Buddy Clark on OKeh, Columbia and Varsity

Buddy Clark

My friend Morris asked me to transfer a batch of Buddy Clark records - ones that are not often encountered. Not that you find too much of the singer's output around these days, save for his late 40s Columbia hits such as "Linda" and "I'll Dance at Your Wedding." Too bad - I consider Clark one of the finest pop vocalists of the last century.

Clark's career began in the 30s as a band and radio vocalist. He made some recordings early on for Vocalion and other companies.

Today's selections begin with two songs Clark did for the Varsity label in 1939. "In an Old Dutch Garden" is a Mack Gordon/Will Grosz song from Earl Carroll's Vanities. "Leanin' on the Old Top Rail" is a Nick and Charles Kenny song recorded by both country and pop artists in 1939 and later years.

"In an Old Dutch Garden" was also included in a batch of Varsity singles I uploaded several years ago. That bundle also includes a bonus of a 1936 Melotone single of "Lost" and "The Touch of Your Lips."

Clark moved on to the OKeh label in 1941 with a revival of "Lamplight," an attractive song that its composer, James Shelton, introduced in the 1934 revue New Faces. The flip side, "G'bye Now" comes from the long-running Olsen-Johnson revue Hellzapoppin'. The writers were Sammy Fain and Charles Tobias.

Also on OKeh were the great Martin-Blane song "Ev'ry Time" from Best Foot Forward. It was backed by "It Happened in Hawaii," which had the remarkable bad luck to come out in early December 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

After war service, Clark joined the main Columbia label. I believe that all the songs on that label in this group were recorded in 1947. The first effort is "I'm Waiting for Ships that Never Come In," a nice tune by Abe Olman and Jack Yellen that was seemingly inspired by "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" from 1917 - which was definitely "inspired" by Chopin.

On the other side, Buddy covers Bing's version of "The Emperor Waltz" from the film of the same name. And yes, it is a vocal version of the waltz by Johann Strauss II, and no, the new lyrics aren't very good, e.g., "Deep in your heart, joy seems to dwell / Like poets say, it's perfectly swell."

For these and the other Columbia singles below, Mitchell Ayres leads the orchestra, unless otherwise noted.

Recording with Mitchell Ayres

Showing his versatility, Clark then turns to the catchy Latin tune "It's Easy When You Know How," where he is paired with Xavier Cugat. He even brings the bandleader in for a brief vocal interlude, but Cugie should have stuck to waving a baton and holding a Chihuahua.

"I'm a Slave to You" is a good if formulaic torch song that Mitchell Ayres had a hand in. The other side of the single is the soupy "Where the Apple Blossoms Fall," backed by organ.

Billboard ad from December 1948

I posted the final coupling on my singles blog several years ago, but here in a new transfer are "Gloria" and "The Money Song." Leon René's "Gloria" became a doo-wop favorite in the 1950s, but in 1948, it was a pop song recorded by a number of crooners. "The Money Song" came from the Harold Rome revue That's the Ticket, which closed in Philadelphia before making it to Broadway. You may have heard the Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis version of the song. If so, don't be put off by that monstrosity. Clark does much better by this mock calypso. On both songs, he is backed by the Modernaires and the Skylarks.

These discs are from my collection, and all are in vivid sound. See my other blog for a new post of the four Clark songs on V-Disc that aren't just dubs of his commercial recordings. These include two airchecks, one alternate take from a Columbia session, and a "Fluffs at a Record Session" recording where Clark makes up his own lyrics then launches into a Jolson imitation.

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