Three Early LPs from Les Brown and Band

Les and admirers

Les Brown and his band have always been popular around here, so here goes  a triple play of 10-inch LPs from his early years with Coral records.

Back then it was fashionable to adopt themes for each record, and today's first two items follow that rule. 

For 1951's You're My Everything, the "theme" was that all eight songs began with "You're" - except for "You Are My Sunshine."

The following year, the idea was that all the numbers had to do with the weather - Musical Weather Vane is what the Coral folks called it.

All this started with Les' first LP for Coral, 1951's Over the Rainbow (A Panorama of Color), which has previously appeared here.

They must have run out of concepts by 1953, for the theme for that year's record was Le's Dance. Freed from the need to work to a stated theme, Les and his forces produced the best record of the bunch - possibly because it reflected their work at dances such as the one shown at top.

The other two records are quite satisfying as well, with fine arrangements, superb ensemble, and varied and at times witty solos.

By the way, my friend Dave Federman has produced several posts devoted to Les on his Substack site, Dave's Desk. These include vocals by the supreme Lucy Ann Polk - there isn't any singing on these LPs.

You're My Everything

The titles of the songs do suggest the vagaries of a love affair: "You're Driving Me Crazy,"  "You're the Cream in My Coffee," "You're a Sweetheart," "You're the Top," "You're Blasé" and "You're an Old Smoothie." The couple on the cover seem to be getting along fine, though.

The personnel for the band did not vary much over the next few years. The occasional soloists you hear on this LP likely include Don Paladino, trumpet, Ray Sims, trombone, Dave Pell, tenor sax, Tony Rizzi, guitar, and Geoff Clarkson, piano.

The arrangers for these records were Frank Comstock, Skip Martin and Wes Hensel. Comstock was the head arranger and did all the charts for this LP.

LINK to You're My Everything

Musical Weather Vane

For the Musical Weather Vane, the selections were "Clouds," "Heat Wave," "Rain," "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!", "Blue Skies," "Ill Wind,"
"Stormy Weather" and "Lost in a Fog."

I wasn't familiar with two of the songs, even though they have a nice pedigree. "Clouds" is a Gus Kahn-Walter Donaldson song first recorded by Connie Boswell in 1935.

"Lost in a Fog" is by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh. It was released by any number of artists in 1934, including Connie Boswell.

I've prepared a companion post for my other blog with Connie's recording of "Lost in a Fog" and the Ray Noble-Al Bowlly version of "Clouds."

The other song that may be unfamiliar to some is "Ill Wind," which Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler wrote for the Cotton Club Parade revue of 1934. The first recording of this tune was by Arlen himself, and can be found in a collection of his vocal discs on my other blog.

Wes Hensel was the arranger of "Heat Wave" and "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!". Frank Comstock was responsible for the others.

LINK to Musical Weather Vane

Le's Dance

I said that Brown ditched the theme album idea for a dance album in 1953, but that's not entirely true. The implicit theme in this case - it's not stated on the cover - is the songs were all associated with other bandleaders.

Here's the information missing from the cover:

"Flying Home" was written by Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman for the Goodman Sextet in 1939. The most famous version, however, may be the one with Hamp's own big band in 1942, with a blazing solo by Illinois Jacquet on tenor sax. Both versions can be found on my other blog. For Les' rendition, Wes Hensel and Skip Martin handled the charts.

Another item from Benny's band is "Lullaby in Rhythm" by Benny, Clarence Profit, Edgar Sampson and Walter Hirsch. The latter was a lyricist; there also were and are vocal versions of the song. Skip Martin wrote this arrangement.

I'd rather give up drinking than
tote around a jug like that

"Brown's Little Jug" is a takeoff on "Little Brown Jug," which had been a hit for Glenn Miller in 1939. The piece itself dates to the 1860s and probably earlier. It's a drinking song - "O - ho - ho, you and me, little brown jug how I love thee." (Drinkers are well known for using archaic English.) Martin was the arranger.

Taking its name from a street in New Orleans, "Perdido" was written by trombonist Juan Tizol in 1941 for the Duke Ellington band. It quickly became a jazz standard - and with lyrics added, a vocal standard. This chart was by Martin and Hensel.

Ray Noble wrote "Cherokee" in 1938, but it is more associated with Charlie Barnet, who not only adopted it as his theme, but elaborated the piece into "Redskin Rhumba." The tune was a favorite with boppers. Charlie Parker, for example, turned it into one of his best-known numbers, "Ko-Ko." Comstock arranged "Cherokee" for the Brown band.

At a 1950s dance

The Coral label lists "Stompin' at the Savoy" as being written by Goodman, Chick Webb, Edgar Sampson and Andy Razaf, but the music was written by Sampson alone for Rex Stewart's band in 1933. They took it to Webb band the following year, then Benny got hold of it a few years later. I assume Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics that are sometimes heard. Comstock did this chart.

"Jersey Bounce" comes from Tiny Bradshaw, Eddie Johnson and Bobby Plater. "R. B. Wright" is a pseudonym for lyricist Buddy Feyne. Bradshaw was a bandleader, but he didn't have a record contract when the song was written. The first disc was by Earl Hines in 1941. The most popular was, once again, the Benny Goodman record. (I loved it; I inherited the 78 from my mom when I was a kid.) The chart was by Frank Comstock.

The final selection is one of the most famous of all - Count Basie's "One O'Clock Jump," a 1937 riff tune popular with bands and everyone else since then. (Yes, Benny recorded it.) This is a wonderful, imaginative version.

For this third record, two distinguished soloists - trumpeter Don Fagerquist and alto saxophonist Ronnie Lang - were added.

The sound on all the records is very good. The first two were a little boxy; they have benefitted from a small amount of natural reverb. All are excellent records; the third is even better than that!

LINK to Le's Dance