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.