Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae - Sunday Evening Songs (and Much More)

One of my favorite posts from long ago is the 10-inch LP of Sunday Evening Songs by two of Capitol's leading singers, Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae. To me, this selection of eight 19th century songs by these superb vocalists is pure pleasure.

Stafford and MacRae often recorded together in the late 1940s and up until Stafford and arranger Paul Weston decamped for Columbia Records in fall 1950.

Today's post expands on Sunday Evening Songs by adding 12 more items from the same period. These include the four additional songs that Capitol later included on the 1956 LP Memory Songs - a retitled expansion of Sunday Evening Songs. Also included are the flip sides of those four songs when they were first issued as singles, plus a promotional record that Capitol issued to plug one of them, the duo's version of "Wunderbar." That promo also included pitches for solo singles by both artists, so I've added those songs and their B-sides to the mix as well.

Hopefully all this will become clear below, but if not, the tunes will still sound as good.

Jo and Gordon

Both Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae were stars when they began recording together. Stafford had been the lead singer of Tommy Dorsey's Pied Pipers before she went solo in 1944. She immediately began recording as a single for the young Capitol Records company. Starting in 1945, she was a host of radio's Chesterfield Supper Club, alternating with Perry Como.

Jo Stafford in 1947

MacRae had his own radio show in 1945, and later became the lead personality on The Railroad Hour, sponsored by the Railroad Association. He quickly became popular in Hollywood, first in a few dramatic roles, then in musicals, such as Look for the Silver Lining and The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady, where he introduced "As We Are Today," one of the songs in this collection. He recorded for Musicraft before moving to Capitol in 1947.

Both MacRae and Stafford were on ABC radio in 1949

Sunday Evening Songs

This is a new transfer of Sunday Evening Songs. Here is what I said about the LP in 2010:

"Two of the favorite artists of this blog and many of its readers are Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae, who frequently recorded together while at Capitol.

"In this 10-inch LP from 1950, they present what they call 'Sunday evening songs.' The liner notes tell us that in the early years of the 20th century members of the household would gather around the piano for a group sing of sweet, familiar songs. Stafford and MacRae, aided by Paul Weston's apposite arrangements, present eight of these songs in straightforward, but infinitely pleasing renditions.

"None of this material would have been new even at the turn of the 20th century. It dates from as early as 1833. The notes tell us that such songs were enjoying a renaissance in the postwar world; would that there would be such a renaissance today. But this music is as passé as the green piano cloth on the spectacular album cover."

All the recordings come from August 1950, near the end of Stafford's tenure at Capitol. The other items in this collection are from 1948 and 1949.

Promoting "Wunderbar" and Solo Songs

You didn't need much of a memory to recall most of the other "memory songs" that Capitol included on its 12-inch version of Sunday Evening Songs. Three of the four were not old, and "Wunderbar," the subject of the promotional disc presented here, dated back only to 1949.

MacRae and Stafford had recorded the number when it was new and was being featured in Cole Porter's giant Broadway hit, Kiss Me, Kate. In about April 1949, Capitol sent a two-record set of promotional discs to the nation's disc jockeys to plug their "Wunderbar" duet, along with their current solo singles of "Kisses and Tears" (Gordon) and "Open Door, Open Arms" (Jo). The promo disc I have in hand (courtesy of Internet Archive) has spoken introductions to these three recordings. The idea was that the disc jockey would conduct a fake interview with Stafford and MacRae, reading from a script (which I don't have), and the artists would lead into their discs. As you might expect, the results are stiff and strained - which has its own charm, of course.

Among Capitol's most important artists

This collection also includes the B-sides to those three numbers: "I'll String Along with You" (a duet), "As We Are Today" (Gordon) and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (Jo). The latter is associated with Marilyn Monroe, who vamped her way through it in the 1953 film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but this record was in conjunction with the 1949 stage production, where Carol Channing introduced the song.

"Wunderbar" also ended up in a 1950 Stafford-McRae album of Kiss Me, Kate songs. That collection also included six solo numbers from the score, equally split between Jo and Gordon, plus a choral version of "Too Darn Hot." While only "Wunderbar" is included in this post, the duo's Kiss Me, Kate LP has appeared on this blog and is available here in newly remastered form.

The Remaining Memory Songs and B-Sides

Although most of the numbers added to Memory Songs were not old, only "Wunderbar" wasn't a stylistic fit with the 19th-century compositions on the earlier 10-inch LP.

"Beyond the Sunset" is a beautiful sacred song that Virgil and Blanche Brock wrote in 1936, and the MacRae-Stafford duo recorded in 1950. It's B-side is "Near Me," a cover of a Johnny Lee Wills song that had appeared on the flip side of his 1950 "Rag Mop" single. (Jo and Gordon didn't attempt "R-A-G-G M-O-P-P, Rag Mop!")

Also in the collection is "Need You," a new but antique-sounding tune that was popular in 1949. Its flip side is "'A' You're Adorable." This Stafford-MacRae single was popular, but not as much as the big hit version by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters. 

The final tune added to Memory Songs was a precursor to Sunday Evening Songs in that it dates from the 19th century. "Whispering Hope" did well for the duo in 1949. The song has a strange history, at least according to one source. The composer was Septimus Winner ("Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone," "Listen to the Mockingbird") under the name of Alice Hawthorne. "Whispering Hope" was published in 1868, but Winner had written it during the Civil War under the name "Give Us Back Our Old Commander," a plea to return Gen. George McClellan to service. McClellan had broken with Lincoln and in fact ran against the President in 1864. Winner's song was supposedly considered treasonous, resulting in his being jailed until he repudiated it. The tune that ended up as "Whispering Hope" is now often considered a gospel song.

I can't imagine how the lovely melody of "Whispering Hope" could have been used to promote Lincoln's antagonist, but regardless, it makes for a beautiful record. Paul Weston apparently had recalled the 1920s recording of the song by Louise Homer and Alma Gluck, and suggested it to Stafford and MacRae. The result did very well.

1949 Billboard ad

The B-side of "Whispering Hope" - "A Thought in My Heart" - is included here as well.

These recordings, which come from my collection and Internet Archive, generally have excellent sound. I have tracked the promotional bits to that they can be removed from your playlist when Gordon and Jo's remarks lose their charm.

Stafford and MacRae were again Capitol artists in the early 1960s, and recorded two additional LPs together, both of sacred material. The first, Whispering Hope, included both that song and "Beyond the Sunset" from this collection, in new renditions.

As a companion to this post, I've uploaded a rare promotional single that MacRae produced in about 1950 for the benefit of Community Chest, the forerunner of today's United Way in the US. It's on my singles blog.