assume they are loyal).

As usual, these cover the range from the sublime (Beethoven piano concertos) to the ridiculous (Mel Blanc). Some have been remastered, as noted below, and now have much better sound.

Links to the lot are in the comments to this post.

Albeniz - Iberia (Philadelphia/Ormandy). The complete Iberia in fine performances from the Philadelphia forces, courtesy of Joe Serraglio.

Mel Blanc - Party Panic! The best thing on this early Capitol LP is Mel’s impression of Al Jolson, with cut-ins from Woody Woodpecker and Porky Pig.

Mitch Miller - Light Music. Taken from a promo album handed out by Mitch himself to Will Friedwald, who handed it out to us.

Mitch Miller Plays Oboe & English Horn (Saidenberg & Stokowski, conductors). More Mitch promos, this time including excellent classical material. Also courtesy of Will.

Mitch Miller - With Horns and Chorus (remastered). Where else but on a Mitch Miller record could you hear Greensleeves presented in oom-pah style? This one is from my collection.

Beethoven - Piano Concertos No. 4 and 5 (De Groot) (remastered). Outstanding artistry from Dutch pianist Cor De Groot, with orchestras led by Willem van Otterloo.

Morton Gould - Interplay, Spirituals (remastered). Surprisingly idiomatic renditions of these very American compositions from De Groot and Otterloo.

Juliette Gréco (remastered). Superb songs from the oh-so world-weary Gréco, via an American compilation of her early French records. Unforgettable!

More Chopin from Maryla Jonas

As a follow-up to the recent post of Polish pianist Maryla Jonas’ set of Chopin mazurkas, here is the first Chopin program she recorded for Columbia, during April 1946 sessions. This more varied selection contains three additional mazurkas, two nocturnes, two waltzes and a polonaise. Once again, the pianism displays the short-lived artist’s impressive command and ability to create mood.

The set was issued first in a 78 album with a Alex Steinweiss cover (above), and then in one of Columbia’s first 10-inch classical LPs in 1948, with the generic “tombstone” cover at top.

A Classical Discography does not list a location for the recording. The quality was somewhat boxy; I have ameliorated this a bit.

These were Jonas’ first records; my two posts comprise three of the six LPs she produced during her lifetime. She died in 1959.

LINK (April 2025 remastering in ambient stereo)

1948 Musical America ad
(click to enlarge)