The Complete 'By the Light of the Silvery Moon'

After the success of 1951's On Moonlight Bay, the Warner Bros. brought back stars Doris Day and Gordon MacRae for another go at a story loosely based on Booth Tarkington's Penrod stories. The result was 1953's By the Light of the Silvery Moon. Once again, the songs were vintage and once again there was no soundtrack album because Day recorded for Columbia and MacRae for Capitol.

So today, we bring you the two "songs from the movie" LPs the stars produced separately, along with the actual songs from the soundtrack transferred from an ancient bootleg album. Both of the stars' records were of the 10-inch variety, the waning standard for pop LPs at the time. Within a few years, 12-inch LPs would crowd out their smaller siblings.

Day and MacRae were exceptionally charming on film and their albums are just as worthwhile. Plus there is plenty to like in the period songs, with a few exceptions. In this film, MacRae had just come back from serving "over there," so the setting is circa 1918.

Doris' Columbia LP

Day started off her LP with the title song, "By the Light of the Silv'ry Moon." (Note that the song title was also rendered without the elision, which version Warner Bros. adopted for the film's title.) Gus Edwards and Edward Madden wrote the tune for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1909. Edwards himself was the subject of a biopic, 1939's The Star Maker, with Bing Crosby as his celluloid replica. "By the Light" may be the composer's best song.

Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Rosemary DeCamp, Leon Ames

"Your Eyes Have Told Me So" was a 1919 effort by Walter Blaufuss, Egbert Van Alstyne and Gus Kahn. It's a fine ballad, done winningly by the amazing Day.

She also is excellent in "Just One Girl," with sterling assistance from the Norman Luboff Choir and Paul Weston's orchestra. The waltz, dating from 1898, is by Lyn Udall and Karl Kennett.

One of the best remembered numbers from the score is "Ain't We Got Fun" from 1921. The authors were Richard Whiting, Raymond Egan and Gus Kahn. Doris is good and the choir is OK, but this is better performed as a duet.

In the film, "If You Were the Only Girl" also was sung by the two principals. Here it's a solo and still a winner. It's a 1916 English song by Nat Ayer and Clifford Grey, and a particularly melodious one.

In contrast, Doris can't do much with the awful "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee." She is alternately coy and declamatory, and the Norman Luboff Choir is no help. The song works much better as a playful duet, such as on the MacRae LP, or in the film where Day is partnered by MacRae's rival, Russell Arms. Henry Marshall and Stanley Murphy wrote the piece in 1912.

The heartfelt Day solo "I'll Forget You" is much better. Ernest Ball and Annelu Burns composed this lovely ballad in 1921. The song is a high point on both albums.

The final song is Day's specialty "King Chanticleer," originally a 1912 instrumental by Nat Ayer that was recorded  by Prince's Band and many others. At some point A. Seymour Brown added words, and this is the basis of a barnyard opera as arrayed by Doris in the picture and on the cover above. It's too hectic for my taste, but musicals need variety, I suppose.

Gordon's Capitol LP

For his Capitol LP, Gordon MacRae had the significant advantage of a singing partner in the person of June Hutton, who was then making records for Capitol, generally accompanied by her husband, Axel Stordahl, a skillful former Dorsey staffer who was at the helm for most of Frank Sinatra's Columbia recordings.

June Hutton

It might be helpful to have a brief explanation of all the various Huttons who made records and films back then. June was the sister of bandleader Ina Ray Hutton. They were no relation to the movies' Betty Hutton and her sister, Marion, once of the Glenn Miller ensemble. None of them were born as Huttons; they adopted the name, presumably because of the popularity of "poor little rich girl" Barbara Hutton.

June followed Jo Stafford as the female voice in the Pied Pipers, going solo in the late 40s. She was quite a good singer. I expect to post the rest of her complete Capitol recordings soon.

Gordon is just home from the war and Doris is ready for marriage

MacRae of course was famous for his appearances on records, radio and films. The record starts off with his solo, "My Home Town Is a One Horse Town (But It's Big Enough for Me)," written by Alex Gerber and Abner Silver in 1920. Appropriately it's a march, with Gordon's character just home from the war.

June and Gordon pair for "Your Eyes Have Told Me So" and the saccharine "Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee." They perform the latter as if it were a vaudeville song, and it works better than the Day reading. 

Hutton had a much less extroverted manner than Day, which shows in "I'll Forget You." She is just as effective, however.

MacRae does wonderfully well with "Just One Girl," conveying his exhilaration irresistibly. He and Hutton then take on the title song, followed by "Ain't We Got Fun." Their two characters are middle class; shouldn't they have corrected the title to "Don't We Have Fun?"

Gordon and June also do well with "If You Were the Only Girl in the World," although Day is uniquely affecting in this number. 

I've added a non-film duet for Hutton and MacRae - "Coney Island Boat," which comes from another exercise in nostalgia, the 1954 Broadway show By the Beautiful Sea. It's the only other song that the two recorded together, also the only Capitol recording that June made without her husband; instead Van Alexander was in charge. The song is by Dorothy Fields and Arthur Schwartz, and was introduced by the talented and versatile Shirley Booth.

The Soundtrack Recording

As mentioned, the soundtrack recordings come from a long-ago bootleg. After some ministrations, the sound isn't bad at all.

The competing "songs from" LPs encompass all the songs on the soundtrack LP, so this is just provided as an alternate (and the original). The film does include other music from the time (save the anachronistic "La Vie en rose"), but I believe it is all instrumental background except for a vocal by Leon Ames (playing Doris' father) on "Moonlight Bay," a reference to the first film in the series.

The sound on the Columbia and Capitol albums is more than adequate. All these recordings, except for the "Coney Island Boat" single, are from my collection.

LINK

Buddy Clark at Christmas

My friend Ernie and a few other kind folks let me know that the Internet Archive uploaded quite a few Carnation Contented Hour radio shows with Buddy Clark, one of my favorite singers. Among the shows was a Christmas program dating from December 20, 1948. It was the final Christmas of Clark's life: he was to die in a plane crash the following October, at the peak of his popularity.

Today's post combines a cleaned-up version of the Carnation show with bonuses of a Clark Christmas single and a duet with Doris Day, both from shellac.

The Carnation Contented Hour

Carnation has made condensed milk products for well over 100 years, and sponsored the Carnation Contented Hour on network radio from 1931-51. The hour was "contented" because Carnation's milk came "from contented cows," whose emotional health apparently was rigorously monitored. Also, Carnation optimistically called baby-feeding time "the contented hour."

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Carnation's ads generally plugged the radio show, at least in the fine print. This was common back when advertisers sponsored complete shows. Another Carnation ad below is themed to Christmas, and depicts cute kids who were as interested, improbably, in Carnation's gelatinous "Christmas Tree Salad" as they were in the gifts under the spruce. "Jiminy Christmas!" they exclaim. "Presents ... and Santa Claus ... and exciting things to eat!"

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Ken Darby

For the radio show at hand, Clark was assisted by the Ken Darby Singers and the Ted Dale Orchestra. Darby even then was a well-known vocal arranger. His singers had backed Bing Crosby on the original 1942 "White Christmas" single and the 1947 remake. Darby was to go on to win three Academy Awards for his arrangements.

The program mixes holiday fare with other items. Clark sings "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "Silent Night" and "White Christmas." Darby and singers perform the tiresome "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and Dale's crew presents "Winter Wonderland" and "London Bridge." I don't believe the latter is the Eric Coates composition with the same name, but I could be wrong. In any case, the arrangement shows off quite a Coates influence.

NBC's caricature of Clark didn't look a thing like him

In addition to the Christmas numbers, Clark performs "My Darling, My Darling," a song from Frank Loesser's current Broadway show Where's Charley? Buddy's duet with Doris Day was then on the market. (Their Columbia 78 is one of the bonus items mentioned below/)

The sound on the show is quite good, after some finagling, except for rustle during the first few minutes.

Bonus Singles

Clark recorded only two Christmas songs for commercial distribution: a coupling of "Winter Wonderland" and the "Merry Christmas Waltz," both done for Columbia in June 1949 with Ted Dale's band. I posted this single way back when, but I've included a new version in the download.

As mentioned above, I've also included Buddy's commercial recording of "My Darling, My Darling," to go with the radio performance.

The download also includes a Radio Album article about Clark's family finding a new home on the West Coast. Production of the Carnation Contented Hour had moved from New York to Los Angeles before the 1948 season.

More Transcriptions from Doris Day

A little over a year ago I posted a memorial to Doris Day than mainly consisted of transcriptions that she recorded in 1952. Those recordings are still available here.

That post, however, did not include all the transcriptions she made in the early 1950s. Now longtime friend of the blog Giampaolo (aka Rio Veneno) has supplied this missing sides, and I have done my best to fix the pitch problems that seem to plague previous releases of these recordings. Last time, it took some help from reader Mac to get it right, so please let me know if these do not sound correct to you.

On these sides, Day is supported by either the Page Cavanaugh Trio or an orchestra led by Van Alexander. The selections are a mix of standards ("Embraceable You," "I've Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)") and the hits of the day ("Slowpoke," "Because You're Mine"). I do know that the song "I've Gotta Sing Away These Blues" also had a commercial release, appearing on the flip side of Day's giant hit, "Que Sera, Sera," from the 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much. Not sure if it's the same recording, however.

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A few more items that may be of particular interest for those of you who like vocalists:

First, frequent contributor Bryan Cooper has unearthed a studio disk of Mary Healy singing "Star Dust" on the soundtrack of the 1940 film of the same name. This is a welcome addition to the recent post of her commercial and Second Fiddle soundtrack recordings that Bryan contributed. Thanks, Bryan! You can find "Star Dust" on my singles blog.

Also, reader Eric kindly left a link to the four Tony Martin songs that could be found on the 12-inch version of (A Stroll Through) Melody Lane but were missing from the double-EP edition that I posted. Please see the comments to the post for his link. Thanks, Eric!

Finally, reader Simon Buckmaster is sending us a real find - several unpublished demo disks made by Jeri Sullivan, probably sometime in the 1940s, along with a few commercial recordings I did not know about. These are superb - very much worth hearing, and a welcome addition to the Jeri material we have already published on this blog and the singles blog (with thanks again to Bryan). I hope to bring you Simon's contribution soon.

The Great Doris Day

Doris Day was one of the great singers, but never received the respect she deserved.

A few reasons for this come to mind. First, she was very good looking, so was invited to make movies while still singing with Les Brown, and turned out to have so much talent, she became famous as a film star.

While she kept making records - and was remarkably prolific at it, at least for 25 years or so - the quality of her material was distinctly variable. Will Friedwald notes that she deferred to Mitch Miller and husband Marty Melcher in repertoire. Both wanted the hits to keep flowing, so the likes of "Rickety Rackety Rendezvous" ended up on the music stands.

Still, there was considerable depth of feeling in her singing from the beginning. It shows clearly in her first hit, "Sentimental Journey" with Les Brown. (I've uploaded a V-Disc version of the song on my other blog, in company with all her other V-Discs.) In his incredible book A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, Will quotes singer Mary Cleere Haran as saying, "She's so sunny and bright, but she's different when she sings. She can be dark and mysterious, and there's a wistfulness and yearning in her voice." When allied to her excellent intonation and superb rhythm, you have the makings of a superior singer. And that she was.

When Day started making movies, the
endorsements came rolling in. From 1949.

Day was prolific, but virtually all of her output is in print. So as a tribute, I decided to bring you some more unusual stuff - the 21 songs she recorded for Standard Transcriptions in about 1952. These are relaxed, swinging and altogether wonderful. What wasn't so wonderful was the sound on the bootleg that compiled them many years ago. I acquired it when it came out, and was dismayed to discover sound that was considerably off-pitch with the tonal balance wildly awry. Back then, while I could adjust those characteristics, it was a hit-and-miss proposition. I wasn't too happy with the results.

Today, I took another crack at the source material, and the resulting sound picture is much more pleasing. The pitch is spot on and the frequency response is very reasonable. The sound is now good enough for you to enjoy an excellent set of current songs in the compact renditions that were normal for radio transcription companies. [UPDATE: reader Mac gently suggested that far from being "spot on," I had the pitch wrong on this set. After listening, I am sure he is right. I didn't compensate enough! There is a link in the comments to the repitched version.]

The first 10 tunes were done with the Page Cavanaugh Trio, a favorite of this blogger, which has appeared here several times. One of Page's specialties was accompanying singers, and he does well here. The rest of the numbers were backed by orchestra or combo, all quite adequate. But the star is Doris' singing, as always.

I've also remastered a five-year-old post of songs from her 1951 film On Moonlight Bay. The download includes a promo disc that has Day introducing four of the songs, and offering opening and closing remarks. (I do love promos.)

Finally, as mentioned, I posted her 12 V-Discs, recorded both with Les Brown and under her own name. This is a treasurable collection with several rarities. It's now on the singles blog.

After listening, I only hope you enjoy Doris' singing half as much as I do.

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Doris Day Plugs 'On Moonlight Bay'

Not long ago, I was looking around for something to transfer in honor of Doris Day's 90th birthday. (I hope it won't be considered caddish for me to mention that some people think she is actually 92.)

Promo 78

It's not so easy to find unusual Day material - everything she ever recorded has been reissued. But finally I remembered a promotional disc for her 1951 album of songs from the film On Moonlight Bay, so here it is, along with the album itself.

On the record, Doris introduces four titles from the LP with opening and closing remarks. The idea is that radio stations would make a 15-minute program out of the songs and her comments. Columbia would have sent the record to deejays along with an opening script (which I don't have).

Day and MacRae make music; Smith makes waves

Day shares the LP with singer-actor Jack Smith. He was in the film as well, but not as the romantic lead. Gordon MacRae had that role, but he was contracted to Capitol records. Smith, later a television game-show host, played a rival suitor favored by Day's father. Smith was a pleasant singer who does better here than he did with Doris in the movie.

Arranger of the LP is the estimable Paul Weston, who also appears on the promotional disc. The sound is excellent.

This is the first time I have presented Day here. It's a pleasure - she is one of my favorite singers and actors.

1951 promotional tie-in