From the Back Room: Early Ray Charles Singers

Most of the substantial Ray Charles Singers content on this blog has come from their stay on the M-G-M label during the 1950s. Shortly before that, they did some recording for Archie Bleyer and his Cadence outfit, a label that is mostly renowned for early Everly Brothers and Andy Williams records.

Today we have the following sets from Ray's Cadence period. First, there's music from The Pajama Game, the smash 1954 musical from Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. And we have 8 Top Hits, with cover versions of the same year's chart toppers.

The Both Sides Now LP discography suggests this was the first Cadence album.

The Pajama Game

The Pajama Game ran for almost three years on Broadway, but it is best remembered for the film edition with John Raitt and Doris Day as the principals. The other main roles were taken by Eddie Foy, Jr., Carol Haney and Reta Shaw, both in the film and in the original production. Raitt and Janis Paige were the leads on Broadway.

John Raitt and Doris Day play The Pajama Game

For Cadence, Stephen Douglass assumed John Raitt's role of Sid Sorokin - neat casting because Douglass would succeed Raitt in the role on Broadway. Douglass would go on to star in Adler and Ross' other show, Damn Yankees.

Stephen Douglass and Gwen Vernon in Damn Yankees

Babe Williams, the female lead, here is voiced by Dorothy Evans, better known on innumerable budget records as Dottie Evans. (A separate post devoted to Dottie is coming up.)

The Pajama Game concerns the Sleep-Tite Pajama Co. and its union, which is demanding a seven-and-a half cent hourly raise. Sid Sorokin (Douglass) is the new superintendent of the factory; Babe Williams (Evans) the head of the union grievance committee. Love and comic labor troubles ensue.

The Evans and/or Douglass songs are:

"A New Town Is a Blue Town" - Douglass

"I'm Not at All in Love" - Evans and the Ray Charles Singers

"Hey There" - Douglass (a duet between Sid and his dictaphone voice)

"Once-a-Year Day" - Douglas, Evans and the Singers

"Small Talk" - Douglas and Evans

"There Once Was a Man" - Douglas and Evans

John Raitt has said that "A New Town Is a Blue Town" and "There Once Was a Man" were ghostwritten by Frank Loesser.

Ray Charles, Dottie Evans

For "Seven-and-a-Half Cents" Evans is joined by Ray Charles, in the role of Prez (Stanley Prager on Broadway), and by the ensemble. Charles is otherwise heard in "Her Is," where he is joined by Audrey Marsh as Gladys (Carol Haney on stage and in the film).

Arthur (Artie) Malvin takes the Eddie Foy, Jr. role of Hines, the "time-study man." His songs are "Think of the Time I Save" and "I'll Never Be Jealous Again," here with Dossie Hollingsworth (Reta Shaw).

Artie Malvin, Audrey Marsh

Malvin was associated with Charles for many years, and had his own group, the Crew Chiefs, an outgrowth of Glenn Miller's AAF band. He made a huge number of budget records.

Audrey Marsh had been a radio vocalist in the 1930s and thereafter. She was the mother of composer-performer Meredith Monk.

One of the hits of the show, "Steam Heat," is performed by Charles, Malvin and Evans. It was a song and dance feature for Carol Haney and ensemble on Broadway and in the movie, with choreography by Bob Fosse.

Another hit, "Hernando's Hideaway," is sung by the Archie Bleyer Chorus with Maria Alba credited with the overly prominent castanet playing. Actually, this selection was recorded and issued as a single before the other numbers. It did well, so the LP followed.

In general, the entire presentation is nicely done, and in good sound.

Note that I prepared this post from a later, full LP Cadence release of The Pajama Game that had more selections than on the cover depicted at top of the post. 

8 Top Hits

8 Top Hits was a title used by Bleyer and then other labels, including Enoch Light with Waldorf. Archie gave himself top billing here, with the Ray Charles Singers, Dottie Evans, Artie Malvin and the others less prominent. Oh well, it was his label.

I'll provide a few words about each of the songs, the original versions, and who performs them here. I remember all these songs even though I was five years old at the time (1954), but then a few of them are well known even today.

All the numbers except "Skokiaan" feature the Ray Charles Singers, with the soloists as indicated.

"The Little Shoemaker" is a novelty based on the French song, "Le petit cordonnier" by Rudi Revil. The story is somewhat reminiscent of a Hans Christian Andersen tale. The US hits were by the Gaylords and Eddie Fisher. In the UK, it was the first chart success for Petula Clark.

Dottie Evans is the soloist on "If I Give Me Heart to You." The most popular versions were by Doris Day and Denise Lor. Jimmy Brewster (a pen name for Decca's Milt Gabler), Jimmie Crane and Al Jacobs wrote the song.

The instrumental "Skokiaan" has a complicated background. It was composed by Zimbabwean musician August Musarurwa, with the title a tribute to a potent home brew thereabouts. The first version released in the US was by Musarurwa and the Bulawayo Sweet Rhythm Band. The most successful cover was probably Ralph Marterie's.

"I Need You Now," written by Jimmie Crane and Al Jacobs, was a chart-topper for Eddie Fisher. Artie Malvin is the soloist on 8 Top Hits.

Versatile Artie did quite a few rock 'n' roll numbers for budget labels. One of the first was the crossover hit "Sh-Boom," written and recorded by the Chords. The Crew-Cuts had a popular cover version.

Dottie Evans gives us a nice treatment of Stuart Hamblen's "This Ole House," which was a massive success for Rosemary Clooney. You can hear the versions of Clooney and Hamblen in this post devoted to Thurl Ravenscroft, who handled the bass refrain of "Ain't a-gonna need this house no longer / Ain't a-gonna need this house no more." Percy Dove does those lines here. One odd note: Dottie's sister Margie Murphy also recorded the song, for one of Enoch Light's budget labels.

Percy Dove, Jerry Duane

Jerry Duane is the whistler in this rendition of "The High and the Mighty," Dimitri Tiomkin's memorable film theme. There are several other versions of the tune available on this blog via a celebration of Tiomkin's pop hits.

Mambo was big enough in the US back then that several songs that tried to cash in on the dance craze. "Papa Loves Mambo" was perhaps the biggest, with Perry Como sounding laid back as always. Here, Artie Malvin does the vocal gyrations. Stuart Foster's competing budget disc can be found here.

It adds up to a nice selection of the largely genteel chart toppers of 1954.

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