Frolicing with Flanagan

For the second in my series of post-war dance bands, I've chosen another college favorite, Ralph Flanagan. Here we have the Freshman-Sophomore Frolics, which was followed closely by another album called the Junior-Senior Prom.

These bands must have been fighting for campus gigs; the next in line in this series is Elliot Lawrence with a selection of college songs.

Flanagan's band was a Glenn Miller clone, with the Miller mannerisms down pat. It wasn't very original, to say the least, but I always enjoy the sound for some reason.

The vocalist on Smoke Dreams is Harry Prime, a pleasant singer devoid of personality or involvement. There is an interesting interview with Prime about his experiences with Flanagan here.

Dancing with Ralph Marterie

Here is the beginning of yet another new thread on this blog (how many do I have going? 30?), this one devoted to the post World War II dance bands.

You don't hear too much about these bands today, except for some of the jazz bands, leftovers from the big band heyday, and Miller-derived ensembles like Ray Anthony and Tex Beneke.

This post presents Ralph Marterie, who made many records over quite a few years, won polls such as the one touted on this cover, and yet has fallen into something very much like obscurity.

Too bad. He had a good ensemble that played a variety of music quite well - from ballads to post-Hampton big band r&b.

Marterie's band started off as a recording orchestra, then after gaining some notice, he formed a touring ensemble. This is a pattern that was also followed by Ralph Flanagan, who also will make an appearance in this series.

All these sides were recorded in 1952, according to the very helpful Mercury Records site.

The truth is, I am starting off this series with Marterie because of the very cool cover - what could be better than a disembodied cartoon face and a Down Beat magazine? Outstanding!