Buddy Clark: 1936-41 Transcriptions

Continuing an exploration of vocalist Buddy Clark's early recordings, in this set we turn to transcriptions dating from about 1936-1941. These come from two sources: transcriptions from the radio program Your Hit Parade, which sponsor Lucky Strike pressed for promotional purposes of some type, and a set of Associated Transcriptions made for radio station use. The sound is good, as are the performances. There are 19 selections in all.

Lucky Strike Transcriptions

Your Hit Parade began its long tenure on radio and television in 1935, with Lucky Strike cigarettes as sponsor. Clark was one of the first vocalists to be featured, appearing from 1936-38. The sponsor pressed some of the recordings, and it is a selection of those that appear here. Mark Warnow is the conductor, except as noted.

Harry Warren and Al Dubin wrote "September in the Rain" for James Melton to sing in the 1937 film Melody for Two. 

Mark Warnow

"Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" has a curious history. Lyricist Jacob Jacobs and composer Sholom Secunda wrote it as "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" ("To Me You're Beautiful") by  for a 1932 Yiddish language musical, I Would If I Could. There are a variety of stories about how lyricists Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin came upon the song, but their version of it became a giant hit for the Andrews Sisters in 1937. Richard Himber conducts Buddy's performance.

Richard Himber

Allie Wrubel and Herb Magidson wrote "Goodnight Angel," a very pleasing but now forgotten song. Hal Kemp recorded it with Bob Allen on vocals.

Al Goodman

As was noted here recently, the Gershwin brothers wrote "Love Walked In" for Kenny Baker to sing in the film Goldwyn Follies. Al Goodman conducts Clark's performance.

Associated Transcriptions

Associated was a major supplier of transcriptions to radio stations, but the first two songs actually come from a disc the company produced for Muzak. This was in the early years of the service, when it was employing recognizable artists for its product.

The two Muzak songs are likely from 1936. Both were written by Mach Gordon and Harry Revel. "A Star Fell out of Heaven" was recorded by any number of bands that year. "When I'm with You" comes from the Shirley Temple epic Poor Little Rich Girl, where Shirley, Tony Martin and Alice Faye all had a crack at it. Mark Warnow conducts for Buddy.

In about 1938, Associated produced a recording of the famous tango "Caminito" with Clark singing in English and a singer only identified as Chico in Spanish. Lon Gladstone is listed as the conductor, but that was a baton name for Lud Gluskin.

Lud Gluskin

"Will Love Find a Way" is from the 1934 Stags at Bay show at Princeton University. The author was the short-lived Brooks Bowman, who also wrote the far better known "East of the Sun" for that production. Gladstone/Gluskin again is the bandleader. Buddy is uncredited on the label.

Shortly after the Hammond company introduced the first commercial synthesizer, the Novachord, Associated employed it for some of its transcriptions. It may have been a technical marvel, but it still sounds to me like an anemic organ.

Buddy's first encounter with this scourge was "Let There Be Love" with music by Lionel Rand and lyrics by Ian Grant, published in 1940, a tune still beloved of cabaret artists. (Bobby Short's version can be heard here.)

"From Another World" is from Rodgers and Hart's 1940 show Higher and Higher. Shirley Ross was among the vocalists who introduced the song - her big solo number was the far better-known "It Never Entered My Mind." Shirley's commercial recordings of songs from the show can be found here.

For the next several songs, Clark gets what Associated called a "Novelty Orchestral Accompaniment," but they can't fool me. It's the Novachord again, at times with an organ and a clarinet.

"Trade Winds" was a product of Charles Tobias and Cliff Friend. Crosby and Sinatra both had a go at it in 1940.

For "There's a Great Day Coming Mañana" Buddy unexpectedly breaks into an Al Jolson imitation halfway through the number. He had a reason - Burton Lane and Yip Harburg wrote the piece for Jolie to sing in the musical Hold Onto Your Hats, which ran on Broadway for five months in 1940-41.

I think "When the Lilacs Bloom Again" is a version of "Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht," written by Fritz Rotter and Franz Doelle in the 1920s.

Next we have two famed songs from Rodgers and Hart's musical Pal Joey of 1940 - "Bewitched" and "I Could Write a Book."

"Because of You" was written by Arthur Hammerstein and Dudley Wilkinson in 1940. It did well for Tommy Tucker and Larry Clinton at the time, but the big hit wasn't to come until Tony Bennett revived it in 1951.

Jack Tenney and Helen Stone wrote "Mexicali Rose" in 1923, but it wasn't on the charts until Bing Crosby recorded it in 1938.

Nat Brandwynne

Buddy wasn't liberated from the "Novelty Orchestra Accompaniment" until the final two songs in this set, which have a backing by Nat Brandwynne, who had accompanied the singer from quite a few Brunswick recordings a few years earlier. Nat was favoring a soupy Guy Lombardo sound at the time.

Buddy and Nat combined for two songs from Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin's musical Lady in the Dark - "My Ship" and "This Is New." Buddy doesn't suggest the neuroses of Liza Elliott, but this is worth hearing if you don't mind the ultra-30s backing.

LINK

From the Back Room: More Buddy Clark in the 30s

I've been working my way through all of Buddy Clark's commercial recordings in the 1930s, finishing up with this selection of 21 songs for my "From the Back Room" series.

This set includes five songs with Xavier Cugat, four with Eddy Duchin, four more with a Johnny Hodges group chosen from the Ellington band, and eight with Buddy as the featured attraction on the label. The recordings date from 1934-38.

Solo Recordings I

We begin with a group of solo recordings by Clark. The first items go back to 1934, at the beginning of his recording career. (There are a few earlier recordings from Gus Arnheim with a vocal by "Buddy Clark" but the aural evidence is that this is not the same singer.)

Clark was a skillful and pleasing singer right from the start, although he took a little time to find his own style.

The first song is the Leo Robin-Ralph Rainger standard "June in January," written for Crosby to intone in Here is My Heart. Buddy is suitably Bing-like in his singing, probably an advantage in this release on the budget Banner label.

"June in January" was backed by another standard from the same film and authors, "With Every Breath I Take." On all these solo numbers, the accompaniment is unidentified.

We jump ahead to 1936 for the next release on Banner. One side has "The Touch of Your Lips" from the great songwriter-bandleader Ray Noble, who recorded it with his American band and the superb vocalist Al Bowlly. (Their version can be heard here.) 

The flip side is another fine piece called "Lost," by Macy O. Teetor, Johnny Mercer and Phil Ohman. It was a popular item with the bands back then. On these, Clark is very much his own singer.

With Xavier Cugat

It would hardly be accurate to label Clark a specialist in Latin music, but he does fit in nicely with Xavier Cugat's Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra in some unusual repertoire. These Victor sessions were in 1937.

Xavier Cugat before he had hair

"A Love Song of Long Ago" is the first selection. The label tells us that Sigmund Romberg wrote it for the film They Gave Him a Gun, a crime saga that seems pretty far afield from such Romberg fare as The Student Prince. But it's a waltz and the sort of thing that Cugie and Clark generally did well, although the tempo here is more lugubrious than might be ideal. Gus Kahn wrote the words.

"I Hum a Waltz" also came from a crime film - This Is My Affair. This number too is less lively than it might have been. Hollywood vets Mack Gordon and Harry Revel were the songwriters.

The bandleader kept the waltzes a-comin' with Agnes Sarli's "Hold Me Tight." Buddy does a professional job, but doesn't seem convinced of the material's merit.

Possibly at the same session, Buddy cut two other songs with Cugat. These were released on the NBC Thesaurus label, a transcription series for radio use. Victor produced the masters for the series.

I don't know a thing about the first song - "Where Did the Night Go?" Buddy didn't seem to know much about it, either - he sounds like he is sight-reading.

The other song is better, and better-known. "You Showed Me the Way" was composed by Ella Fitzgerald, Bubby Green, Teddy McRae and Chick Webb, and recorded by Ella with Chick's band. Billie Holiday and Teddy Wilson also had a go at it.

With Eddy Duchin

Eddy Duchin

Buddy proved that he was not partisan by recording with one of Cugat's rivals among the swank New York bandleaders - Eddy Duchin - and during the same year as well. Eddy was at the Persian Room of the Plaza Hotel at the time. Both baton-wielders recorded for Victor.

Eddy gets us started with a fox trot - "Ten O'Clock Town," from a musical with the unpromising name Sea Legs. It's a good song, and Buddy seemed to like it a great deal. Too bad the show closed after 11 performances. The song was by Michael Cleary and Arthur Swanstrom.

The B-side of that song was "A Star Is Born," from the film of the same name - the original version with Janet Gaynor and Fredric Marsh. The music is by the famed Max Steiner, with lyrics by Dorothy Dick. Clark is earnest but he realizes that this isn't the best song he's ever tootled. Eddy is clangorous, as he tended to be.

I enjoy Edgar Leslie and Joe Burke's "The Camera Doesn't Lie (Neither Do I)," and Clark and Duchin seemed to have fun as well. Billy Rose had this one written for the Aquacade show he mounted at the 1937 Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland.

"Heaven Help This Heart of Mine" is another nice piece of songwriting. It's by Hugh Williams and Jimmy Kennedy. The original recording was by the American-born British bandleader Roy Fox. Here we have a very skillful vocal from Clark.

With Johnny Hodges

Johnny Hodges

Clark was in decidedly more relaxed company when he met up with a Johnny Hodges group for another 1937 date. Hodges was of course the longtime Duke Ellington alto saxophonist, who occasionally had his own date, usually in company with some of his Ellington bandmates. Here, everyone on the date was in Duke's ensemble except for the vocalist. There are three songs, with an alternate take added for one number.

You will hear Cootie Williams on trumpet, Barney Bigard on clarinet and Harry Carney on baritone sax. The playing is masterful, and Clark's singing is at the same high level.

The songs are all excellent. "Foolin' Myself" is by Jack Lawrence and Peter Tinturin. Al Bryan and Joe Santly wrote "You'll Never Go to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)."

There are two takes of "A Sailboat in the Moonlight," by Carmen Lombardo and John Jacob Loeb. (The alternate is from a bootleg.) Make sure you have heard the brilliant version of "Sailboat" from Billie Holiday, Lester Young et al.

Solo Recordings II

Buddy recorded two songs from Rodgers and Hart's 1938 show I Married an Angel - the title song and the instant standard "Spring Is Here." I featured Clark's renditions a while ago, in a post devoted to the contemporary recordings from the show, but have included them here as well.

The final recordings, also for Vocalion, are more esoteric. "Let Me Whisper" started life as "Murmullo" by Dick Gasparre and Manuel Del Rio (the original label credits Electo Rosell), as recorded by the Trio Garcia of Mexico. Buddy makes it into a nice tango ballad, with English words from Edward Heyman.

"Beside a Moonlit Stream" came from Booloo, a jungle adventure film. The songwriters were Sam Coslow and a Hollander who may be the German composer Frederick Hollander. IMDb doesn't tell us if the number was actually used in the movie. Regardless, it doesn't really come off in this recording.

More Clark in the 1930s

There have been four previous posts devoted to Buddy's commercial recordings of the 1930s:

• A set with Lud Gluskin's orchestra

• With the bands of Dick McDonough and Nat Brandwynne

• With ensembles led by Freddy Martin, Archie Bleyer, Ruby Newman and Wayne King (plus duets with Hildegarde)

• More with with Archie Bleyer and Ruby Newman, along with the bands of Benny Goodman, Joe Moss, Bob Causer and Joe Reichman

Once again, thanks to discographer Nigel Burlinson, whose work was invaluable in assembling these posts.

Let me mention that I am also planning to feature transcriptions from the same period, as mentioned in the initial post about this series.

LINK

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

Cole Porter's 'Let's Face It!' - The Early Recordings

That's the young Danny Kaye riding in a Jeep on the Let's Face It! program cover above. He was the motive force behind Cole Porter's 1941 hit show following his breakout performance in Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark, which had its opening early that same year. Just nine months later Kaye's name appeared above the title on the Imperial Theater marquee for Let's Face It!

The exclamation point in the title was apparently optional

The book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields was basically a sitcom - three suspicious wives decide to bribe some soldiers at a nearby base to take up with them in a jealousy ploy. The soldiers' girlfriends find out. Complications (and Kaye specialties) ensue.

The cast was a starry one, at least in retrospect. The three wives were Eve Arden, Vivian Vance and Edith Meiser, two of whom became famous. (So did Arden's understudy, Carol Channing.) The soldiers' sweethearts were Nanette Fabray, Sunny O'Dea and Mary Jane Walsh, one of whom became famous (Fabray), and one of whom recorded several songs from the show (Walsh).

Edith Meiser, Vivian Vance and Eve Arden show Danny Kaye the big bucks 

As usual with the musicals of the time, there was no original cast album; however, Kaye did record three of its songs for Columbia, and Walsh did four for the Liberty Music Shop label. As far as I can tell, those four were exactly half of Walsh's total recorded output. Earlier, Columbia had engaged her for four songs from her other notable Broadway appearance, in Rodgers and Hart's Too Many Girls. That 1939 show is coming up in this series.

As was the practice back then, an original cast member's presence didn't mean they recorded the numbers they sang on stage. So for the first item in this collection, "Farming," we have recorded versions by Kaye, who did perform it on stage, and Walsh, who did not. The song was a sendup of the then-current fashion of the elite taking up the rural life, a topic that also inspired movies, an S.J. Perelman book, and latterly television's Green Acres.

Next in running order (at least here; this post covers only a minority of the show's score) is possibly the best known song in the show, "Ev'rything I Love." As the title might suggest, it's a tender song, and a good one. It was certainly the most popular with the record companies: Victor alone had four recordings of it - by Glenn Miller, Sammy Kaye, Dinah Shore and Tito Guizar. It has quite a lovely melody, and Liberty Music Shop broke the budget to bring in a chorus to support Walsh in her fine recording. In the show, Kaye and Walsh sang it in duet.

Mary Jane Walsh

Leading the orchestra in Walsh's recordings was Max Meth, who also conducted the theater performances. I don't know whether the stage orchestrations are used here, but I doubt it. In any case, the show's orchestrators were Hans Spialek, Don Walker and Ted Royal, a formidable trio.

I've added a second recording of "Ev'rything I Love" to the playlist because it includes the verse, which I hadn't heard before, and because the disc is by Buddy Clark, who makes frequent appearances around here.

Cole Porter

A contrast with the previous number is "Ace in the Hole," one of Porter's best and a song long beloved by cabaret performers. On stage, Mary Jane Walsh was joined by the other two girlfriends of the soldiers, but she does a solo on record. Her flinty performance of this cynical anthem is a great contrast to the romantic "Ev'rything I Love," as are Porter's clever lyrics:

     Maybe, as often it goes

     Your Abie may tire of his rose.

     So baby, this rule I propose:

     Always have an ace in the hole!

The next song, "You Irritate Me So," is the antithesis of Porter's famous "You're the Top." I've assigned it to the appropriately acerbic Nancy Walker, who recorded it in 1959. On the stage it was a duet between Nanette Fabray and Jack Williams. I imagine the song worked better with two singers flinging Porter's lyrics at one another, but Walker is pretty good, if you can handle Sid Bass' Space Age pop arrangement. When Let's Face It! opened, Walker was appearing a few blocks uptown in Best Foot Forward, her first Broadway role.

Kaye and Arden up the creek with a paddle

In the show, Danny Kaye and Eve Arden sang "Let's Not Talk About Love," but only Danny appears on the Columbia record. (Kaye and Arden had a long affair, according to Kaye biographer David Koenig, but I'm not sure when that transpired.) The song is a specialty both for Porter's clever, topical lyrics, and for Kaye, who indulges his trick of singing complex words as fast as possible. The song was an attempt to replicate his show-stopper "Tchaikowsky" in Lady in the Dark. It works fairly well.

At the time, r(h)umbas set the fashion in dance rhythms, so Porter produced one of his own - "A Little Rumba Numba." Marguerite Benton, who appeared in several Broadway musicals of the time, was the primary vocalist on stage, but did not record the piece. So I've included the contemporary disc by cabaret's Hildegarde, who handles this attractive and unfamiliar song very well. Harry Sosnik's band makes a brave attempt at the rhumba rhythms.

The final Mary Jane Walsh song is "I Hate You, Darling," which presents a typical Porter conceit - "I hate you, darling, and yet I love you so." In the show, she was joined by Kaye, Vivian Vance and James Todd, but she is solo here.

"Melody in 4F" still from Up in Arms

Perhaps surprisingly, the show included two Kaye specialty songs not written by Cole Porter. "A Fairy Tale" and "Melody in 4F" were contributed by Danny's wife Sylvia Fine working with Max Liebman. 

"Melody in 4F" is largely an auctioneer's rapid-fire spiel punctuated by words sketching the travails of the draftee - "Oh the mailman!", "Hiya, doc!" and so on, ending in "1A!" (that is, draft eligible). Much of the effect depended on Kaye's verbal acrobatics and his visual punctuations, so you may want to watch the version he did for the 1944 film Up in Arms (available here). The download includes what was probably a radio aircheck that seems to have been captured shortly after Kaye left the show, to be replaced by José Ferrer, a much different personality to be sure. Danny took Sylvia's songs with him when he decamped. The show closed a month later.

The Pierre Hotel

To complete the set, we have two instrumental medleys from William Scotty and His Cotillion Room Orchestra. The Cotillion Room is presumably the swank venue in the Pierre Hotel on Central Park East. I haven't been able to find any information on Scotty. The actual Cotillion Room bandleader at that time was probably the well-known Emil Coleman. I don't think the name on the label was a pseudonym for Coleman; as far as I can tell, that maestro did not have a recording contract at the time. It may have been the pianist or another member of the ensemble. 

The recorded selections are "Ev'rything I Love," "You Irritate Me So," "I Hate You, Darling," "Ace in the Hole" and "Farming." The polished performances are in the overripe society-band style that the Liberty Music Shop favored. (This is the musical mode that was parodied by the Glenn Miller band in "You Say the Sweetest Things, Baby," recently featured here in the Orchestra Wives recordings.)

Let's Face It! was made into a film in 1943, sans the exclamation point and most of Porter's songs. Danny Kaye became Bob Hope and Mary Jane Walsh turned into Betty Hutton, but Eve Arden remained Eve Arden. From the songs above, only "Farming" and "Let's Not Talk About Love" were retained, along with "Milk, Milk, Milk" and the title song. I don't believe that Hope or Hutton recorded anything from the score; the recording ban was still in effect for most of the year - all of it for a few of the big labels. 

Some of these same recordings were reissued by the Smithsonian in 1979, but the transfers in my set are not from that LP. The Mary Jane Walsh numbers come from my collection and most of the rest from Internet Archive. The sound from the 78s is generally quite good. 

The Smithsonian LP included detailed notes on the Let's Face It! production by Richard C. Norton, which I've included in the download. The package also includes a substantially complete souvenir program, which dates from relatively late in the show's run, after Carol Goodner had replaced Eve Arden. Finally, there are three articles from the New York Times - a story on the opening, Brooks Atkinson's rave review, and a follow-up on the production's history. The latter reads as if it was ghost-written by producer Vinton Freedley's publicist.

Let's Face It! may not be one of Porter's best known scores, but the songs are splendid - characteristic of the composer, varied and worth remembering. The performances by the leads are all you could desire.

This post is the result of a request by old friend David Federman, who wanted to hear some records by Mary Jane Walsh. More to come, David.

Kaye toasts the ensemble

Buddy Clark with Dick McDonough and Nat Brandwynne

It's been a while since I explored the recorded legacy of Buddy Clark (1912-49), the great pop singer of the 1930s and 40s. He died at the height of his career, and at least some of his later records are well known. But his earlier efforts, while he was a radio crooner and band singer for hire on many pop records, are less often heard.

Today's post covers 23 songs split between the contrasting bands of Dick McDonough and Nat Brandwynne - 10 with McDonough's jazz outfit and 13 with Brandwynne's orchestra from New York's swanky Stork Club. Twenty-one of these were made in 1936; the two remaining come from the following year. These comprise Buddy's complete recordings with the two bandleaders.

All songs show Clark's usual mix of good voice, diction, intonation and cheer. He's invariably a pleasure to hear.

With Dick McDonough

Dick McDonough

Dick McDonough was a short-lived (1904-38) jazz guitarist and bandleader, perhaps best known for his duets with fellow guitarist Carl Kress.

McDonough recorded fairly prolifically for the ARC labels (Perfect et al) in 1936 and 1937. These dates always included some of the finest jazz musicians of the day, even though most of the sessions were devoted to the latest pop compositions.

Bunny Berigan

All the numbers with Clark feature the lead trumpet of Bunny Berigan, who had recently left Benny Goodman's band and was recording both under his own name and as a session musician. The first four songs also include clarinetist Artie Shaw, who had become a recording bandleader himself just a few weeks before McDonough's June 23, 1936 session, and pianist Claude Thornhill, who himself would start making records as a leader in 1937.

Clark is not identified on the label of any of these 10 sides; I am again indebted to the discography of Nigel Burlinson for helping me to identify his appearances.

The first song in the June set was "Summer Holiday," with music by Johnny Marks ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer") and lyrics by Gene Conley (known for his work on "A Cottage for Sale," recently heard in a Willard Robison compilation). This charming song was recorded by many artists of the day.

Next came another current tune, "I'm Grateful to You," by the prolific songwriters J. Fred Coots (another Christmas maven - "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town") and Benny Davis.

McDonough reached back to 1921 for his next offering, the jazz standard "Dear Old Southland." Turner Layton was the composer - leaning heavily on the melody of "Deep River" - with lyrics by Henry Creamer.

From 1922 and the same writing and recording team came "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," which had been touted as "a Southern song, without a mammy, a mule or a moon." This number has a intricate McDonough solo, also a tenor saxophone break, probably by Larry Binyon, and a short clarinet contribution, likely from Artie Shaw. For this side particularly, Buddy adopted a New Orleans accent reminiscent of Connie Boswell. Not terribly convincing, but then he was born in Boston.

Adrian Rollini

Moving on to an August 4 date, the first number was "It Ain't Right" by Bob Rothberg and Joseph Meyer, a song associated with jazz violinist Stuff Smith. The McDonough version has a robust bass sax solo from Adrian Rollini.

McDonough then recorded a relatively new song (from 1931) but already on its way to becoming a standard - "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" from Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, first done by Cab Calloway. McDonough again solos on this one.

For his August 5 session, McDonough began with "When the Moon Hangs High (and the Prairie Skies Hang Low)" from bandleader Ted Fio Rito, whose best known song is "I'll String Along with You." Buddy promises his beloved that "down that old, old trail we'll go" and "we can harmonize with the songs of the West."

"Midnight Blue" was much more suited to McDonough's style, particularly to forthright trumpeter Bunny Berigan. The song was advertised as "the hit song of the New Ziegfeld Follies of 1936." The 1936 Follies had a score by Vernon Duke and Ira Gershwin, and starred Fanny Brice. The show went on hiatus during the summer and when it returned had additional numbers by other hands, including Joe Burke and Edgar Leslie's "Midnight Blue," which was introduced by James Farrell and Jane Pickens.

It's interesting to note the amazing talents employed by the 1936 Follies. The show was choreographed by Robert Alton with ballets directed by George Balanchine. Scenic design and costumes were by Vincente Minnelli, with additional costumes by Raoul Pène Du Bois. The orchestrations were by Robert Russell Bennett, Conrad Salinger, Hans Spialek and Don Walker. The cast included Brice, Bob Hope, Eve Arden, Josephine Baker, Judy Canova, Gertrude Niesen and the Nicholas Brothers.

We move from the prairies and the Follies to the Pacific for "South Sea Island Magic" by Lysle Tomerlin and Andy Iona Long, best known for leading the the Hawaiian group Andy Iona and His Islanders. This piece was also recorded by Bing, who would do a Hawaiian-themed movie, Waikiki Wedding, the next year. (Songs from that film are here.)

To close out the McDonough set, we have the first of three songs from pianist-songwriter-personality Oscar Levant. "Afterglow" is one of his better efforts, done in collaboration with Al Stillman and Buck Ram. Buddy's reading is straightforward, but he does well by this worthy tune.

With Nat Brandwynne

Nat Brandwynne was a very young (25) bandleader when he made these recordings with Clark, although he had notable experience with Leo Reisman's orchestra, as part of a duo-piano team with Eddy Duchin that started a fashion for such setups. Brandwynne went on to several decades of success, primarily in Las Vegas, where he was making albums as late as the 1970s backing Diana Ross.

Nat Brandwynne

Clark's first four songs in this set date from April 1936. "It's You I'm Talkin About" is a peppy number from Florida Special, a B comedy with Jack Oakie taking a train trip. The tune comes from the noted Hollywood writers Mack Gordon and Harry Revel.

For his next number Buddy tells us "There's Always a Happy Ending" in every talking picture he sees. It's a likeable Siglar-Goodheart-Hoffman number also recorded by Rudy Vallee and by Chick Bullock with Jack Shilkret.

"Lazy Weather" is one of the many paeans to indolence of the time, perhaps designed to comfort the unemployed. This one was a product of Irving Kahal and Oscar Levant. Buddy's competition in the market was the young Perry Como in his first recording session with Ted Weems' band.

I wouldn't call "The Glory of Love" a standard, but it has been a hit more than once, first in Benny Goodman's recording with a Helen Ward vocal. The writer was Billy Hill, who otherwise specialized in buckaroo numbers like "The Last Round-Up," "Wagon Wheels" and "Empty Saddles."

Moving on to a May session, Clark and Brandwynne were the first to record "Take My Heart," a good song from Fred Ahlert and Joe Young. The bandleader's moaning saxophones are to the fore on this one, along with his ringing piano and Buddy's heartfelt singing.

"Long Ago and Far Away" is a Leo Robin-Ralph Rainger number from 1936's Three Cheers for Love. It predates the better known "Long Ago (and Far Away)" by Kern and Gershwin, which came from the 1944 film Cover Girl. Also from the 1936 film is "Where Is My Heart," not to be confused with "Where Is Your Heart," the song from 1952's Moulin Rouge and one of the big hits of that year. The Robin-Rainger tunes didn't do as well as their later namesakes, but are enjoyable to hear even so.

A July 1936 set of four songs begins with "Until Today," the final Oscar Levant song of this post, written with J. Fred Coots and Benny Davis. It was a new composition, recorded at the same time by Vincent Lopez, Ted Weems-Perry Como and others, I'm sure.

"Without a Shadow of a Doubt" is one of the best songs in the collection, even though I haven't been able to uncover much about its provenance. The writers are George Whiting, Nat Schwartz (aka Nat Burton) and J. C. Johnson.

Another fine song is "If We Never Meet Again," which Louis Armstrong wrote with Horace Gerlach, and recorded himself in 1936. Armstrong got the royalties, but Dick Stabile ended up with his photo on the sheet music.

Walter Hirsch and Lou Handman wrote "Bye Bye Baby" (not the Gentlemen Prefer Blondes song - or the Four Seasons epic for that matter). It's a bouncy piece that Clark handles well - although you should hear what Fats Waller and a kazoo make of it.

The 1936 sessions with Brandwynne were Brunswick productions, but the team moved on to Perfect for the final two songs in this collection, dating from March 1937. Unlike the Brunswick sides, Clark is unidentified on the labels for this coupling. "To a Sweet Pretty Thing" was a product of Fred Ahlert and Joe Young - not one of their best known songs, but a nice way to spend a few minutes.

The last item is "I Dream of San Marino," an idyll of lost love in an exotic location - one of seemingly dozens of such songs covering everyplace but Newark - this one neither better nor worse the mean.

These records were all remastered in ambient stereo from Internet Archive originals. The sound is good for the time, clearly displaying the contrasting styles of the bandleaders and Buddy's stylish vocals. 

'I Married an Angel' - The Early Recordings

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart formed a wildly productive partnership - from 1925 to 1940, they opened a show on Broadway in every year except 1934, and usually more than one. One fertile period was 1936-38, when their productions were On Your Toes, Babes in Arms, I'd Rather Be Right, The Boys from Syracuse and I Married an Angel.

Not long ago, I explored the early recordings from Babes in Arms. The subject of today's post is a lesser hit, but still a popular show: I Married an Angel, which ran from May 11, 1938 to February 25, 1939. Its score is not as bountiful as Babes in Arms, but it has its moments, and there were interesting recordings from the time, which I've gathered for this post.

Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers

The contrived but amusing plot is from a play by the Hungarian writer János Vaszary. It involves the complications that ensue when banker Count Willy Palaffi (Dennis King) marries an angel (Vera Zorina), whose unvarnished honesty becomes a business and social problem for him.

The production involved some of the finest talents of the 20th century theatre - director Joshua Logan, choreographer George Balanchine (Zorina's husband at the time) and scenic designer Jo Mielziner, with Rodgers and Hart writing the book as well as the music.

One reason why the score is less impressive than Babes in Arms among other Rodgers and Hart shows is that the pivotal character, played by Zorina, was a dancer, not a singer. Even so, most of the 10 original songs in the score merited a recording, and a few can still be heard today.

Vera Zorina and ensemble

Let's examine the score, in running order.

Wynn Murray

The first song is Count Palaffi's "Did You Ever Get Stung?" which is nor heard today outside of a few cabarets. No member of the cast recorded it, but Rodgers and Hart veteran Wynn Murray did do so. (She had appeared in both Babes in Arms and The Boys from Syracuse.) Her accompaniment is by the Walter-Bowers Orchestra - cabaret legend Cy Walter and duo-piano partner Gil Bowers. Murray and the band are lyrical at first, then "get hot," in the musical fashion of the time.

Palaffi's "I Married an Angel" was not recorded by a Broadway cast member either, but it did merit a disc from Nelson Eddy, who played the Count in the 1942 film version. That production kept the main songs from the stage score, but added much more music, primarily by operetta veteran Herbert Stothart. He was well suited to providing songs for Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, in their last film together.

Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald

For this number, Eddy's singing was tuneful, but not especially colorful or flexible. For contrast, I've added a contemporary recording by the more relaxed Buddy Clark. Unlike the latter, Eddy includes the verse - a plus for his version. I believe this song still gets an occasional performance today - I was familiar with it, anyway.

Eddy returns for "I'll Tell the Man in the Street," a beautiful song with a tricky melody that he tosses off effortlessly. He again scores points by performing the verse, which adds greatly to the song. 

I could not resist adding a much different interpretation to the end of the playlist, even though it is from 25 years after the musical's run on Broadway. This is the remarkable version of "I'll Tell the Man in the Street" from Barbra Streisand's debut LP. (No verse, though!)

Audrey Christie and Charles Walters

We now come to the only member of the original cast to merit a recording (actually, two). The fortunate artist is Audrey Christie, then a singer and dancer, later a film actor. Her first number is "How to Win Friends and Influence People," a title pinched from the 1936 best seller by Dale Carnegie. 

Christie isn't a great singer, but she does exude energy, essential for this lively number. In the show, he sang the piece with Charles Walters. On record, she is backed by Walter, Bowers and ensemble, again for the Liberty Music Shop label. 

The enduring hit from the show is the eloquent "Spring Is Here." Despite its quality and staying power, no one from the cast recorded it, to my knowledge. So I have again turned to Buddy Clark for a contemporary recording. To it, I've added an unexpectedly terrific version from cabaret singer Eve Symington, issued by the invaluable Liberty Music Shop. Cy Walter leads the band without Gil Bowers, who must have missed his train. Symington includes the verse; Clark does not.

Eve Symington

A parenthetical note about the unfamiliar (to me) Symington: born Eve Wadsworth, she married businessman Stuart Symington in the 1920s, and embarked on a career as a singer. On this evidence, she was quite a good one, but her career was short. It was at about this time that she and her husband moved to St. Louis, where he became the head of Emerson Electric. He later became a well-known US Senator - as Eve Symington's father had been. I've posted three of her other recordings on my singles blog.  

Wynn Murray returns for the clumsily risqué "A Twinkle in Your Eye," not one of the best songs from Rodgers and especially Hart. Murray, Walter and Bowers do their best.

The Roxy

Audrey Christie then performs her second song from the score, "At the Roxy Music Hall." The Roxy was a 6,000-seat behemoth of a movie theater on W. 50th Street. I had no recollection of the place until reader hkitt42 reminded me that it's referenced in the title song of Guys and Dolls. Oh, yeah - "What's playing at the Roxy?"! In this earlier number, Christie assures us, "Oh come with me, you won't believe a thing you see!" and "Don't be shy if a naked statue meets your eye!" among other marvels. It's a fun piece and Christie is the right person to sing it, but the song is now recherché considering that the Roxy has been dust since 1960.

Cy Walter and Gil Bowers

The playlist is completed - save for the Streisand reprise of "I'll Tell the Man in the Street" - by a two-sided medley from Walter and Bowers and their pianos. It includes "Spring Is Here," "I'll Tell the Man in the Street," "I Married an Angel" and "How to Win Friends and Influence People."

The download includes a restored version of the souvenir program along with production stills, a few Jo Mielziner scenery sketches, and two reviews from Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times. The program and stills are cleaned up from originals on the New York Public Library site, and the resolution is not as fine as one might desire. Most of the recordings were cleaned up from Internet Archive transfers. The Liberty Music Shop items were not well recorded; I've done my best to help them out.