Buster's 2019 Christmas Selection

Let's start off the holiday season with a selection of 22 singles from way back when. We have familiar tunes in less familiar performances and some little-known songs as well. These come from 78s spanning 1934 to 1956, and include many genres - mostly pop, but also gospel, country, jazz and what-have-you. Something for everyone to love in this season of good cheer.

We start off with "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" in what is perhaps its first recording, dating from 1934. It is by George Hall and His Hotel Taft Orchestra. Hall is best known for his records with Dolly Dawn, but this single predates the coming of the Dawn and has a vocal by Sonny Schuyler (later Skylar), who achieved some renown as a composer as well as singer. He didn't write this tune, though. You can blame J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie for it. George Hall and His Hotel Taft Orchestra did indeed perform at that New York establishment. I used to work across the street from its successor, and just yesterday came across a hanger from the place.

Also from 1934 we have another song that was new at the time, "Winter Wonderland," as performed by Angelo Ferdinando and His Hotel Great Northern Orchestra. That hostelry also was in New York, but I don't have a hanger from it. Ferdinando's was not the hit version of "Winter Wonderland"; that was by the better-known Richard Himber. This one is pretty good, though. It has a vocal by Dick Robertson, who was on seemingly every other record made during the era. Ferdinando left the music business not long after this 78 was issued, but made a comeback in 1937 with a simpler name - Don Ferdi.

We move on to 1937 and two versions of Irving Berlin's excellent "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," introduced in the film On the Avenue. First is a very good budget version from Sterling Young's West Coast band, with vocal by Billy Mozet. Then there is the better known Victor from Ray Noble's crack American ensemble, with Howard Barrie as singer. This was just after Al Bowlly completed his tenure as the band's vocalist.

Returning to "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," Alvino Rey brings us a 1941 reading with the King Sisters presenting lyrics that had been updated to reflect the hip lingo of the time. I wonder what lyricist Haven Gillespie thought of such couplets as "He knows if you're a ickie / He knows if you're a gate." My guess is that he was OK with it so long as the checks kept comin' to town. The record also gives you a chance to hear Rey's Hawaiian-style "Gibson Electroharp" in a swing context, where it sounds odd.

The year 1945 brought us the Cahn-Styne classic "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow." Among the lesser-known versions from that year was the offering by radio tenor Danny O'Neil, issued on the short-lived Majestic label.

Clyde Burke

New in 1947 was Gordon and Lee's "Christmas Dreaming," familiar to Sinatra fanciers via his classic version. Here's an lesser-known reading from Blue Barron's orchestra, with a vocal by Clyde Burke. The singer also made records with Sammy Kaye, Glen Gray and Raymond Scott.

Art Kassel and his band revived "Winter Wonderland" for the 1947 selling season. The song's arrangement could have dated from the 1930s, what with the soupy saxes and tightly muted brass that Kassel deploys. The vocal quartet is more modern sounding, though, and all in all, it's an enjoyable record.

Also from 1947 was a new number called "The Winter Song" or "Look Out the Window," depending on what record you consult. By whatever title, it didn't become a standard, although it is still heard occasionally. Our first effort comes from the Coral label and the little known Gil Downs, along with a backing band and the vocal group 4 Hits and a Miss. The latter troupe also was known as "3 Hits and a Miss" and "6 Hits and Miss," presumably based on the number of male vocalists who showed up for the session.

Tex Williams

So far we have been strictly in pop territory, but now we move into the country-western genre with Western swing's Tex Williams taking up the same "Winter Song" in his resonant baritone, for the Capitol label.

Since Frank Loesser's "Baby, It's Cold Outside" was introduced in Esther Williams' 1949 aquatic adventure Neptune's Daughter, it has been the subject of countless performances and the object of some surprising controversy. Around here, we prefer an irreverent approach to the tune. Last year we had the knowing Pearl Bailey and the lupine Hot Lips Page. This year we present a highly amusing country version with Homer and Jethro trying to persuade backwoods siren June Carter to stay out of the weather ("Say, what's in this here drink?" / "It ain't sarsaparillee.") The trio recreated their performance for television in 1971.

Jethro, June and Homer on TV

Singer June Winters is little remembered today, but at mid-century she was known as the children’s music character "Lady in Blue." She and her husband, producer Hugo Peretti (Hugo & Luigi), had started the kiddie label Mayfair in the 1940s. Here she presents the appealing "Christmas in My Heart" on a 1950 Mercury release.

Billboard, December 9, 1950

We now turn to the miraculous Mahalia Jackson with a two-sided Apollo label release, also from 1950 - "Silent Night" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain."

Also from that year comes the obscure but prolific Dick Stratton and His Nite Owls, with a tremendous honky-tonk performance of "I Wouldn't Have You on a Christmas Tree." Stratton and his band were mainstays of the small Jamboree label.

Staying in the country realm, we move on to 1951's "Blue Shadows on a White Christmas Tree" from Eddie Hazelwood and his Carolina Woodchoppers. Hazelwood was vocally under the spell of Hank Williams, but it's a good record even so. "Blue Shadows" was a Hazelwood composition; his best known numbers were "Sick, Sober and Sorry" (Johnny Bond) and "On a Honky-Tonk Hardwood Floor" (Johnny Horton). This single was issued by Intro, owned by Aladdin. Hazelwood also recorded for Imperial and Decca, including a cover of Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog" way before Elvis.

Jimmy Collett

Jimmy Collett is another little-remembered country artist. In 1953 he recorded two sentimental items, "I Don't Want to Be Alone for Christmas" and "I Remember Christmas," for the Arcade label. Born in Arizona, Collett worked mainly in New Jersey, recording regularly and when he wasn't singing, plying his trade as a dentist. Here he drops his dental tools and country manner, and shows his roots as a Crosby-style crooner, even whistling like Bing.

We move to the small Diva label and a recording of "Santa's Ride" written by label owner Frank Serritella and sung by Frankie Ross, who was actually the famous but ill-fated jazz trombonist Frank Rosolino. I don't have an exact date on this one, but it was probably pre-1954, when Rosolino moved to the West coast.

Staying in the jazz realm, alto saxophonist Herb Geller and his group had a go at Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" in 1954, with interesting results. Also on the date are Lorraine Geller (p), Curtis Counce (b) and Larance Marable (d).

Next, a quick detour to Chicago and polka king L'il Wally with another "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," this one from 1956 and Wally's Jay Jay label. If I haven't tried your patience enough with this song, wait 'til you hear juvenile vocalists Lenny and Judith, who make Patience and Prudence sound like Simon and Garfunkel. The two had to be related to L'il Wally.

Pete Rugolo

For our final selection, we return to jazz and bandleader Pete Rugolo's 1956 arrangement of "Snowfall." Composer Claude Thornhill conceived the song as a peaceful rendering of snowflakes falling. Rugolo instead offers a Latin beat punctuated by blasting Kenton-style brass. No surprise there - Rugolo had been a Kenton arranger

I found these 78s up near the North Pole of the Internet Archive, and remastered them for your holiday listening. Best wishes of the season to all, and a special greeting to blog follower Lennonka, with hopes that he will be doing better soon!

Morel Conducts Albéniz and Ravel

Today we have another one of the few orchestral recordings led by the French-American conductor Jean Morel, this the result of a request by long-time blog follower centuri.

As with the recent post of excerpts from Swan Lake, Decca UK produced this double-LP for RCA Victor. Decca made quite a number of recordings with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra during the period, including these September 1959 sessions with Morel.

Jean Morel

The LP set is notable in that it was the first complete recording of Isaac Albéniz's Iberia in its orchestrated form. The composer wrote the 12 pieces for piano in the years before his death in 1909. He asked his colleague Enrique Fernández Arbós to undertake the orchestration, but Arbós only scored five of the 12 sections. It wasn't until the 1950s that the Spanish-American conductor-composer Carlos Surinach provided orchestrations for the other pieces.

In its piano guise, Iberia is famed for its difficulty. Its kaleidoscopic, pictorial nature is well suited for Morel's orchestral control and mastery of balance. There is little passion in his approach, however, and the Paris orchestra was not a virtuoso ensemble. I have nothing but praise for the performance of Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole that completes the set.

The Decca recording is typical of its output, with elevated high and low frequencies. It's impressive, but can make the strings sound harsh.

The download includes scans of the gatefold sleeve, along with reviews from High Fidelity and HiFi-Stereo Review and the ad below. RCA had several interesting releases that month, including a Delibes record conducted by Hugo Rignold that will appear here at some point. The feature attraction, though, was symphonic chunks extracted from Fritz Reiner's records.

Click to enlarge

Shannon Bolin

Reader woolfnotes recently asked me if I had this recording by musical theater's Shannon Bolin. Not only did I not have it, I didn't even know it existed.

But I was intrigued enough to hunt up some lossy transfers on YouTube (thanks to kadoguy) and remaster them, adjusting the balance and pitch in the process.

Bolin is of particular interest to me as one of the featured performers in Adler and Ross' second musical, Damn Yankees. She played the wife of Joe Boyd, who disappears one night after making a pact with the devil to become a star with his favorite baseball team, the Washington Senators. Bolin recreated her role in the film version of the musical.

Shannon Bolin and Stephen Douglass during the
Damn Yankees recording sessions

This 1955 LP was likely recorded while she was in Damn Yankees' Broadway production, which ran from May 1955 to October 1957. In approach it is similar to a cabaret program, consisting mainly of unfamiliar material, thus the title Rare Wine. I can't find any evidence that Bolin ever appeared in cabaret, however. Her experience was mainly on Broadway, in such shows as The Golden Apple and Take Me Along. She also appeared in opera - she was reportedly the understudy for the title role in the first production of Marc Blitzstein's Regina - and was in a number of films and television shows.

The album's best known titles are probably Frank Loesser's "My Time of Day," Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Loneliness of Evening" and Rodgers and Hart's "He Was Too Good to Me." Here are the songs, composers and sources of the songs on the LP:

1. I Got Love (Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields), film I Dream Too Much
2. He Was Too Good to Me (Rodgers and Hart), cut from Simple Simon
3. Somebody from Somewhere (George and Ira Gershwin), film Delicious
4. My Yellow Flower (Jerome Moross and John Latouche), from Ballet Ballads
5. My Time of Day (Frank Loesser), from Guys and Dolls
6. Loneliness of Evening (Rodgers and Hammerstein), cut from South Pacific
7. My Love Is a Wanderer (Bart Howard), from John Murray Anderson's Almanac
8. Winter of My Discontent (Alec Wilder)
9. One More Spring (J. Strauss and Edward Eager) from Waltz Down the Aisle
10. I Know Where I'm Going (traditional)
11. Just Like a Man (Vernon Duke and Ogden Nash), from Sweet Bye and Bye (closed on the road; song was re-used in Two's Company)
12. The Party's Over Now (Noël Coward), from Words and Music

The arrangements are by Bolin's husband, pianist Milton Kaye. They mainly consist of a wind obbligato, rhythm, and an occasional guitar or harp. Vanguard did an excellent job of recording the songs. As I mentioned, this comes from lossy originals. As usual with such sources, there is some loss of detail and definition, but the result is nonetheless pleasing.

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Jean Morel Conducts Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky's ballet scores for The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty have appeared here a number of times, but I have neglected his Swan Lake music. To make amends, here is a set of excerpts from the early days of stereo.

The conductor is Jean Morel (1903-75), born in France and primarily associated with the operas from that country. This post is one of the few commercial records he made that were not accompaniments.

Jean Morel

Morel left Europe in 1936, and after stops in Latin America, came to the US in 1940. He became associated with the New York City Opera a few years later, staying there until 1951. A 22-year association with the Juilliard School began in 1949. He soon became an influential teacher. Morel has appeared on this blog before, conducting the Juilliard Orchestra in a Mozart concerto with pianist Rosina Lhévinne, his colleague at the school. Much of the conductor's reputation rests on his 1956-71 tenure with the Metropolitan Opera, where he primarily was associated with French works.

In this Tchaikovsky recording, he leads the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden. As far as I can determine, Morel never was engaged by the Royal Ballet, and only conducted a single 1960 performance of Manon for Covent Garden Opera. Nor was he a specialist in ballet music, unlike most of the conductors who have appeared here in that repertoire.

That said, his reading of the Swan Lake music is very good. The opposite of an improvisatory conductor, Morel believed in having all aspects of the score worked out ahead of time. You can hear that this performance is well controlled, and his care over the score may seem a little too careful at times. But all in all, it's most enjoyable.

The recording was made for RCA Victor by UK Decca engineers working in Watford Town Hall in September 1957. As usual with Decca recordings, both the low and high frequencies are emphasized. While the results are vivid, the microphones perhaps were too close to the strings, which can sound wiry at times.

Cover of first US issue

RCA originally issued the LP in mono only in the US (above). The first US stereo edition, which is the source of my transfer, was in 1965 in the budget Victrola line (advertisement below). RCA's UK arm issued a mono version in late 1958 and stereo early the next year. The download includes a Gramophone review from October 1958.

Ad in May 1965 High Fidelity magazine (click to enlarge)

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'Kiss Me, Kate' with Keel, Grant and Jeffreys

My Sid Ramin post somehow led to a long discussion of this studio version of Kiss Me, Kate in the comments section, involving stalwart blog followers Charlot, JAC, Wortley Clutterbuck and Geoconno. Those who have heard this record, extolled it. Those who hadn't asked me for a transfer.

Here it is and it has many merits, starting with three fine singers, two of whom were experienced in the musical: Howard Keel played Fred Graham in the film version, and Anne Jeffreys succeeded Patricia Morison as Lilli Vanessi on Broadway. The excellent pop singer Gogi Grant had no such advantages, but she is not outclassed in their company.

Howard Keel in the filmic Kiss Me, Kate

The LP also benefits from the imaginative arrangements of the Henri René, whose pop orientation pervades the proceedings. Even with the presence of Keel and Jeffreys, this isn't really a quasi-cast album so much as it is an enjoyable ramble through Cole Porter's songs.

Because there are only three singers, parts in the ensemble songs are reassigned to those on hand. So, rather than the usual trio of gangsters, you will hear Grant, Keel and Jeffreys left to right in "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." The three also take on "Too Darn Hot" and "Another Op'nin', Another Show" in place of the minor characters who present the numbers on stage. In all of these, Keel scales back his voice, hardly sounding like the heroic bass-baritone we all love.
 

Anne Jeffreys as Lilli Vanessi

All three were apparently encouraged to be broad in their effects. This usually works well enough, such as in Grant's bravura version of "Always True to You in My Fashion." But her torchy reading of "Why Can't You Behave" is too externalized; the song benefits from the simpler approach of Lisa Kirk of the original cast. 

In another assignment switch, Grant turns up in "So in Love," which is a Lilli solo in the stage musical, so ordinarily would be assigned to Jeffreys. RCA probably decided it needed to make more use of Grant: the label was giving her a big build-up at the time.

Grant was with Victor for less than two years, but it was enough time for her to record three solo LPs, three potted musicals (this one, Show Boat, also with Keel and Jeffreys, and Gigi with Tony Martin), the soundtrack LP for The Helen Morgan Story, singles and at least one EP. The latter featured four songs from 1958's low-budget, teen exploitation film The Big Beat, which Grant appeared in. I've posted the EP along with her biggest pop hits ("The Wayward Wind" and "Suddenly There's a Valley") on my other blog.

Gogi Grant

The impetus behind this Kiss Me, Kate recording was probably two-fold: the dawning of the stereo era and a late 1958 televised production of the play with Alfred Drake and Patricia Morison from the original Broadway cast. After seeing the play on TV, anyone who wanted a recording could choose between the old mono Columbia of the Broadway cast and the new Living Stereo version on RCA Victor. Capitol stepped into the market in 1959 with a quasi-original cast recording in stereo featuring Drake, Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.

At the time, it was not unusual for record companies to issue multiple versions of the same musical. This was particularly true with a new score: there were at least a dozen Gigi recordings: cover versions, budget LPs, instrumental renditions, jazz make-overs, and what not. When RCA put out this Kiss Me, Kate LP, it also issued a competing version on its budget label, Camden, and gave it a bigger promotional push!

Again, this is an good record presented in the ping-pong stereo that was then fashionable and is still enjoyable. The download includes favorable reviews from Billboard and HiFi-Stereo Review.