Gordon Jenkins - The 1942 Capitol Recordings

By 1942, Gordon Jenkins was still only 32 years old, but had already enjoyed considerable success as a songwriter and arranger. He started contributing charts to the well-known Isham Jones orchestra when he was just 22, and began writing both music and lyrics for hit songs soon thereafter.

Jenkins had, however, made only a few records as a bandleader - I can only find four sides backing Martha Tilton on Decca in 1941. 

He finally came into his own as a recording artist with the founding of Capitol Records in April 1942. As one of the label's earliest signings, Jenkins led several sessions in June and July of that year, both under his own name and with his orchestra backing Capitol vocalists. This burst of activity was to be short lived - the first recording ban intervened, choking off most sessions from August 1942 to November 1944. Jenkins eventually ended up with Decca. He devoted his first date there, in December 1945, to one of his most famous creations, Manhattan Tower. Jenkins enjoyed great success with Decca, remaining there until 1955, when he joined "X" Records.

This post compiles 17 of the 22 Capitol records that Jenkins made in 1942. The five remaining titles can be found in my 2019 Johnnie Johnston compilation.

I am again indebted to collector extraordinaire and frequent collaborator Bryan Cooper for his help in assembling this program.

Time to Dance with Gordon Jenkins

Eight of Jenkins' 1942 sides can be found on the Capitol LP Time to Dance with Gordon Jenkins, which I posted back in 2009. I've now remastered this early 10-inch LP, which provides the first eight songs in this post.

Connie Haines

Although the album identifies all eight songs as Jenkins recordings, some were issued on 78 with him as assisting artist to a vocalist, with the rest under his name as bandleader.

For example, Don Raye and Gene de Paul's "I'll Remember April" was originally issued as a Martha Tilton record, with Jenkins and his orchestra as backing artists. Similarly, "At Last" and "Be Careful, It's My Heart" came out with Connie Haines as the main attraction. Johnnie Johnston was the primary credit on the 78 issue of "That Old Black Magic." 

All three of those songs derived from current films. Amazingly, the superb "I'll Remember April" is from Ride 'Em Cowboy with Abbott and Costello (eek!). Harry Warren's "At Last" comes from Glenn Miller's Sun Valley Serenade. Haines is good on "At Last," but you must hear the fabulous original soundtrack version sung by Pat Friday. Finally, Bing Crosby introduced "Be Careful, It's My Heart" in Holiday Inn.

As I mentioned above, Jenkins backed Johnnie Johnston on five other Capitol recordings - "Dearly Beloved," "Easy to Love," "Light a Candle in the Chapel," "Singing Sands of Alamosa" and "Can't You Hear Me Calling Caroline" - which can be found in my Johnston compilation.

Bob Carroll

The rest of the songs on the Capitol LP featured Jenkins in the leading role. Three are instrumentals: "Always," "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," and "Paradise," the latter of which does not seem to have been issued at all before appearing on the LP.

"Chasing Rainbows" has an uncharacteristic arrangement, starting off with a brass fanfare and quickly subsiding into a quasi-baroque chart with Jenkins (presumably) on the harpsichord. This must be one of the earliest appearances of the harpsichord on a popular record. I'm not sure if the arrangement is supposed to represent Chopin, who wrote the melody, but if so, Jenkins undershot the mark stylistically.

"There Will Never Be Another You" is another Harry Warren-Mack Gordon song, this one from Sonia Henie's skating spectacular Iceland. The recording has a vocal by the excellent Bob Carroll, a Charlie Barnet alumnus. (Some of Carroll's later records are collected here.)

The 1942 78s

With the help of Internet Archive and Bryan Cooper, I've assembled what we think are the balance of Jenkins' issued recordings from Capitol that date from 1942.

In tandem with "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," "He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings" made up Jenkins' first record as a leader and one of the first Capitol issues. Connie Haines was the sensitive vocalist on the latter song.

Next we have Ferde Grofé's "Daybreak" with a vocal by Bob Carroll, which was the flip side of "There Will Never Be Another You." Carroll returned for Holiday Inn's "White Christmas" and for "Heaven for Two," a fine Don Raye-Gene de Paul song written, improbably, for Hellzapoppin'.

Six Hits and a Miss

Jenkins also helmed four songs for the vocal group Six Hits and a Miss. "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," one of Cole Porter's better songs, was introduced in Something to Sing About by Don Ameche, who did sing, sort of. The septet also appeared on the wartime novelty "Would You Rather Be a Colonel with an Eagle on Your Shoulder or a Private with a Chicken on Your Knee," "Bye Bye Blackbird" and another Raye-de Paul song, "Two on a Bike."

None of the Six Hits and a Miss songs are characteristic of Jenkins' later work or even the charts elsewhere in this set. "You'd Be So Nice" starts off with a semi-Dixieland chorus, sliding into the smooth vocal. "Would You Rather Be a Private with an Eagle on Your Shoulder or a Chicken with a Banjo on Your Knee," sounds more like the fare that John Scott Trotter was producing for Crosby than the approach Jenkins adopted for his other Capitol arrangements. "Bye Bye Blackbird" also is atypical, although here the group name checks Jenkins and he responds with a typically spare piano solo. "Two on a Bike" even has a Tex Beneke-style whistling chorus.

Six Hits and a Miss were originally Three Hits and a Miss before inflation set in. The group was formed in 1937 with Martha Tilton as lead voice, but the talented Pauline Byrns took over the following year and was still in that slot when these records came out. The group was ubiquitous on the radio during the war years.

Martha Tilton

Along with Jenkins, Tilton was one of the first Capitol artists. Jenkins' final 1942 recording for Capitol was their collaboration on "Comin' Through the Rye," where Martha somehow makes Robert Burns sexy.

Most of the other arrangements are a cross between the dance-band charts Jenkins would have produced for Isham Jones or Shep Fields and the more lush string sound he would use for Sinatra and others in the 1950s and later.

As was the general practice back then, when the singer was primary on the label, he or she took the first chorus. When Jenkins was billed as the main artist, a band chorus came first. The vocalist would sing a chorus, dance-band style. Jenkins' single-finger piano solos can be heard on both the vocalist-led and bandleader sides.

The sound on most of these records is very good. The download includes brief Billboard reviews for most of these songs.

One final note: Jenkins apparently was not an exclusive Capitol artist - he also led the band for a June 1942 Dinah Shore session for Victor. I am preparing a post of the six resulting songs for my other blog. These include "He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings" and "Be Careful, It's My Heart," both of which he also recorded for Capitol at about the same time, but with much different arrangements.

Despite what the Billboard ad above implies, Jenkins
apparently did not back Tilton on Moondreams

Let's Go Cat Dancing with Harry Geller

This Harry Geller LP is titled, For Cat Dancers Only, which begs the question, "What is cat dancing?"

Well, actually, I'm not sure. I was around when this record came out (1954), but I have no recollection of anyone using the term. (Then again, I was five at the time.)

The cover seems to want to align "cat dancer" with "cat burglar" by putting masks on the gyrating couple. Nor are the liner notes terribly informative. They tell us that the music will make you want to dance and the whole experience will turn you into "the coolest of cats." Apparently this makes you a "cat dancer."

Harry Geller's
disembodied head

The 10-inch album contains eight numbers, all from Geller's pen (he even takes credit for "Stagger Lee") and presumably in his arrangements. This riff-based music is actually highly appealing, being a particularly well played example of the big-band R&B that goes back at least as far as the Lionel Hampton band and its 1942 recording of "Flying Home." Closer to the date of Geller's recording, it is somewhat like the records of Freddie Mitchell and Todd Rhodes, who have appeared here in years past. The Geller band does have a more aggressive rhythm section, which is somewhat akin to the rock 'n' roll to come.

For Cat Dancers Only includes two accomplished vocals by a gravelly voiced singer who is unidentified, as are the fine instrumental soloists.

In 1954, Geller (1913-2008) had already been a big-band trumpet player (Goodman, Tommy Dorsey), an arranger for bands and many vocalists, including Frankie Laine, and an A&R executive for Mercury and RCA Victor. He later worked extensively in television as a composer and conductor.

For Cat Dancers Only isn't seen that often in the record racks, but its successor, New York, New York, is fairly common. UPDATE: fellow blogger Ernie has contributed his transfer of the New York, New York LP - link in the comments.

You also may come across The Eddy Duchin Story LP, which he conducted, and Play, Gypsy, Play, which came to us from the "Fiery Mandolins of Harry Geller."

Patti Clayton and Bob Carroll

As a bonus, I've added a Geller single to the download. It dates from 1950, during his time at Mercury. One side is "Golden Sails on a Sea of Blue" with a smooth vocal by Bob Carroll. There is more information about Carroll on my other blog, where he was featured several years ago.

The other side of the single contains a peculiar quasi-folk song called "The Monkey Coachman," with vocal by the excellent Patti Clayton, who was doing radio work at the time. The songwriter was Michael Brown, whose best known work involved Lizzie Borden taking an ax and giving her mother forty whacks.

I was inveigled into transferring this record by reader and contributor Eric, who requested it some time ago, perhaps in an effort to learn cat dancing. I am happy to oblige, belatedly.