Buddy Clark with More 1934-36 Recordings

The superb singer Buddy Clark has been a frequent visitor around here, most recently in three posts devoted to his early career. At that time - 1934-36, when Clark was in his early 20s - he was heard on the radio and was a recording voice for hire, often appearing incognito, as is the case in all but four of today's 15 selections. He actually did not reach great popularity until the 1940s. His renown was at its peak when he died in a plane crash at age 37.

The previous posts devoted to Buddy's early career included sets with Lud Gluskin's orchestra, with the bands of Dick McDonough and Nat Brandwynne. and with ensembles led by Freddy Martin, Archie Bleyer, Ruby Newman and Wayne King (plus duets with Hildegarde).

Today, Clark is heard with Bleyer and Newman once again, and with the bands of Benny Goodman, Joe Moss, Bob Causer and Joe Reichman.

Two More Songs with Archie Bleyer

Young Archie Bleyer

The earliest recordings in today's package come from a 1934 Vocalion session with the 25-year-old maestro Archie Bleyer, who had just taken over the band at Earl Carroll's Vanities. I believe this was the first record date for Bleyer, who would go on to have an successful career as bandleader and then as the head of the Cadence label, where he gave the world hits by Julius La Rosa, Andy Williams and the Everly Brothers.

Archie and Buddy's first effort was one of the big songs of the year - "Stay as Sweet as You Are," written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel for Lanny Ross to croon in the film College Humor. Good song and performance; the arrangement is typical of the time.

The coupling was the lesser-known "The World Is Mine," a Yip Harburg-Johnny Green opus that, the label tells us, was "inspired by the picture The Count of Monte Cristo." More to the point, it was used in the film, sung by Clarence Muse. It's a worthy tune, handled well by the young singer.

Two with Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Clark's two recordings with Benny Goodman's nascent big band are fascinating, although for reasons that have little to do with the vocalist. The first song dates from November 1934 and was the product of Ben Oakland and Mitchell Parish - "Like a Bolt from the Blue." An accomplished song, but the Jiggs Noble arrangement sounds more like the Archie Bleyer records than the next Goodman selection, which dates from just five months later and features virtually the same personnel.

Benny begins to swing

That song, "I'm Livin' in a Great Big Way," embodies the swing rhythm that would bring Goodman fame just a few months later. The reason for the change? Almost certainly the arrangement, which was provided by bandleader Fletcher Henderson. The story is that John Hammond brought Henderson to Benny, and then had Henderson's musicians teach Benny's crew how to play the charts properly. Benny became the biggest thing in music; Fletcher was to disband his ensemble in the early 40s.

"I'm Livin' in a Great Big Way" was the handiwork of Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, written for the film Hooray for Love. There, the performers were Bill Robinson, Jeni Le Gon, Fats Waller and The Cabin Kids.

Interestingly, Clark sounds at home in both dance-band and swing modes. His excellent sense of rhythm and secure technique seldom if ever let him down.

The Bleyer and Goodman records are the only ones in this set where Buddy is credited on the label. From here on in this set, he provides anonymous vocal refrains. Thanks once again to discographer Nigel Burlinson, whose work has been invaluable in identifying the uncredited items below and in dating all these records.

With Joe Moss

Joe Moss

Joe Moss was a society bandleader who fronted ensembles carrying both his own name and others such as Meyer Davis, with whom he made many records, usually issued as by "Meyer Davis and His Hotel Astor Orchestra." Under his own identity, Moss led the band at the Waldorf-Astoria, among other locales.

In 1936, Moss engaged Clark for a Brunswick session with the bandleader's "Society Dance Orchestra." The date yielded four songs. The first is "Here's to You," a peppy ballad of the time. It was coupled with Ray Noble's "If You Love Me," not one Noble's best songs. The arrangement has an unusual duet for low-register clarinet and Hawaiian guitar.

Joe tells the society folks to jump on a wild mustang

On the second 78 was "West Wind" by Milton Ager, Charles Newman and Murray Mencher, along with "Saddle Your Blues to a Wild Mustang." I can't imagine the latter tune - also recorded by likes of the Rocky Mountaineers and the Bunk House Boys - was much of a favorite in the Waldorf ballroom, nor is Boston-born Buddy the likeliest advocate. The arrangement features twangy mouth harp and wheezy harmonica effects.

Surprisingly, the song appears to be work of the distinguished Richard Whiting, perhaps working with Buddy Bernier. Not much of a country pedigree there.

With Bob Causer

Bob Causer and His Cornellians

Bob Causer was a bandleader who lent his name to a large number of recordings on the ARC labels (Perfect, etc.) in the mid-1930s. Many of these actually turned out to be by Freddy Martin, Gene Kardos and others. However, as far as I can tell, this particular coupling on the Romeo label was by Causer and his Cornellians (the group he formed at Cornell University), as stated on the label.

From Cornell to Wyomin'

The first song from this coupling came from the 1936 film Palm Springs - "The Hills of Old Wyomin'," sung by Smith Ballew and Frances Langford on screen. Buddy again gets saddled with a cowpoke tune. He does his best to be sincere while singing about "cattle to tend." I wonder if that is him whistling.

The distinguished team of Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger wrote the piece, but unfortunately for them - and for Causer and Clark - the hit from the film was "I'm in the Mood for Love," composed by Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields and George Oppenheimer.

The other side of the Causer record is a break from the horse opera fare - "Love Came Out of the Night" by Fred Rose and Eddie Nelson. This is more in Clark's line, although as a radio singer, I imagine he was used to warbling almost anything.

One More with Ruby Newman

Ruby Newman

Buddy's next assignment was with society bandleader Ruby Newman, who engaged him to sing Johnny Mercer's new song, "Welcome Stranger," recorded by several other bands that year. This is early Mercer, accomplished but without the wit or irony that would mark his later efforts. Buddy's performance is proficient.

Four with Joe Reichman

Joe Reichman

In his early career as instrumentalist, Joe Reichman billed himself as the "Pagliacci of the Piano," but by 1936 he had become yet another society bandleader, although continuing to feature his ringing keyboard acrobatics.

Joe had Buddy in for the vocals on four of his 1936 records for the ARC labels. First is "I'll Never Let You Go," a tune by Fred Astaire, Dave Dreyer and Jack Ellis. It's no better or worse than a lot of the other material in this set.

Buddy covers Shirley Temple

Better known is "But Definitely," which Harry Revel and Mack Gordon wrote for the Shirley Temple opus Poor Little Rich Girl, where it was shared among Alice Faye, Jack Haley and Shirley. This material is well suited to Clark, allowing him to show off his perfect diction and keen rhythmic sense. 

Even better known is "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'," from Gershwin's then-new Porgy and Bess. Clark handles it well, although he does slip into a bit o' unwelcome dialect here and there.

The final song in this set gets one of the best performances. "Me and the Moon," by Lou Handman and Walter Hirch, was hugely popular with the bandleaders (and Bing Crosby) in 1936.

The sound on these recording is almost uniformly fine, showing the progress made in the industry just a decade after the introduction of electrical recording.

LINK

Buster's Unusual Spring

If your heart doesn't go dancing at the thought of another spring-themed compilation, I hope this collection, "Buster's Unusual Spring," will at least start your feet tapping.

In these 28 selections, I've avoided the usual spring songs - "Spring Is Here," "It Might as Well Be Spring," and so on - in favor of more esoteric fare. Multiple genres are represented - pop, classical, jazz and country among them. I myself was unfamiliar with most of these numbers. The best known are probably "It Happens Every Spring" and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" - and you will recognize a few classical melodies in new settings.

As usual, the recordings are discussed below in chronological order.

The first selection is the only acoustic recording in the set, and a late one at that - it's from 1926 and the technology-challenged Gennett label. Chic Winter (other sources say it's Winters) and orchestra offer the peppy "Spring Is Here" (not the Rodgers and Hart song). Winter(s) led a fancy outfit that was in residence at the impressive but long-gone Hotel Gramatan in Westchester County, north of New York City.

The following year, HMV had the incomparable John McCormack in London's Queen's Hall for a session devoted in part to settings by Granville Bantock of poems by Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng (the name itself is poetry) that were based on ancient Chinese texts. "A Dream of Spring" is from a work by the eighth century writer Ts'en Ts'an. McCormack sings with his usual penetrating intelligence, sympathy for the text, sweet tone and faultless diction.

Harry McClintock by R. Crumb

We abruptly switch genres from Sir Granville to the musings of Haywire Mac, the author of "Big Rock Candy Mountain." Here, under the name of Radio Mac, the America folk singer Harry McClintock presents the "Hobo's Spring Song," done for Victor in 1929. Mac was a colorful character who was a member of the International Workers of the World and spent time as a union organizer.

Harold aka Scrappy aka Burt

Also from 1929, we have tightly-muted trumpeter Henry Busse with orchestra and the much-recorded vocalist Scrappy Lambert under the name Burt Lorin. They offer up "Like a Breath of Spring-Time," which makes me wonder when "springtime" became a compound word. The song comes from the lost film Hearts in Exile, which was issued both as a silent and a talkie. Presumably the song was more effective in the latter version. By the way, this song was also recorded by Dr. Eugene Ormandy's Salon Orchestra before the conductor went uptown.

From 1930, Waring's Pennsylvanians give us "It Seems to Be Spring," written for the film Let's Go Native. With a title like that, the movie had to be offensive in some manner, but the plot summary just sounds inane, as does the casting - Jack Oakie and Jeanette MacDonald. One hopes that MacDonald rather than Oakie introduced the song. In either case, they had to be better than the anemic Three Girlfriends who assist Fred Waring on the record.

"Spring in Manhattan" of 1934 is one of the earlier releases from the Liberty Music Shop label, which specialized in cabaret music. Most of its artists were familiar from New York nightlife, but here, despite the song's title, we have Los Angeles' Bruz Fletcher, who recorded very little but has a following even today. Fletcher's song comes from the album above.

Ray Noble

We now transport you from Manhattan to France for "Paris in Spring," which Mack Gordon and Harry Revel wrote for the film of the same name. Despite the titles of movie and music lacking the definite article, Al Bowlly sings "Paris in the spring." The South African vocalist had come to the US with English bandleader Ray Noble, who assembled a superb American band. The troupe began recording in 1935, including this fine song, here in a wonderfully polished and presented arrangement with a characteristic vocal by Bowlly, an exceptional singer. Noble was to stay in the States, but Bowlly moved back to England in 1937 and perished in the London blitz.

Ella and Chick

"I Got the Spring Fever Blues" is from 1936 and and the band of Chick Webb with the young Ella Fitzgerald sounding surprisingly like Connie Boswell with a touch of Mildred Bailey. Ella is great, and the band, led by the short-lived drummer Webb, is as well. In the ensemble are such luminaries as Taft Jordan, Teddy McRae and Sandy Williams.

Peg LaCentra

Another great band was led by Artie Shaw, here with one of his first recordings, also from 1936. At this early date Shaw was known as "Art Shaw." Some of you may be familiar with "There's Frost on the Moon (Spring in My Heart)," which turns up in Christmas compilations. Shaw already had started incorporating strings in his arrangements - unusual for a swing band at the time. One of the violinists here was Jerry Gray, later a famed arranger for Glenn Miller (who himself was a Ray Noble sideman and played trombone on the "Paris in Spring" date above). The success of the Shaw record, though, is largely due to the excellent singer Peg LaCentra.

Teddy Wilson

Moving to 1939, we hear the evocative song "Some Other Spring," from the band of pianist Teddy Wilson and vocalist Jean Eldridge. Billie Holiday fans will likely be familiar with her Columbia recording of this song. Although Holiday made many great recordings with Wilson earlier in her career, she had moved on by this point. Eldridge was a sensitive singer, but didn't have a strong voice. Wilson's piano is excellent, as always.

Fletcher Henderson

The fashion for adapting classical airs for swing numbers was in full flower when Benny Goodman and band decided to adopt Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" for a 1939 record with a Fletcher Henderson chart. I can't imagine the composer approving this version, but he had been gone for almost a century at the time. More than 80 years later, we can enjoy both Mendelssohn's piano piece and the Goodman-Henderson swing interpretation.

Earl Robinson and Paul Robeson

A very different "Spring Song" comes to us from the great Paul Robeson and frequent collaborator Earl Robinson, working with Harry Schachter. Robeson and Robinson had their biggest success with "Ballad for Americans" in 1939. "Spring Song," an anti-war ballad, was issued in 1941 during the run-up to the American involvement in World War II. Robeson and Robinson were Communists, a group that wanted to keep the US from waging war on Germany, which had signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviets in 1939. "Spring Song" was released shortly before the German invasion of Russia.

Jerry Mazanec

From 1942, Jerry Mazanec and his Bohemian polka band regale us with "Spring Awakening." I believe Mazanec was from Cleveland, but his more traditional approach soon was supplanted on Columbia records by the propulsive Slovenian band of that city's Frankie Yankovic, who became nationally popular after the war.

Larry Green led a Boston society band in the Eddy Duchin mold. He offers "Spring Is Really Spring This Year" (as opposed to being autumn, I suppose). It's a nice song and the leader's florid Carmen Cavallaro-style piano playing occasionally gives way for a good Gil Phelan vocal. This one comes from 1946; I have a Green LP on Vik from about 10 years later, but it tells us nothing else about him.

Charlie Spivak

The trumpeter Charlie Spivak was at the helm of a swing band for many years and many recordings, among them "Spring Magic" from 1946. You will immediately recognize the melody for this one. Alexander Borodin invented it for one of his string quartets. Alec Wilder rudely appropriated it without attribution for this pleasant tune with vocal by Jimmy Saunders and the Stardreamers. Several years later, Wright and Forrest borrowed the same melody for "And This Is My Beloved" from Kismet.

Old friend Johnny Johnston peeks in with "I Bring You Spring" with the assistance of the Crew Chiefs and bandleader Sonny Burke. This is a good tune with a sonorous vocal that wasn't included in my 2019 compilation of Johnston's recordings. It comes from 1947.

Hal McIntyre

That same year, excellent Hal McIntyre band featuring the sorely underrated vocalist Frankie Lester produced an M-G-M single of "Spring in December" - another song that features in holiday compilations. Some of Hal's later recordings have appeared here.

Fans of Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes may be familiar with "It Happens Every Spring," which originated in the 1949 film of the same name. The tune is nothing special, but Mack Gordon's lyrics paint a charming American scene at mid-century. This interpretation is from the future talk-show host and media mogul Merv Griffin, working with Freddy Martin's band.

Bill Farrell

The talented but now-forgotten vocalist Bill Farrell sings "Spring Made a Fool of Me" with support from Russ Case. Farrell, supposedly discovered by Bob Hope, had been listening to two other Bills - Billy Eckstine and Billy Daniels - but his singing is nonetheless impressive. He recorded for a few labels circa 1950, then made a few albums for Dobre in the 1970s.

At the same time and also for M-G-M, Russ Case recorded instrumentals under his own name, including an inoffensive "Symphony of Spring," which is our next selection.

In December 1951, Mercury invited Paul & Roy the Tennessee River Boys (seems like there should be some punctuation in there) to Nashville's Tulane Hotel to set down their own "Spring of Love." Paul & Roy were in the Bill Monroe bluegrass mold, minus the banjo. Good stuff.

Early the following year, the popular Four Aces Featuring Al Alberts did "Spring Is a Wonderful Thing" for Decca. Al's vocal gyrations have never been a favorite of mine, and here he is at his most elaborately emotive.

Back to the country genre for the Maddox Brothers and Rose and their "The Time Is Spring." This comes from 1953 and a group that is always entertaining, here supplemented by guitarists Joe Maphis and Johnny Bond.

The Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen and the illustrious arranger Nelson Riddle turned their attentions to Matt Dennis' excellent ballad "Love Turns Winter to Spring" for a 1954 release on the Capitol label.

Next, an obscurity - the multi-talented Ken Moore, who not only sang and played the piano on "Spring May Come," but wrote the piece and released it on his own Lucky label in 1954. Billboard called it "listenable after-hours wax" and so it is.

Kitty Kallen came out of a big-band background for a successful solo career, with her biggest hit being "Little Things Mean a Lot" in 1954. "Come Spring" is from the next year, about the same time that Kallen began having the vocal problems that impeded her career for several years. I don't know if this is why Decca turned the vocal reverb up to 11 for this record; I do know that the sound would be better without the intrusion.

Jimmie Rodgers

Bobby Troup's touching song "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" is perhaps better known as the reworked Beach Boys tune "A Young Man Is Gone," yet another James Dean homage that is beautifully sung but pointless. The Boys' harmonies were modeled on those of the Four Freshmen in that group's recording of the original. Here we have the excellent folk-oriented pop singer Jimmie Rodgers backed by Hugo Peretti. His rendition was on the flip side of his big 1957 hit "Honeycomb."

Our final selection will be familiar - perhaps overly so - to any fan of the cabaret singer set. It is "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," a wonderful Tommy Wolf-Fran Landesman song that is done perfectly by jazz vocalist Mark Murphy. This is taken from the singer's 1962 LP Rah, which I have featured in its unexpurgated version. (See the post for an explanation.)

Except for the final number, these files have been remastered from lossless needle drops found on Internet Archive.

Hope your spring is going well; it snowed here today.

Ernie Felice at Capitol, 1947

Jazz accordionist Ernie Felice first came to public notice as a member of the Benny Goodman Quintet in 1947. Benny was just then embarking on a record deal with Capitol, and was able to get Felice a contract there as well.

Capitol was enthusiastic about the young instrumentalist. It not only recorded him with Benny and Felice's own group, it featured him with Martha Tilton, the Pied Pipers and vocalist Joe Alexander.

All this happened in the same year, finishing with a flourish in the last few days of December as the record companies rushed to finish as many sessions as possible before the Musicians Union instituted a recording ban to commence on New Year's Day 1948.

This post takes you through Felice's 1947 activities at Capitol, adding his sole V-Disc, which also was recorded that year. Most of these transfers come from the vast reaches of Internet Archive, but all have been suitably remastered and the sound is uniformly excellent.

If you haven't heard or heard of Felice, I can promise you that he is a virtuoso on his instrument, an imaginative soloist and a powerful swinger.

Felice's first session with Goodman was on March 7, resulting in a single of "Street of Dreams." This was soon followed by "How High the Moon," "Music Maestro Please" and the terrific "Bannister Slide." As you will note on the labels of these early recordings, the accordionist was then using the original spelling of his last name, "Filice." He changed it late in the year.

From Capitol News, April 1947

Felice's own quartet was in the studio at about the same time. It featured clarinetist Dick Anderson with a rotating bassist and drummer. "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Carolina Moon" were followed by a coupling of "O Solo Mio" and a wonderful reading of Zez Confrey's "Stumbling."

"Accompaniment Styled by Ernie Filice"

Felice backed up former Goodman vocalist Martha Tilton on two titles: "All of Me" and "Every So Often." The latter is a little known but very fine Johnny Mercer-Harry Warren song. Although I've collected vocal records for several decades, I've never paid much attention to Tilton. My mistake - she's very appealing here.

The Pied Pipers had struck out on their own after leaving Tommy Dorsey, and soon joined Capitol. Felice backed the quartet (who then comprised June Hutton, Hal Hopper, Chuck Lowry and Clark Yocum) on their coupling of "I Have But One Heart" and "The Lady from 29 Palms." For those not familiar with California locales, 29 Palms is an oddly named city near San Bernardino.

Joe Alexander

Capitol added Felice to Dave Cavanaugh's group for a single side with baritone Joe Alexander, who made about 20 sides with the label in 1946-47. Capitol billed the singer as its answer to Billy Eckstine, but to me he sounds more like Don Cornell, then with Sammy Kaye, or even (horrors!) Vaughan Monroe. Irving Berlin's "I Never Had a Chance" is a good song, though, and Alexander does it well.

The balance of the singles in this set were released in 1948, although recorded in late 1947. Along with instrumental takes on the standards "Street of Dreams" and "Love Me or Leave Me," there are two amusing vocal novelties. One is titled "Woo-Ca-Ma-Choo-Ga" on the label and "Woo-Ga-Ma-Choo-Ga" in the ad above, which is how Felice sings it. (He and Anderson helped write it, so they ought to know.) The other is "Oodles of Boodle and Batches of Cash." Both are very similar to the type of material in the Page Cavanaugh Trio's book at the time. Both groups were Los Angeles-based, and both ended up in Soundies and the like, and in supporting roles in the output of the Hollywood film factories.

From Capitol News, October 1947

On YouTube, you can see Felice's group backing the Pied Pipers in "Dream" and the wonderful June Christy in "Sposin'" and "Taking a Chance on Love." Felice also appeared in the Jane Froman biopic With a Song in My Heart backing Susan Hayward (dubbed by Froman) in "It's a Good Day."

The final item is a V-Disc version of Duke Ellington's "Solitude." I believe this is the master issued on Capitol 486 and later on the LP Cocktail Time, with the addition of a spoken introduction by Felice. "Solitude" would hardly be my first choice as a record to appeal to lonely soldiers, but it does have a slow and muted introduction that facilitated the overdub of Ernie's introductory message.

The Cocktail Time LP came out in 10-inch form in 1950, expanded to 12-inch in 1955. It includes some of the items in this collection, plus others. Capitol also released Felice's Accordion Powerhouse in 1952, another 10-incher. I have both LPs and can transfer them if there is interest.

Beside Capitol, Felice recorded for the short-lived F and P label that he started with Les Paul, for Liberty with a group called the Hi-Fi's and for RCA Victor, all in the 1950s. I may post a few of these items on my singles blog.

The download includes more Felice ephemera from this period, including a publicity photo of his group with what appears to be a dead mule - one of the strangest promotional pictures I have ever seen.

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Jeri Sullivan, Part 2: 'A Song Is Born' and the 1950s

In Part 1 of this two-part series, I looked into the early life and career of Jeri Sullivan, including her radio program, the controversy about "Rum and Coca-Cola" and her Signature records releases.

Part 2 examines her brief career as a movie dubber, then the rest of her career as I've been able to discover, including one of the records she made under the name Jenny Barrett.

First, let's go into some depth about her first dubbing assignment, the 1948 film A Song Is Born, because it is musically interesting even aside from her participation.

'A Song Is Born'

Sullivan had had a screen test, but never had appeared in films except for a 1942 short titled "You'll Have to Swing It," I assume for the song sometimes called "Mr. Paganini," a hit for Ella Fitzgerald in 1936. I haven't been able to locate a copy of this short.

Late in 1947, Sullivan became involved in a feature film for the first time - but not on the screen. She was engaged to dub the singing voice of Virginia Mayo, one of the leads in the Goldwyn musical, A Song Is Born.

A Song Is Born is a remake of the better-regarded Ball of Fire from 1941. Instead of Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck as leads, you get Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo. In the excerpts I viewed on YouTube (links below), Mayo is better than I remembered, but Kaye is at his most fidgety. The plot is insanely dumb, so I'll not try to explain it. Suffice to say that Benny Goodman, with plastered-down hair and a moustache, is cast as classical clarinetist Professor Magenbruch, who learns to loosen up from such swing savants as Louis Armstrong and Charlie Barnet.

I don't know if the movie's plot does more violence to classical music or pop, but it does manage to introduce several interesting musical interludes that involve Benny, Louis, Lionel Hampton, Mel Powell, Barnet and Page Cavanaugh - and Jeri Sullivan's singing voice.

In 1948, Capitol Records issued a three-record 78 set called Giants of Jazz containing songs from the film (included in the download). The title song ("A Song Is Born") is an edited version of what appears on the soundtrack, but the others were made in the Capitol studio a few months before the film was released in late 1948.

"A Song Is Born," written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul, is a good tune, although clearly inspired by "The Birth of the Blues," a 1926 DeSilva-Brown-Henderson song that was revived for the Crosby film of the same name in 1941.

You see Virginia Mayo; you hear Jeri Sullivan

The album version of "A Song Is Born" is double-sided, but even so was significantly shortened from what appears in the film. On screen, Kaye introduces the Golden Gate Quartet as presenting a "pure Negro spiritual" - which turns out to be a setting of the principal theme of the Largo from Dvořák's Ninth Symphony, which is almost certainly not based on a spiritual (although it was later reworked into the quasi-spiritual "Goin' Home" by one of the composer's pupils). This passage is eliminated from the two-sided 78 version, so when Tommy Dorsey reprises the "Goin' Home" music as his solo, it comes out of nowhere. The film sequence also features drummer Louie Bellson at his most Krupa-esque. And Jeri Sullivan makes her first vocal appearance; she's perfect as Mayo's double.

Charlie Barnet, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman
and Louis Armstrong

Harry Babasin, Mel Powell, Virginia Mayo and Lionel Hampton
stare in disbelief at Benny's moustache

The next song in the album is a Benny Goodman take on "Stealin' Apples," a song he first released in 1940. The film version of "Stealin' Apples" is in the swing idiom, using Lionel Hampton and Mel Powell as soloists in addition to Benny. By the time Capitol got around to making its recording a year later, Goodman had tentatively embraced the newest jazz fashion, and the version in the album has a bop arrangement, with soloists Wardell Gray and Fats Navarro (identified on the label as Theodore Navarro). Benny fits right in, although his licks are not different from what he might have played in a swing arrangement. This appears to be the only session where Benny employed the very bop-oriented Navarro. Gray was with Benny from May 1948 off and on until late 1949 or 1950.

"Muskrat Ramble" (not on YouTube) is a highly effective Dixieland workout, led by pianist Mel Powell. As early as 1939, Powell was working with Bobby Hackett, George Brunies, and Zutty Singleton, as well as writing arrangements for Earl Hines. He joined Goodman in 1941, then was assigned to Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band from 1943 to 1945. From 1948 to 1952 he studied at Yale University with classical composer Paul Hindemith, and subsequently became a well-known educator and composer himself, winning a Pulitzer Prize while continuing to play and occasionally record jazz. Powell's technique is rooted in the 1920s, but he has his own take on the older style. "Muskrat Ramble" includes lively contributions from the gusty Clyde Hurley and Lou McGarity.

Charlie Barnet appears with a tune called "Redskin Rhumba" (not on YouTube), which he had been using as his band's theme song. It is a Latin version of Ray Noble's "Cherokee," a hit for Barnet in 1939. Here the song is ascribed to Dale Bennett, which I believe is a Barnet pseudonym. Barnet's solo is characteristically noisy.

Now back to Jeri Sullivan. The big number for her (and Mayo) is a fun Don Raye-Gene de Paul song written for the film called "Daddy-O." Sullivan is backed by Page Cavanaugh and his trio in the film and on record, with Al Viola on guitar and Lloyd Pratt on bass. Cavanaugh recorded a different version for Victor backing vocalist Lillian Lane, which can be found on YouTube.

"Daddy-O" bears some resemblance to "Shoo Shoo Baby," a Phil Moore song that was a hit for the Andrews Sisters in 1943. Sullivan's manner is a bit reminiscent of Ella Mae Morse's vocal on her single of "Shoo Shoo Baby," although Jeri's approach is not as down-home as Ella Mae.

The download of the album has been considerably remastered from the version on Internet Archive. I do own the Sullivan record of "Daddy-O" (which was backed by the Barnet side), but was too indolent to transfer it when I had another rip in hand.

The 1950s and 'Jenny Barrett'

Sullivan did so well as a vocal double that you would think more opportunities would have come her way. But only one did - in 1950, she was engaged for the film Love That Brute, dubbing Jean Peters in "You Took Advantage of Me" - and doing it exceptionally well.

Meanwhile, her nightclub career was at a standstill. A Billboard article in 1950 noted that she had started making personal appearances again "after several years of inactivity." In 1952, she could be seen at the Gatineau Country Club in Ottawa (right).

As far as I can tell, her Capitol and Signature releases of 1948 had been her last. Then, in 1953, she made the curious decision to change her professional name to Jenny Barrett - making a fresh start, I suppose.

The newly named singer did snag a record contract with a fledgling firm - Vogue Records (not the picture-disc company nor the French jazz label). Vogue tried to make a splash but didn't last long. Its other artists included Geno Rockford and Fred Darian, so not a well-known roster.

Jeri/Jenny's contribution to the Vogue catalogue - as far as I can determine, her only issue - was a coupling of "He Loves Me" and "Do Me a Favor." I was able to locate a transfer of "He Loves Me" and have remastered it for the download. It's not a successful record, but is fascinating even so. The singer carries on an internal monologue with herself throughout the song, a year before Richard Adler and Jerry Ross were to employ a similar device for "Hey There" in The Pajama Game. But in "He Loves Me," it turns into an overdone and distracting gimmick.

"He Loves Me" was a Sullivan composition, one of several that I've discovered. She also worked with Bob Carroll (possibly the singer) on some songs, and other writers. Guy Lombardo recorded her "('Round the) Christmas Tree at Home" in 1951; it appears on his Jingle Bells LP.

Vogue apparently did not have enough money to stay in business, but it did give Jenny Barrett a fair amount of promotion. She appeared on the cover of the industry publication The Cash Box in July 1953, and was promoting Soundcraft recording tapes at about the same time, looking notably ill-at-ease in both situations. Her photo was also on the "He Loves Me" sheet music.

Post-Vogue, Jenny moved on to the Coral label for four sides that I don't have and that don't seem to be online.

I hate to end with an anti-climax, but I don't have any more information about Jenny Barrett. The only later Jeri/Jerri Sullivan/Sullavan entry that I could locate was in a publisher's Billboard ad from 1960, which has a Jerri Sullivan recording Steve Allen's "This Could Be the Start of Something" for Mark 56 records (right). Is she our Jeri Sullivan? It's hard to say.

Why couldn't Sullivan build on her early success? We can only speculate. One theme, though, is that she seems more relaxed when she is not "out front" - her movie dubbings are much more persuasive than her Soundies, for example. A theme that runs through the early reviews of her nightclub act is that she was not engaged with the audience - although if later reviews are to be believed, that did improve.

The most likely explanation, though, is simply chance. There isn't much that separates a talented singer whose career sputters from a star who achieves lasting fame.

I enjoyed doing this deep dive into the career of a relatively unknown singer. I want to thank two of my friends, musicologist Nick Morgan and author Andy Propst, for inspiring me and suggesting research tools. You were right, Nick - newspapers.com is addictive.

Coda to my last post: our great friend David Federman has concocted a "Rum and Coca-Cola" collection for all of us, with the toast, "Let's all drink to imperialism!" He includes the versions by Lord Invader and Wilmoth Houdini (and their follow-up records), plus the likes of Abe Lyman and Louis Prima, among others. See the comments to the last post for a very limited-time (five days) link.