Paul Whiteman's 1946 and 1954 Gershwin Recordings

This post brings you yet another Paul Whiteman version of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," adding the Cuban Overture and "'I Got Rhythm' Variations" for good measure.

It's a "Rhapsody in Blue" with a difference, though - Whiteman added a cooing vocal ensemble at several places in the piece. The voices add nothing to the piece,to my ears, but Whiteman told pianist Earl Wild that he had run the idea past Gershwin before the composer's death and received his blessing. The arranger was Glenn Osser, per the pianist.

Earl Wild and Paul Whiteman

Wild himself made something of a specialty of the piece. The young pianist was a staff artist with NBC at the time of the recording, and had broadcast the Rhapsody with Arturo Toscanini in 1942, to much acclaim. He would go on to tape it with the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler for a 1960 RCA release.

Wild and Whiteman recorded the piece in December 1946 for the small Signature label, which had high hopes for the venture. It issued the 78s in an attractive album as number 1 in its "Great Performances" series. The set sold well enough to appear as number three in Billboard's classical chart for 1947. (Number two was another "Rhapsody in Blue" - from Levant and Ormandy. Number one was the Rubinstein-Golschmann Rachmaninoff Second Concerto.)

10-inch LP cover

But apparently the records did not sell well enough for Signature to continue the Great Performances series or offer more recording dates to Pops Whiteman. When the label foundered a few years later, Decca bought its masters. It gave the Wild-Whiteman Rhapsody new life by issuing it on a Coral 10-inch LP in 1952.

Buddy Weed

Decca-Coral invited Whiteman back to the studio in October 1954 to record the additional Gershwin works on offer today - the "Cuban Overture" and "'I Got Rhythm' Variations." The soloist in the latter piece was Buddy Weed, a studio pianist who appeared on dozens of records during the period, and who had been associated with Whiteman since the beginning of his career. This is the only Whiteman recording of the Variations, according to his biographer, Don Rayno. The Overture is presented in a much different arrangement than the 1938 version that featured pianist Rose Linda. I haven't been able to determine who arranged the 1954 recordings.

In 1956, Coral issued the three pieces in a 12-inch LP it dubbed "Great Gershwin" (cover below). This is the source of my transfer. I've moderated Coral's glaringly bright sound. The performances throughout are fluent and enjoyable. The download includes covers for the Signature set, the 10-inch and 12-inch Coral LPs, and a Coral 45, which used the familiar Whiteman caricature.

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