Les Elgart - The Band of the Year?

There's no question that Les Elgart had a very popular big band in 1954. Was it the "band of the year" as this cover proclaims? Maybe!

Elgart started his first band with his brother Larry in 1945. It made a few records for Musicraft in 1946 and Bullet in 1948, which I have newly collected on my other blog. But postwar, band bookings were getting sparce, so the Elgarts went back to being freelance musicians.

Les Elgart

Larry Elgart and Charlie Albertine got the band itch again in 1952 while playing in the pit ensemble for Top Banana and watching Phil Silvers cavort on stage. Larry, Charlie and Les revived the Les Elgart band shortly thereafter.

The group put together some demos, interested Columbia records, put out an LP, and the next thing they knew, they were popular.

That first LP was called Sophisticated Swing, the next Just One More Dance (newly remastered here), and the third today's specimen. The Band of the Year was actually a compilation of the group's singles from 1954, except for "East Is East," which as far as I can tell was not otherwise issued. (Update: musicman1979 found another source that confirms the song was released as a single.)

As a set of singles, Band of the Year is less cohesive than Just One More Dance, which showed off the sleek form that made Elgart a favorite on college campuses. A good number of the singles on The Band of the Year were novelty items.

It seems likely that Albertine was the main arranger for the band. He had a close relationship with both Elgart brothers, and composed and arranged a suite for Larry and his alto sax called Music for Barefoot Ballerinas, also in 1954. (It has appeared here, and is now newly remastered.) Albertine also worked for other bands and is known for his charts for the Three Suns.

Charles Albertine

Other arrangers associated with the band, at least according to one source, were Kermit Levinsky (Kermit Leslie) and Hubie Wheeler.

Whatever the source of the arrangements, they exhibit the smooth musicianship that characterized the band. There are not many solos, although the excellent tenor sax player Boomie Richman can be heard here and there. Danceable, professional and easy to hear - it was a recipe for success. The band still exists, although Les himself has been gone for 30 years.

A few words about the other numbers on the LP:

"Zing! Went the String of My Heart" is a James Hanley oldie from 1935, introduced by the wonderful Hal LeRoy and Eunice Hanley in the revue Thumbs Up!, which also gave us Vernon Duke's "Autumn in New York."

"Wedding Bells (Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Mine)" is even older than "Zing." Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal and Willie Raskin wrote it in 1929. 

Elgart also revived two of the dance crazes of the 20s - DeSylva, Brown and Henderson's "Varsity Drag" from Good News, and James P. Johnson and Cecil Mack's "Charleston" from Runnin' Wild.

Larry and Les Elgart at a Columbia session

Moving to the 1930s, the Elgart crew brought back "Flat Foot Floogie," a hipster anthem for Slim & Slam in 1938.

Albertine gave in to the irresistible allure that the classics seem to have for big band arrangers, turning Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp Minor into "Rocky's Prelude," which is actually highly amusing. Just as much fun is the transformation of the Basie band's theme into the "One O'Clock Jump Mambo."

And then we have two nods to our fellow creatures on this earth. The first is "Roo Roo (Kangaroo)," which seems to be a kiddie tune the band hoped would be as successful as Ray Anthony's "Bunny Hop" of 1953. Then there is "The Little White Duck" by Bernard Zaritsky and Walt Barrows, first recorded by Burl Ives in 1950.

Finally, the best-known number on the record - Albertine's "Bandstand Boogie," which Dick Clark adopted as the theme song of his popular TV program American Bandstand a few years later. The flip of the "Bandstand Boogie" single was "When Yuba Plays the Rumba on the Tuba," Herman Hupfeld's second greatest hit and here the subject of a band vocal, which is less objectionable than most of its ilk.

Now, to answer the question way up top - was Elgart's troupe the "band of the year?" Well, yes, in at least one poll. For example, Billboard's 1954 DJ Poll had the group as the top swing band - but the number five "all-around" band. In Down Beat's popularity poll, the group placed third. But any way you look at it, the year was a huge success for a new band.

If you like the band, don't forget to peruse the earlier posts and the new compilation of its 1946-48 singles on my other blog.

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Larry Elgart and Charles Albertine

Bandleader Larry Elgart died last week, so I thought I might post one of his most unusual records, this 1954 LP of Music for Barefoot Ballerinas and Others. It's not in the big-band realm occupied by so many of the records issued by Elgart, either under his own name or in conjunction with older brother Les, himself a prolific recording artist. Instead it is putative ballet music featuring Larry's alto saxophone as a solo voice.

Although Elgart is listed as directing the record, the music was composed and arranged by Charles Albertine. Little known today, Albertine worked extensively with the Elgarts and later with the Three Suns and Sammy Kaye. (More info here.)

Larry Elgart

The "Barefoot Ballerinas" music is most enjoyable, with Albertine drawing on French and Russian composers for inspiration, and Elgart's alto adopting a purer sound than is usually found in pop or jazz alto solos. (I find it hard to listen to many jazz altos.) You may find this album described on the web as avant-garde or akin to Bob Graettinger's City of Glass. Neither claim is true; it is entirely euphonious.

Albertine had begun working with the Elgarts in 1952 or 1953, and had already arranged one LP for Larry, 1953's Impressions of Outer Space, a record I wish I owned for its fantastic cover alone. Albertine composed five of the eight tunes on that record; one other was by Kermit Levinsky (Leslie), who recently made an appearance on this blog.

Much of Albertine's work for the Elgarts was far more conventional than "Barefoot Ballerinas." Earlier in 1954, Les had taped Albertine's "Bandstand Boogie." It's quite a good big-band riff tune in a Jerry Gray vein, one that will be familiar to most Americans of my generation as the theme music for Dick Clark's television show American Bandstand.

Larry continued recording into the 1980s, scoring a hit with his album Hooked on Swing, which was not as disreputable as its counterpart Hooked on Classics. Both were mainstays of an 80s record library.

Decca's cover for "Barefoot Ballerinas" is much different from its usual blatant approach to art. It does not even display the Decca logo, which makes an appearance on the back (see below). I will admit, though, that the drawing looks like it might have been scribbled by a lovesick high school student. The sound is fine.

Note (May 2025): this has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

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