Leroy Anderson - The Complete 1950-54 Recordings, Part 2

This is the second part of a two-part series devoted to Leroy Anderson (1908-75), America's leading composer of light orchestral music. The first entry covered the 17 songs set down in 1950-51. This post encompasses an additional 18 sides dating from 1952-54.

Together they comprise all Anderson's own mono recordings for the American Decca label, up to but not including his Christmas Carols LP of 1955. These all have been remastered from discs from my collection with a few from Internet Archive. The sound is generally excellent.

A Christmas Festival

Today's program starts off with a belated but hopefully not unwelcome Christmas arrangement that Anderson made for the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler in 1950, and which they did for RCA Victor that year. Anderson then recorded A Christmas Festival himself in October 1952. 

The cover above may look like an LP, but it was a picture sleeve for the two-sided 78 edition of the recording, which lasts for nine minutes. It includes arrangements of eight popular carols, plus "Jingle Bells" For publication, Anderson also prepared a shorter version of the suite, leaving out "The First Noel."

As with the first set of recordings, these all were made with a New York studio orchestra. The records are attributed to "Leroy Anderson and His 'Pops' Concert Orchestra."

Irish Suite

Anderson's delightful Irish Suite was commissioned by the Eire Society of Boston for a 1947 performance by the Boston Pops. The suite originally had four movements: "The Irish Washerwoman," "The Minstrel Boy," "The Last Rose of Summer" and "The Rakes of Mallow." At that point it was called the Eire Suite.

Two years later Anderson arranged a few more tunes - which the Pops also premiered - and changed the title to the Irish Suite. The new items were "The Wearing of the Green" and "The Girl I Left Behind Me."

Anderson recorded the suite during the same October 1952 session that yielded A Christmas Festival. Decca issued it on a 10-inch LP that has appeared before on this blog. I've included a newly remastered version herein to make this set complete.

Unlike most of his works that were originally recorded in mono, the Irish Suite was never re-recorded in stereo. 

A Leroy Anderson "Pops" Concert

The balance of the songs in this set were taken from the 1954 12-inch LP A Leroy Anderson "Pops" Concert, although most if not all of them also appeared on singles. The album repeats two items from the Irish Suite, but otherwise represents new material for purposes of this collection.

First is "The Girl in Satin," a tango like "Blue Tango," but unlike it in that it did not achieve such renown. Anderson himself was puzzled: "I do not have any clue why the audience likes it ('Blue Tango') so much better than my other tango, 'The Girl in Satin,' which in my opinion is as beautiful."

Leroy Anderson conducts

"Song of the Bells" is a waltz with - you guessed it - an important part for bells, actually orchestral chimes. As with most Anderson compositions, this piece has a delightful contrasting B section, with much engaging orchestral detail.

Anderson completed the same September 1953 session with one of his greatest hits, "The Typewriter," which remains popular although the typewriter itself  has disappeared into the mists of technological history. The piece is amazingly clever, with the typewriter itself used as a percussion instrument - not just the clacking of the keys but the end-of-line bell and the sound of the carriage return. The composer also finds a place for his favored pizzicato effects.

Steef van Oosterhout solos on the Remington typewriter
with the Iceland Symphony

The composer's Scottish Suite had four movements, two of which he recorded and which are in this album: "Turn Ye to Me" and "The Bluebells of Scotland." Anderson was dissatisfied with the other two movements and never recorded or published them. He also withdrew "Turn Ye to Me" in 1956 and the score and parts were lost. However, his estate allowed the movement to be reconstructed and the entire suite published. Leonard Slatkin and the BBC Concert Orchestra recorded it in 2007.

It's difficult to understand his reservations about "Turn Ye to Me," which is perfectly lovely. Perhaps he was not satisfied with the orchestration or thought the piece too lugubrious. "Bluebells" is spritely, and makes a good contrast.

Recorded on the same June day in 1954 as "Turn Ye to Me," "Bugler's Holiday" could not be much more of a contrast. It is brilliant, witty and still very popular. Unusually, the three soloists are credited: Robert Cusomano, Carl Poole and Melvin Solomon. All had big band experience - Cusomano with Tommy Dorsey, Poole with Goodman and Solomon with Tommy's brother Jimmy.

"Bugler's Holiday" - Jennifer Marotta, Jeffrey Strong and Thomas Hooten
solo with the US Marine Band

After the workout of "Bugler's Holiday," Anderson reverted to a reflective style with "Summer Skies," an appealing instrumental that is very much in the easy listening mode.

Also in that June session was "Forgotten Dreams," one of the composer's most successful ballads, with a simple but haunting theme presented first by piano and then taken up by the strings. Anderson himself commented: "'Forgotten Dreams' is a nostalgic piece whose title leaves the listener free to summon up his own recollections from the past." It lent itself to one of Mitchell Parish's best (although almost unknown) lyrics, sensitively done by Ed Ames on his 1965 album My Kind of Songs, a performance you can hear on my other blog.

Anderson's "Sandpaper Ballet" was another work that he wrote on deadline for a second June 1954 recording session. Again, it's memorable for a number of reasons. First, the piece is very much an homage to the simple tunes that would accompany soft-shoe dancers on the vaudeville stage, who would sprinkle sand on the stage so their "soft shoe" routines could be heard. Anderson's arrangement is complete with stop-time effects that accentuated the sandpaper effects.

Mark Morris' "Sandpaper Ballet" -
the Dutch National Ballet

The piece is also unique for using three percussionists with different grades of sandpaper as the soloists. As with "The Typewriter" and other Anderson works, this provided a visual element that was highly effective in concert. Despite the title Anderson did not write the "Sandpaper Ballet" as a ballet score - but it was adapted as such by Mark Morris much later.

Our Anderson program concludes with one of his most evocative compositions, "The First Day of Spring," which conveys the joy and hope the renewal of the seasons brings.

LINK to Complete 1950-54 Recordings, Part 2

More Leroy Anderson

Throughout this two-part series I've mentioned Anderson's collaborations with lyricist Mitchell Parish and conductor Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops. I've documented these associations in the following posts:

Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Play Leroy Anderson Favorites. This 10-inch LP includes eight Anderson selections, to which I've newly added six more, including two items that do not feature in the collections I've just posted - "Chicken Reel" and "Classical Jukebox," the latter of which is a favorite of mine. In ambient stereo.

Musical Comedy Medleys. Medleys from Broadway hits as arranged by Anderson and performed by the Boston Pops: Richard Rodgers' South Pacific, Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun, Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate, and Frederick Loewe's Brigadoon. Newly remastered in ambient stereo.

Curtain Going Up. This 1957 LP repeats two of the Anderson arrangements from the Musical Comedy Medleys album above, and adds an Anderson medley from Richard Rodgers' Carousel, along with a few more by other composers. Now remastered in ambient stereo.

The Vocal Side of Leroy Anderson. In connection with this series, I corralled examples of six of the seven Anderson songs with Mitchell Parish lyrics. The resulting post on my other blog includes "The Syncopated Clock" (Eileen Barton), "Serenata" (Mary Mayo), "The Waltzing Cat" (Florian ZaBach), "Blue Tango" (Vico Torriani) and "Forgotten Dreams" (Ed Ames, as noted above). Also a link to Johnny Desmond's "Sleigh Ride," which I posted during the Christmas season.

Kathleen Long Plays Fauré and Françaix

The English pianist Kathleen Long (1896-1968) had a wide repertoire, but was particularly noted for her performances of Gabriel Fauré's music. In he two LPs comprising today's post we cover most of her recordings of that composer, while adding Jean Françaix's always-welcome Concertino. This is the pianist's first appearance on the blog.

Kathleen Long Plays Fauré

In this 10-inch LP, Long combines three middle-period compositions by the composer with his last piano work, the Op. 119 Nocturne. The latter is often considered one of Fauré's most profound creations. It is said to reflect his struggles both with increasing deafness and the approaching end of his life. As the anonymous sleeve notes proclaim, "In conclusion, expressed with a verity that mere words could never approach, we have the lassitude, the anxiety, the regrets and the despair of man as he stands on the threshold of the inescapable hereafter."

That description may be overblown, but the performance is not. Long was an understated artist a bit like Solomon, a frequent visitor to these pages. As with Solomon, the critics' views of her playing were mixed. The New Records claimed the disc represented Long at her best, while Roland Gelatt wrote in the Saturday Review, "The pianist plays this music with loving care, albeit stodgily at times."

The recordings date from 1944 to 1950. All but the Op. 31 Impromptu had been released on 78s. The sound is consistently good.

LINK to Kathleen Long Plays Fauré

Gabriel Fauré

Fauré - Ballade, Four Nocturnes; Françaix - Concertino

This 1954 LP of Fauré with a soupçon of Françaix contains all new recordings. In it, Long continued her exploration of the elder composer with four more Nocturnes along with his Ballade Op. 19, here in the version for piano and orchestra.

The Ballade has been recorded many times (even so, it managed to end up on a CD called "The Secret Fauré"), and rightfully so. It is elegant and a bit melancholy, like much of the composer's music. In this, Long's second recording of the work, she is ably partnered by the 44-year-old Jean Martinon, at the time the principal conductor of the Lamoureux Orchestra. Here he leads the London Philharmonic. It's a strikingly good performance.

Jean Martinon

In his High Fidelity review, Ray Ericson wrote, "Miss Long is not at first hearing the most seductive of pianists. She plays with a full tone most of the time, without a wide dynamic variation, although with many fine graduations. But how alive the music sounds, from the luscious individual tones through the phrasing up to the whole span. You hear everything - the voices superbly balanced and blended, the long lines sustained so as to keep the shimmering harmonies from disintegrating. Her performances can be played time and again without ever becoming pale."

Jean Françaix

Jean Françaix's Concertino, from 1932, is very much in the vein of his orchestral Serenade, which has appeared here three times (in versions led by Louis Lane, Anshel Brusilow and Eugen Jochum). The latter disc also includes the composer's own performance of the Concertino with the Berlin Philharmonic and Leo Borchard, made just five years after the work's composition. As I commented in that earlier post, the music manages to be memorable even though the whole piece lasts less than eight minutes. I recently remastered Françaix's recording in ambient stereo.

The sound on the second Long LP is quite good; the performances are highly recommended. Both albums are from my collection, transferred by request.

Let me also mention that you can find newly remastered Jean Martinon recordings of Prokofiev's Suite from The Love for Three Oranges and Classical Symphony here. They were made with his Lamoureux forces in 1953.

LINK to Fauré - Ballade, Four Nocturnes; Françaix - Concertino

Leroy Anderson - The Complete 1950-54 Recordings, Part 1

Leroy Anderson's career as a composer began almost by chance. He was studying at Harvard for a Ph.D. while conducting the Harvard Band. Impressed by Anderson's arrangements, the manager of the Boston Symphony asked him to arrange a selection of school songs for Harvard night at the Boston Pops. Conductor Arthur Fiedler then invited Anderson to contribute pieces for the Pops repertoire.

Anderson (1908-75) was happy to oblige and the Pops duly premiered his "Jazz Pizzicato" in 1938. The next year, Fiedler recorded that piece in company with another short work, "Jazz Legato," that Anderson wrote to fill out the 78 side. Both showed his considerable gifts for melody and orchestration, along with an interest in novel sounds that would serve him well later on.

Thus began the long association of composer, conductor and orchestra. In this post and its successor, however, we will present not the Boston Pops records, but Anderson's own recordings for American Decca from 1950-54. Today's entry will cover the 17 songs set down in 1950-51. The second post will encompass an additional 18 sides dating from 1952-54.

In toto, we'll examine all his mono recordings, up to but not including his Christmas Carols LP of 1955, all remastered from discs from my collection and Internet Archive, with generally excellent sound. Together, I hope these two posts are a fitting tribute to America's leading exponent of light orchestral music.

Leroy Anderson Conducts His Own Compositions

Anderson's recording career began on September 11, 1950 in a New York studio with a free-lance recording group called "His 'Pops' Concert Orchestra." Anderson programmed eight of his works for this album, with its slightly redundant title Leroy Anderson Conducts His Own Compositions.

Perhaps inevitably, the first selection was "Sleigh Ride," at the time the composer's greatest success, and even today his most recognized work. The first recording of "Sleigh Ride" had been by the Boston Pops in 1949. By the time Anderson gave the downbeat in the Decca studio, lyricist Mitchell Parish had composed the familiar lyrics we often hear today, and the Andrews Sisters had recorded them for Decca. but the composer's effort - and all the recordings we will hear - are instrumentals. (Johnny Desmond's vocal version of "Sleigh Ride" is here.)

Anderson's reading of his work is similar to Fiedler's energetic outing, although the whip effects are less pronounced, and, if anything, the concluding whinny is even more horsey.

Anderson brandishes the bells and orchestral whip heard in 'Sleigh Ride'

The flip side of "Sleigh Ride" was "Promenade," which features a staccato muted trumpet, but nonetheless is a depiction of a stroll in the park, per the publisher. Written in 1945, it was another Boston Pops premiere.

Next up was another famous work, "The Syncopated Clock." Here, Anderson was racing Fiedler to market, the Boston maestro having recorded it in June of 1950, a few months before the composer.

Anderson had written the work while he was in the Army, conducting it in uniform with the Boston Pops in 1945. It shows his genius for wittily incorporating mundane sounds that everyone (at least then) would recognize. Here, too, Parish came up with some lyrics, and the result was recorded by Rosemary Clooney and Eileen Barton. The latter can be heard on my other blog, along with all of the Parish's vocal versions save "Belle of the Ball," which has never been recorded, to my knowledge. (Correction: my knowledge was incomplete. JAC tells me that William Dazeley and Kim Criswell recorded it for the Anderson collection conducted by Leonard Slatkin for Naxos.)

The obverse of "The Syncopated Clock" was another famous item, "The Waltzing Cat," which has the violins providing the unmistakable "meows." Even if you don't know the title, you may recognize the music. Parish wrote lyrics for the piece, and a vocal version unexpectedly came from violinist Florian ZaBach.

Next up was "Serenata," which has no programmatic content, in common with most of Anderson's output. He explained, "[M]ost of the pieces I've written have been melodic, because I happen to like melodic music, and I'm very glad that Arthur Fiedler's favorite piece, he told me, happens to be 'Serenata,' which is a serenade." The B section of this composition is simply gorgeous, and was often heard in the 1950s. Parish wrote lyrics for "Serenata" that have been recorded by Sarah Vaughan, Nat Cole and Mary Mayo.

The discmate for "Serenata" was in another dance form, the ancient "Saraband." Here, Anderson explains, "I have kept the slow triple rhythm of the classical saraband in the melody but the underlying rhythm has been doubled in tempo to produce the effect of the modern foxtrot. In the middle section, however, the slow triple rhythm is heard alone for a while, like an echo of the past."

Anderson wrote "A Trumpeter's Lullaby" for Roger Voisin of the Boston Symphony. "The melody is based on bugle call notes and rhythmical figures which are idiomatic to the trumpet," Anderson said, "but the mood is nevertheless one of a lullaby due to the relaxed playing of the soloist and the quiet background in the orchestra." The military bugle call associations may have had emotional overtones for Anderson and many members of the audience. The first recording was in Boston, followed a few months later by the composer and his New York crew.

Completing the album were the two brief "jazz" pieces - "Jazz Pizzicato" and "Jazz Legato" - that had begun the composer's career.

Leroy Anderson Conducts His Own Compositions, Vol. 2

Decca invited Anderson and the New York musicians back for a session on June 29, 1951 to produce Vol. 2 of the composer conducting his works. The lead-off track was another blockbuster, and another pizzicato specialty, onomatopoeically called "Plink, Plank, Plunk!" Older readers may recall "Plink, Plank, Plunk!" as the theme for the long-running TV game show, I've Got a Secret.

Anderson had finished the piece only a short time before the recording session. "I was going to record the second album, I had two or three weeks to go and there was an eighth side yet to be done," he recalled. But the final composition came to him easily, which was not true of another piece on the album, "Fiddle-Faddle," for which he had discarded three earlier versions.

The exhilarating waltz "Belle of the Ball" is another personal favorite. In his book Harvard Composers, Howard Pollack writes that Anderson's music had taken a turn from the "sly irreverence" of his earliest works to a period that was "more romantic and nostalgic with its 'Belle of the Ball,' 'Horse and Buggy,' 'Summer Skies' and 'Forgotten Dreams'."

We'll get to "Horse and Buggy" in a moment, and the other two items in Part 2 of this series. First, let's discuss what was perhaps Anderson's biggest chart success, "Blue Tango." As a single, it was coupled with "Belle of the Ball," which the composer thought would be the bigger hit. But it was "Blue Tango" that reached the top of the charts. Hugo Winterhalter and Les Baxter also had popular versions, and Mitchell Parish penned lyrics for the piece and "Belle of the Ball." (Vico Torriani's "Blue Tango" vocal version is here - in German.)

Instrumental maestros of the day:
Hugo Winterhalter, Leroy Anderson, Percy Faith

In "Horse and Buggy," the composer returned to the equine theme that had been so popular with "Sleigh Ride." This new piece is highly attractive, with the usual memorable Anderson melody line and the "clip-clop" sound effects provided by temple blocks.

Anderson's thoughts on the next selection, "The Phantom Regiment": "[T]he main idea was to depict a group approaching from the distance and then receding. This is an effective musical device; the best known example is probably the 'March of the Pilgrims' from Berlioz' Harold in Italy. I also used this device in "The Minstrel Boy," one of the numbers in the Irish Suite." The Irish Suite will be included in Part 2 of this series.

"China Doll" has a mild amount of chinoiserie in the musical mix, but the weeping effects at the end of the piece suggest that the composer primarily wanted to depict a doll made of china. Either way, it's a beguiling piece of music.

In his workshop

As you might expect, in "The Penny-Whistle Song," Anderson uses the flutes to suggest the the humble tin whistle, also called the "penny whistle" because that's what one cost in the 19th century. The work is an example of the composer penchant for nostalgia.

"Fiddle-Faddle," based on "Three Blind Mice," is one of the composer's most popular works. It features the violins, of course, again making use of pizzicato effects. Anderson's arrangement has some big-band overtones, with the brass and strings facing off against one another. Fiedler and the Boston Pops premiered the work in 1947.

The composer's music of this period is consistent in its high quality, clever construction and melodic memorability. Critic Richard Ginell has written, "Leroy Anderson is one of the great bridges of American music, a musician who tore down the wall between the so-called 'serious' music and so-called 'popular' music. He introduced millions of people to the sounds a symphony orchestra can make painlessly, with consummate taste and an ear for whimsy."

In Part 2 of this series, we'll cover his first Christmas recordings and such well-remembered items as "The Typewriter" and "Bugler's Holiday."

LINK to Part 1

Robert Shaw Conducts Bach Cantatas

The young conductor Robert Shaw started recording the music of J.S. Bach soon after he began his association with the Victor company. His first effort was a set of arias with Marian Anderson in June 1946; soon thereafter he turned to Bach's Cantata BWV 140 Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (Awake, a voice calls us, generally called Sleepers, awake! in English), one of the composer's best-known choral works.

Today's transfer comes from an early LP that coupled BWV 140 with Shaw's 1949 recording of the equally compelling but less recognized Cantata BWV 131 Aus der Tiefe (Out of the depths). 

Both these compositions are church cantatas, setting sacred texts. Aus der Tiefe is a very early example of Bach's work in the form, written in 1707 when he was resident in Mühlhausen. Wachet auf comes from 1731, when he was in Leipzig.

Robert Shaw

Bach structured the works to intersperse variations on a hymn tune with contrasting passages. In Wachet auf, the chorale is based on a Lutheran hymn published by Philipp Nicolai in 1599. The fourth movement is a chorale prelude that was later published as one of the Schübler Chorales for organ, achieving independent renown. (I've appended two of these to the post as a bonus - see below.)

In BWV 140 the chorales are separated by recitatives and arias from an unknown source or sources that depict a wedding of the soul and Jesus. In the fourth movement, the bass sings, "Ich habe mich mit dir / Von Ewigkeit vertraut" ("I have betrothed myself to you from eternity to eternity").

BWV 131 does not include recitatives. The text is based on Psalm 130 and also incorporates the words of a chorale, derived from "Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut" by Bartholomäus Ringwaldt.

Shaw's recordings are among the earliest of these works; BWV 131 was a first recording. The more popular BWV 140 had two earlier issues. As you might expect, stylistically Shaw's readings have been surpassed. Even so, his use of relatively small forces pointed to the future.

Paul Matthen

The vocal soloists are variable. Bass Paul Matthen is excellent in both works, as is tenor William Hess in Aus der Tiefe. Soprano Suzanne Freil is good in Wachet auf, but tenor Roy Russell is shaky in his brief recitative.

Shaw employed some of the best instrumentalists for these works. Oboist Robert Bloom and violinist Joseph Fuchs can be heard in both cantatas. The continuo in BWV 131 was provided by harpsichordist Sylvia Marlowe and cellist Bernard Greenhouse.

Joseph Fuchs and Robert Bloom

The sound in BWV 131, from 1949 and the Manhattan Center, was better than BWV 140, from three years earlier and Town Hall, but both are more than acceptable. 

Unlike the LP, the download is tracked and includes texts and translations, along with several reviews. The recordings were remastered from Internet Archive. 

LINK to Bach cantatas

Two Chorale Preludes

As a bonus I've added the organ chorale prelude Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645 along with the brief prelude BWV 646 Wo soll ich fliehen hin, in 1944 performances by Carl Weinrich, who recorded with Shaw. You can hear him in the recent post of favorite hymns from the Shaw Chorale.

LINK to chorale preludes

More about Comments and Links

A while back I lamented my difficulties in posting comments on my own blog. I've now developed a work-around that involves using a VPN services and switching among web browsers. This morning I had to hop through VPN connections in several different countries using three different browsers to post a brief response to a kind comment from a visitor.

I believe the difficulty may arise from Blogger's attempts to reduce spam on the platform. For some reason, it has identified me as spamming my own blog; I suspect this is because I had the habit of posting links in the comments, which must be a spammer trait. This explains the curious phenomenon of links disappearing from the comment fields on a number of recent posts. So I've begun putting the links in the blog text.

So why the VPN use? It may be that my IP address has become associated with spam, even though I have never posted spam in my life (honest!). 

I know that some of you have had trouble posting comments here. This could be for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it has to do with being logged in to the Google account you are trying to comment from. It could also involve how your browser is configured. You may need to enable third-party cookies on the blogspot site. This article from Microsoft may help.

In its zeal to control spam, Google has a spam filter in Blogger similar to the one in Gmail. I didn't know about the Blogger filter until my friend Ernie brought it to my attention. I never even thought about it because I can count on two hands the number of spam comments I've received over the years. It's easy enough to delete them when they turn up.

When I did finally examine the Blogger spam folder, I found about 200 comments there, two of which were actually spam - meaning that the filter has about a 1% success rate. Meanwhile, dozens and dozens of your legitimate comments never appeared on the blog! My apologies for this oversight on my part. I will keep watch over the folder from now on. If you have had trouble commenting in the past, please try again!

I mentioned Gmail's spam filter. It does from time to time unaccountably send the email notifications of your comments to its spam folder. This has happened repeatedly with one regular commenter, even though I have assured the software over and over that he is not a spammer.

But enough of the complaining. Instead, let me conclude by thanking everyone for all your comments and support through the years!

Lee Wiley Sings Gershwin

I introduced Lee Wiley to the blog a few months ago with her two Rodgers and Hart albums. That post was a great success with readers, so today we have a follow-up in the form of the singer's 1939 Gershwin set, augmented by three additional tunes from the 1940s.

That first Wiley post provided background on the vocalist, and an introduction to the songwriter-focused albums that came out on small labels in the late 30s and early 40s. Today's Gershwin album was issued by the Liberty Music Shop, which specialized in cabaret music and society bands but also had a hand in jazz.

Lee Wiley

Most of Wiley's records from this period were made in the company of the Chicago-style musicians whose gutsy sound suited her down to the ground. The striking cover above - by John De Vries, who inspired these various sets - depicts the some of the musicians: from bottom, Joe Bushkin (piano), Bud Freeman (tenor sax), Max Kaminsky (trumpet), George Wettling (drums) and Eddie Condon (guitar).

This Liberty Music Shop album was the first in the series of songwriter collections done by Wiley. It came out just a few months before the first Rodgers and Hart album covered in my earlier post. As with the R&H set, the Gershwin recordings are ascribed to Max Kaminsky's Orchestra or Joe Bushkin's Orchestra seemingly at random - the personnel mostly remained the same.

Max Kaminsky, Lee Wiley, Joe Bushkin

In his windy liner notes, Ernie Anderson asserts that four of the eight songs in the Gershwin set were first recordings. That seems to be true for three of them - "I've Got a Crush on You," "But Not for Me" and "How Long Has This Been Going On?" (The fourth, "My One and Only" was recorded several times after its 1927 introduction in Funny Face.)

Bud Freeman

But let's run down all the songs on the Liberty Music Shop album, starting with "How Long Has This Been Going On?" The label claims it comes from Funny Face, which is true, although it was cut from that show in the run-up to Broadway, and then used in 1928's Rosalie, where it was sung by Bobbe Arnst. Apparently this brilliant song did not merit a recording until Wiley and company entered the studio 11 years later. The rendition has a nice Bushkin accompaniment, a ripe Freeman tenor solo and some annoying clattering by Wettling.

"My One and Only" did indeed originate in Funny Face, where Fred Astaire, Betty Compton and Gertrude McDonald premiered it. The Wiley performance is distinguished by the inclusion of the excellent verse, which has a clever verbal segue to the chorus. The instrumental break with Kaminsky and Freeman is in double time.

"I've Got a Crush on You" was featured in two Gershwin shows - Treasure Girl of 1928 and Strike Up the Band of 1930. But it was otherwise ignored until the Wiley recording. Why was this so? Here are some thoughts from the University of Michigan's Gershwin Initiative:

Musicologists such as Walter Rimler have said that “Crush”’s failure was originally because Treasure Girl and Strike Up the Band were received so poorly; however, others, such as Howard Pollack and Philip Furia, have said that Wiley’s version became so beloved because she turned the song into a ballad . . . [She] softly cooed the words, rather than punching them, as was the style in Treasure Girl and Strike Up the Band.

Lee changed the verse's opening lines from "How glad the many millions of Annabelles and Lillians would be to capture me" to "How glad the many millions of Toms and Dicks and Harrys would be . . .", which doesn't scan. Today, female vocalists usually replace "Lillians" with "Williams." 

Note that the pianist on "Crush" was apparently Fats Waller, who also appears on the next selection in the guise of "Maurice" the organist. 

Fats Waller, aka Maurice

The song is "Someone to Watch Over Me," which Gertrude Lawrence first sang in 1926's Oh, Kay! (You can find her recording and others from the time here.) Wiley includes the verse - which for once is not a novelty, being heard on many other disks. Waller was a tremendous musician, but Lee misses the rhythmic backbone that the full ensemble lent her. She would return to the song five years later, as is discussed below.

The seldom-heard "Sam and Delilah" was premiered by none other than Ethel Merman in 1930's Girl Crazy. This number is in the vein of "Frankie and Johnny," although it is a much better song. Wiley and her backing musicians are perfect in the piece. Surprisingly, the first recording was by Duke Ellington, with a Chick Bullock vocal.

"'S Wonderful," unlike some of these tunes, was popular with recording artists pretty much from the time that Adele Astaire and Allen Kearns first sang it in Funny Face. Wiley's reading is a remarkable one, not least because she includes the verse and has sympathetic piano backing, by Joe Bushkin, I believe.

Ira and George Gershwin

A song that is not heard as often as it might be is "Sweet and Low-Down," the earliest number in this collection, dating from 1925's Tip-Toes. It did merit a recording at the time by the Singing Sophomores, but then not often until Lee took it up, after which it again receded into something like obscurity. The verse begins with brief, mournful solos from Kaminsky, Freeman and Bushkin, followed by Ira's superb intro, which Lee handles beautifully. The ensemble then switches into mid-tempo mode for this rousing piece - "Professor, stomp your feet!" Lee commands. Max Kaminsky has a fine muted solo.

Ginger Rogers and Willie Howard sang "But Not for Me" in Girl Crazy, but it doesn't look as though a commercial recording appeared before Wiley's. Thereafter, it hasn't lacked for admirers - there have been more than 700 recordings since Wiley took it up, including another by Lee that we will discuss in a moment.

So, this is truly a exceptional album. It is memorable artistically, it started the fashion for songwriter-themed albums and it revived several excellent Gershwin songs. It even has a striking cover, a year before Alex Steinweiss supposedly "invented the album cover" - one of the most nonsensical boasts ever to take hold in the music industry.

Eddie Condon with album cover

Now let's turn to the three additional Gershwin songs that Wiley recorded in the 1940s. The first two come from a George Gershwin Jazz Concert that Decca issued under the name of Eddie Condon in 1944, with many of the same musicians who appeared in the Liberty Music Shop set - Wettling, Kaminsky, Bushkin and clarinetist Pee Wee Russell. Wiley sang two songs - "Someone to Watch Over Me," a repeat of the LMS repertoire, and "The Man I Love."

Bobby Hackett

Both are sung well, but a bit more impersonally than on the LMS date, perhaps because this session was not focused on her. "Someone to Watch Over Me" benefits from not having Maurice's organ accompaniment, but the Bobby Hackett trumpet obbligatos are too loud and intrusive for Lee's sensitive vocal. Jack Teagarden's solo is more apposite.

The engineer dialed Hackett back for "The Man I Love," which has solos from Teagarden and baritone saxophonist Ernie Caceres. This song suits Wiley so well, it could have been written for her. For such a famous song, it had the dubious honor of being cut from Lady, Be Good, inserted in Strike Up the Band, which closed out of town, and rejected for Rosalie.

Lee Wiley and Jess Stacy

"But Not for Me" returned via a 1947 date with a band led by pianist Jess Stacy, during his tempestuous and short-lived marriage to Wiley. Again, a good performance, but not a match for the LMS version. It appeared on several labels, but first on Majestic, I believe.

Wiley and Hackett would turn to another of the LMS songs - "I've Got a Crush on You" - for their 1951 album Night in Manhattan, with backing by a Joe Bushkin ensemble. I hope to present that LP later in this series - but first will come her sets devoted to Harold Arlen and Cole Porter, and then perhaps a selection of her early recordings.

These recordings have generally vivid sound, remastered in ambient stereo from Internet Archive originals.

LINK to Lee Wiley's Gershwin recordings

Marion Harris

Finally, let me mention that Buster's Swinging Singles has a new post of three early Gershwin recordings by the sadly neglected singer Marion Harris - "Nashville Nightingale," "Somebody Loves Me" and "The Man I Love." These are very much worth hearing.

Favorite Hymns from Robert Shaw

The posts of Robert Shaw's early Thanksgiving and Christmas albums led me to explore some of his neglected recordings from the 1940s and early 50s - including today's subject, the 1949 album Onward, Christian Soldiers and Other Beloved Hymns.

Shaw's interest in sacred music was perhaps familial - his father was a minister. Then, too, he retained an active interest in all types of music, producing collections such as this early in his career alongside recordings of Bach and Mozart, while he was also preparing choruses for Arturo Toscanini.

Robert Shaw

The album above originally came out as 78 and 45 sets, later on a 10-inch LP. These transfers come from the 78s, which have much better sound than the LP. Because the album includes just six songs, I added five other compatible Shaw recordings from the same era (details below).

The album takes its title from the 19th century English hymn "Onward, Christian Soldiers" with words by Sabine Baring-Gould and music by Arthur Sullivan. The hymn's link of religion to war is perhaps unfortunate; there have even been attempts to remove the work from the Methodist and Episcopal hymnals for that reason. But the world was a much different place in the post-World War II years, and few gave it a second thought.

Here are a  few comments about the other hymns in the collection.

"Holy, Holy, Holy" (formally "Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!") was written in the early 19th century by the Anglican bishop Reginald Heber. It was set to a tune called "Nicaea," composed by John Bacchus Dykes.

Isaac Watts and Sabine Baring-Gould

The prolific 18th century hymn composer Isaac Watts wrote "O God, Our Help in Ages Past" in 1708. Here it is set to the hymn tune "St. Anne" by Watts' contemporary William Croft.

The words to "All Creatures of Our God and King," first published in 1919, are by William Henry Draper, who adapted a poem by St. Francis of Assisi. The words are set to a 17th century German hymn tune, "Lasst uns erfreuen." Draper possibly became aware of the tune through the 1906 arrangement by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

"All People That on Earth Do Dwell" is sometimes called the "Old Hundreth" because it was adapted from Psalm 100. The author was the 16th century clergyman William Kethe, with the tune by his contemporary, the French composer Louis Bourgeois. The melody is also used for "Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow," and Bach made use of it in his cantata "Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir" (BWV 130).

The final song from the Onward, Christian Soldiers album is "Now the Day Is Over," with words by Sabine Baring-Gould again and music is by Merrial Joseph Barnby. It dates from the 1860s. Richard Rivers is the baritone soloist on the Shaw recording. This touching piece can also be heard in the marvelous Jo Stafford-Gordon MacRae collection Sunday Evening Songs.

Carl Weinrich

The accompaniment in the hymns above is by the distinguished organist Carl Weinrich, Director of Music for the Princeton University Chapel. He later was to record Bach's complete organ works for Westminster.

Now on to the bonus selections, starting with the "Lourdes Pilgrims' Hymn," often called "Immaculate Mary." The French priest Jean Gaignet set it to a traditional tune in 1873 for use by pilgrims to Lourdes, site of the 1858 apparitions.

"O Lord I Am Not Worthy" is a Victorian-era Communion hymn of unknown provenance. (Shaw's record says it is a traditional melody.) Richard Rivers is again credited as the baritone, although no soloist appears on the record.

William Billings?

"I Am the Rose of Sharon" is a setting from the Song of Solomon by William Billings, perhaps the best-known of the early American composers. About the portrait at right - there are several images on the web purporting to be Billings, none of which looks like the others and one of which is actually John Adams. The fellow depicted may or may not be the composer.

The song "The Bells of St. Mary's" is closely associated with the 1945 Bing Crosby film of the same name. It actually was composed as early as 1917 by A. Emmett Adams and Douglas Furber. The piece is sometimes considered a holiday song because it is heard in the film during a Christmas pageant. The Shaw recording dates from the time of the movie.

We complete the program with "The Lord's Prayer" in the 1935 setting by Albert Hay Malotte. John Charles Thomas popularized the work on radio.

The performances are all scrupulous, as carefully prepared and presented as the other Shaw recordings available here.

The Church of the Heavenly Rest

These recordings were remastered from 78s found on Internet Archive. The sound was dry; I added a small amount of convolution reverberation to the mix. The first seven songs were recorded in the Church of the Heavenly Rest on upper Fifth Avenue in New York. "O Lord I Am Not Worthy" and "I Am the Rose of Sharon" come from the Manhattan Center. The latter is from an album of American songs by the Shaw Chorale with soprano Margaret Truman, daughter of then-President Harry Truman. (She does not appear on this cut.) "The Bells of St. Mary's" and "The Lord's Prayer" were recorded in the Lotos Club, then on W. 57th Street in New York.

LINK