It's Summertime - or So the Ray Charles Singers Assure Us

My recent Snowflakes and Sweethearts post from the LeRoy Holmes Singers led to a request for the music of the Ray Charles Singers, who were popular in the 1950s and 60s.

Now, this is not the "Hit the Road, Jack" Ray Charles (born Ray Charles Robinson), but another fellow, born Charles Raymond Offenberg (1918-2015). The latter adopted the "Ray Charles" stage name back in the 1944 when he was doing radio work.

Ray's biggest break was his association with Perry Como, which lasted for 35 years. Charles began recording for M-G-M in 1954, with the LP Autumn Nocturne. He continued through the seasons, along with a variety of other album concepts - Christmas, Paris, etc.

I have three of the four seasonal LPs, which I'll be presenting here, starting with Summertime. I would begin with Winter Wonderland, but that's the record I am missing. (Fortunately, friend Ernie has posted it a number of times, and the most recent post is still available.) 

"Uh, Ray - this is the shoot for the Summertime album"

These records have a fine reputation among fanciers of 50s music like me, and for good reason. They are very polished, imaginative and varied. You know you are in the presence of real professionals.

The singers were a studio group that Ray chose from among the coterie of vocalists for hire. Today's LP, dating from 1957, features Andrey Marsh, Lillian Clark, Lois Winter, Miriam Workman, Alan Sokoloff, Jerry Duane, Stephen Steck Jr., Michacl Stewart and Eugene Steck.

Ray also lists the instrumental combo, also studio stalwarts: Al Klink, flute, Janet Putnam, harp, Nick Perito, accordion, Tony Mottola, guitar, Frank Garitso, Jr. or Bobby Rosengarden, drums, Robert Kitsis or Dick Hyman, piano, and George Shaw or Frank Carroll, bass. The relatively sparse accompaniments work nicely, setting off the vocals.

The first two songs on the LP will not make anyone eager with anticipation - "Summertime" and "Mountain Greenery," two of the most familiar items that Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart ever produced. But the versions here are so well done that they disarm any criticism.

"Mountain Greenery" features by-play among the singers. I suspect this was an arrangement worked out for use on Como's television show, where the singing would have accompanied by some simple staging. "Summertime," too, could have been part of a seasonal medley - as could others in this set.

James Melton serenades Patricia Ellis; Hugh Herbert, Walter Catlett, ZaSu Pitts and Allen Jenkins emote in the margins

The next song, in contrast, was a surprise to me - "Summer Night" by Harry Warren and Al Dubin. The label says it's from a film of the same name, but it actually emanates from 1936's Sing Me a Love Song, where it was introduced by James Melton. I don't recall hearing this song before, and it is quite a find. That's Ray soloing in the recorded performance.

"Breezin' Along with the Breeze" is another old favorite - as old as 1926, in fact. The writers were Haven Gillespie, Seymour Simons and Richard Whiting.

"Lazy Afternoon" is an extraordinary song, the most celebrated selection from The Golden Apple, the marvelous 1954 musical from John Latouche and Jerome Moross, a multitalented composer. An excellent performance from the Charles troupe.

"In the Good Old Summertime," a good old song by Ren Shields and George Evans, is from as far back as 1902. This is another item that would have lent itself to a television production.

Miss Beadell and Miss Tollerton write the tune; Phil Green gets the cover photo

The next song has an unusual history. "Cruising Down the River" was the only hit by Eily Beadell and Nell Tollerton, who won a BBC songwriting contest in 1945 or 46. It was a huge hit then in England, and later for Russ Morgan and Blue Barron in the US. The song is deliberately old-fashioned - it is said that the two authors had concocted it years earlier. It fit the postwar longing for simpler times.

Bernice Petkere and Joe Young's always-welcome "Lullaby of the Leaves" was a favorite of the bands in 1932 and was revived in the 1950s.

"Swingin' in a Hammock" was very popular in 1930, when it was written by Pete Wendling, Charles O'Flynn and Tot Seymour, and then not heard too often until this record. Sue Raney did wonders with it a few years after this LP. (I have a remastered collection of her singles coming that includes the song.)

George Duning's theme from the 1956 film Picnic is most famous in George Cates's hit arrangement (found here), where he combined it with the Hudson-DeLange oldie "Moonglow." But the "Theme from Picnic" can well stand on its own, as it does here.

Mary Boland and Melville Cooper in Jubilee

"Me and Marie" is another unexpected delight, a relatively obscure Cole Porter song from his score for 1935's Jubilee.

"(Up a) Lazy River" was a big favorite of mine in the version by trombonist Si Zentner. But that was in 1961, four years after this record came out. The Hoagy Carmichael-Sidney Arodin song dates from as far back as 1931. It had a revival in the 1950s, which Ray was happy to participate in.

A most enjoyable record in good sound.

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