Eddie Fisher and Tennessee Ernie - 1954 Christmas Seals Shows, Plus Celeb Promos

The Christmas Seals people had an active promotional program for many years that included special programs that they would send to radio stations, hoping for airtime. Today we'll hear two of the 1954 programs, which starred two of the hottest performers of the day - Eddie Fisher and Tennessee Ernie (later Tennessee Ernie Ford).

These 15-minute programs were pressed on 16-inch transcription disks and sent to the stations with the request that they be returned. Not sure who would want to hear them after the holiday season - err, except for listeners like you and me who enjoy the music of 70 years ago.

Christmas Seals made few demands of the stars who participated in these programs, presumably gratis. The songs were generally from the artists' catalogues; some programs did and some didn't include seasonal material, apparently based on whether the artist involved had holidays songs in the can. The production procedure was to have the stars read the intros and a Christmas Seals spot or two, and for the existing music to be added in post-production.

Fortunately, both of today's programs include Christmas songs - and they are good ones, not often heard today. Also, both Ernie and Eddie were comfortable at the microphone, which helps make for a smooth show. 

More about each program below. As a bonus, I've included a set of 10 Christmas Seals celebrity spots.

The Eddie Fisher Show

Fisher was one of the most popular singers in America when this program was put together; his version of "I Need You Now" had topped the popularity lists in 1954; "I'm Walking Behind You" and "Oh! My Papa" the year before. He also had a weekly show on television.

Eddie had released a Christmas album in 1952; his Christmas Seals program included five of the eight songs on that record, including the not-often-heard "That's What Christmas Means to Me" and "Christmas Day," along with "You're All I Want for Christmas," "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "O Come, All Ye Faithful." His backing on the songs is by Hugo Winterhalter.

Billboard, December 13, 1952

The Tennessee Ernie Show

Tennessee Ernie was another popular performer in the early 1950s. He had recorded well-regarded boogie-woogie records such as "Shotgun Boogie," and had a popular duet with Kay Starr on "I'll Never Be Free," both for Capitol.

In 1954 Ernie was on television as the host of The College of Musical Knowledge, formerly Kay Kyser's domain, and as a recurring guest star playing "Cousin Ernie" on the most popular program in the country, I Love Lucy. He was a likeable personality and an skillful singer with a resonant baritone.

Ernie's biggest hit was to come in 1955 - Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons" - a favorite of mine when I was a six-year-old record collector.

For the Christmas Seals show, Ernie provided what sounds like live performances of his 1951 Capitol Christmas single - "Christmas Dinner," which he wrote, along with "A Rootin' Tootin' Santa Claus." The program also includes a few non-holiday selections.

My guess is that these were dubbed from the transcribed radio program that Ernie hosted in the early 1950s.

Bonus: Christmas Seal Celebrity Spots

The Christmas Seals people persuaded a variety of popular personalities to record spots for them in 1954. Here is a set of 10, the first of two I'll be posting.

You may have noticed in the image at top that there were two linked Christmas Seals for 1954. Some of the the spots urge listeners to use both on their cards and packages, a transparent ploy to sell more stamps. (It was for a good cause.)

Lionel Barrymore, Rocky Marciano

Here are the celebrities who participated. Perhaps only Rocky Marciano needs to be identified. He was boxing's heavyweight champ at the time.

• Julius La Rosa 
• Jack Benny
• Rocky Marciano
• Bob Hope
• Edward G. Robinson
• Guy Lombardo
• Tennessee Ernie
• Ray Anthony
• Anne Baxter
• Lionel Barrymore

Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson

I plan to have a second Christmas Seals post with more 1954 materials - one additional program, another set of celebrity spots, and the official Christmas Seals song from that year.

LINK to Christmas Seals Shows and Spots

The Voice of Sally Sweetland

Although she never became a big star, Sally Sweetland (1911-2015) had an extraordinary voice that led to a long career as a studio singer and later as a teacher.

Born Sally Mueller, she acquired the name "Sweetland" upon marrying her husband Lee Sweetland, himself a well-known studio singer and actor.

In this post, we'll examine the breadth of Sally's achievements, which spanned film dubbing, band work, solo recordings, backup vocals and children's records. There are 29 selections in all.

Film Work

Throughout the 1940s, Sweetland was busy in the studios, dubbing for Joan Fontaine, Brenda Marshall, Martha Vickers and particularly Joan Leslie in several films. In our first selection, she introduces the famous Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer song "My Shining Hour" in the 1943 Fred Astaire film The Sky's the Limit, dubbing for Leslie.

Joan Leslie and Fred Astaire in The Sky's the Limit

It's a song that's associated with Astaire, but Sally sang it first in the film - Leslie played a vocalist. Soon thereafter, Fred's brash character tells Leslie she sang it too straight, and proceeds to demonstrate how it ought to go, as the characters seemingly improvise new lyrics (which actually don't make too much sense).

Also from this film is the duet "A Lot in Common with You," which involves Fred intruding on Joan Leslie's act. (You will hear her telling him to "Get out!")

With Tommy Tucker

Tommy Tucker was not as famous as, say, Tommy Dorsey, but he did lead a good band for 25 years. Sally made several records with him in 1950 and 1951, starting with "Looks Like a Cold, Cold Winter," where she did a pleasing duet with Don Brown. The disk did OK in the market, but I believe Bing and Mindy Carson did better.

Don Brown and Tommy Tucker

Next was "Hullabaloo," which, true to its title, was a noisy polka, a genre popular back then. "Sonny the Bunny" was a kiddie novelty possibly themed to Easter 1951. Don Brown is the lead on this one with Sally mainly providing harmony. They made a good pair.

The final recording with Tommy Tucker was "Whisp'ring Shadows," where Sweetland duets with Peter Hanley, who became Tucker's male singer following Don Brown's death in a traffic accident. Hanley too was a talented vocalist. This is a charming waltz.

Religious Fare, Grandma Moses and Ted Maxim

Tucker recorded for M-G-M, which also engaged Sally for a series of religious songs. I've included "Our Lady of Fatima," where she contends with an organ and male quartet.

At about the same time, Columbia Records brought her in for one of her specialties - high-register vocalese. The song was "Lullaby," one of the numbers in the suite that Hugh Martin and Alec Wilder put together for a film on the painter Grandma Moses. This is truly gorgeous singing. The entire suite is available here.

Also in 1951, Sweetland was at Decca for two waltzes by polka bandleader Ted Maksymowicz (here credited as Ted Maxim). First was "Beautiful Brown Eyes," which had been written in the 1930s by the country artists Arthur Smith and Alton Delmore. Maxim's record would seem to have been a cover of Rosemary Clooney's revival of the song on Columbia.

Pat Terry and Ted Maksymowicz

The second Maxim record, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One," also was associated with Smith and the Delmore brothers, who recorded it in the 1930s. It was, however, a traditional tune. On both records, Sally works seamlessly with the excellent studio baritone Pat Terry.

Work for RCA Victor

We move on from Decca to RCA Victor, where Sweetland's first assignment was to record the vocal on Bob Dewey's record of Franz Lehár's "Vilia" from The Merry Widow score. It's not clear why RCA and Dewey (actually Guy Lombardo arranger Dewey Bergman) decided to record an operetta selection in sweet band style in 1951, but Sally does fine.

One of her most noted records was Perry Como's 1952 version of "Summertime." There could be no better singer than Como to present a number describing how "the living is easy." Sweetland's vocalese is heard throughout the record, which perfectly sets off Como's low-register vocal. A superb record.

Perry Como and Eddie Fisher

Victor repeated this formula the next year for Eddie Fisher's massive success "I'm Walking Behind You." Here, in addition to the vocalese, Sally  does some high-register duetting with Fisher, which is very striking. It's a memorable record - one I owned myself when I was four. (I started collecting records early.)

Solos with Enoch Light

Sweetland recorded several cover records for bandleader/impresario Enoch Light in 1952. This type of work required the ability to sing many genres convincingly, a Sweetland specialty. We've already heard her in operetta, polka, and kiddie material. Her first record for Light was a cover of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya," which suits her well. Here, I suspect the real intention was to cover Jo Stafford's pop version for Columbia. This is a thread that runs through her other Enoch Light records.

Enoch Light

Jessie Mae Robinson's "Keep It a Secret" was a hit for Stafford in 1952-53. Sally and Stafford also recorded Pee Wee King's "You Belong to Me." Sally sounds particularly like Jo in this recording.

The melodramatic "Kiss of Fire" is based on a 1906 song "El choclo" by Victor Argentine. Louis Armstrong revived it in 1952, but the hit was by Georgia Gibbs. Sweetland does what she can with this overheated item.

The Ice Capades Brigadoon; "Getting to Know You"

In 1953, the Ice Capades traveling show presented an ice skating version of the Broadway hit Brigadoon. Columbia records decided to issue a potted version of the show in honor of the program, with Lee Sullivan and Sally as the fine soloists in the seven-minute presentation. Sullivan had been in the original cast of Brigadoon in 1947.

Brigadoon picture sleeve; Lee Sullivan

Sally is heard in abbreviated versions of "Almost Like Being in Love," "Heather on the Hill" and "From This Day On." I've presented this record before, but this is a new version.

Sweetland made a substantial number of children's records. I've included one of the group she recorded for Golden Records - "Getting to Know You" from The King and I. It's a brief rendition, but nonetheless effective. As with many of the Golden records, the support is by the Sandpipers vocal group and an orchestra led by Mitch Miller.

With Sauter-Finegan

Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan engaged Sally for several records by their Sauter-Finegan Band. First was their sumptuous 1952 version of "April in Paris," where Sweetland does nicely both in vocalese and snatches of the lyrics. This was the first superior big band version of the song from the 1950s, along with Count Basie's much different arrangement from a few years later.

Bill Finegan and Eddie Sauter

Speaking of different, "The Moon Is Blue" is a quirky pop song with lyrics by Sylvia Fine and music by Herschel Burke Gilbert, written for the 1953 film of the same name and performed by the S-F band. Sauter and Finegan (or RCA Victor) did not give Sally a label credit for "April in Paris," but rectified that omission on this release.

Sweetland is heavily featured in the band's version of the Rodgers-Hart "Where or When," both with the lyrics and a climactic venture into high vocalese. This comes from the album Concert Jazz. The principals comment on the cover, "Our first love, Sally Sweetland. We hope you appreciate her as we do."

Two SF covers - one by Jim Flora (left), the other in his style

The band's 1954 LP Inside Sauter-Finegan features Sally in a muted and very lovely version of "Autumn Leaves."

Sauter-Finegan's "Where's Ace" is a spoof of the crime jazz genre of the time. The band keeps asking Sally "Where's Ace?" and she replies "Who??" They search him for in various locales. Sally ends up asking the band, "Where's Ace" and they reply "Who?"

With Hugo Winterhalter

The popular maestro Hugo Winterhalter engaged Sweetland for a few records as well. In 1953 she joined with studio vocalist Bud Dee to present an enjoyable reading of Jessie Mae Robinson's "The Lovers' Waltz."

Hugo Winterhalter

In 1955, she recorded one of her best discs - "Autumn Rhapsody," a conventional but attractive ballad by Carolyn Leigh and Alex Alstone.

An Unusual Children's Record

Sally Sweetland and Marni Nixon

We complete this exploration of Sally's legacy with a slightly later record - from 1964, the story of "Hansel & Gretel" with music from Humperdinck's opera. (A orchestral suite from the work can be found here.) Sweetland combines with another eminent studio singer, Marni Nixon, for two superb and all too brief selections: "Brother, Won't You Dance with Me" and "When at Night I Go to Sleep." I believe that Sally is the voice of Hansel. Tutti Camarata leads the band.

* * *

This collection was inspired by David Federman, as have many things I posted over the years. I believe that David was enchanted by Sweetland's stratospheric vocalese - me too - but there are many other items to appreciate here. I was surprised to find that I liked in particular her children's records of "Getting to Know You" and the Humperdinck adaptations. She also works beautifully with the relatively little-known Don Brown and Pat Terry (among others). A wonderful legacy by this talented and much loved singer and vocal teacher.

This selections are cleaned up from Internet Archive and my collection. 

LINK

Christmas with the Crooners

A 1953 Julius LaRosa EP leads off tonight's share of Christmas records by some of the popular crooners of the postwar era, which also includes a passel of unusual songs by other singers.

The EP came out shortly after LaRosa's infamous on-air firing by American TV host Arthur Godfrey (a man who struck me as creepy even back then, when I was barely out of diapers). Julie has a reputation among vocal aficionados that is far greater than his popularity, and this record shows why. He performs these songs beautifully (a tendency to sing a little flat aside). He maintains his quality of voice even when singing loud, which is unusual for pop singers. And he is very involved in the repertoire. Excellent support by the Columbus Boychoir and Archie Bleyer. There is a small amount of groove noise on this EP - the second side was defective, but I managed to navigate around almost all the damage.

Billboard ad

We begin the assorted holiday singles with Johnny Mercer's 1946 recording of "Winter Wonderland," made with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston. This one's a little worn, but the rest of the evening's fare is in excellent shape.

We move ahead to 1950 and Frankie Laine's 78 of "Merry Christmas Everywhere" and "What Am I Gonna Do This Christmas." Also from that year is the first of two singles from that fine singer Johnny Desmond - "Sleigh Ride" and "A Marshmallow World."

Next up is "That's What Christmas Means to Me," a good song and performance by Eddie Fisher. Back to Desmond for 1954's "Happy Holidays to You" and "Santo Natale" (think "Santa Lucia").

Billboard ad

Finally, from 1955 we have Tony Martin's "Christmas in America" and "Christmas in Rio."

The songs on this set range from the overly familiar ("Silent Night") to sorta familiar ("Sleigh Ride") to sorta unfamiliar ("A Marshmallow World") to completely unfamiliar (most of the rest). Many of the non-hits are very worthwhile, and I think that makes for a good holiday listening.

Eddie Fisher

Eddie Fisher, who died a few days ago, was just beginning his career 60 years ago with the release of his first big hit, "Thinking of You" (the Kalmar-Ruby song from M-G-M's 1950 musical, Three Little Words).

"Thinking of You" is the highlight of this, Fisher's first LP, which came out in 1952. The singer had already shown himself to be a big-voiced, accurate vocalist with a good sense of time and an individual timbre. He also had displayed a few stylistic tics, such as suddenly belting a climactic note.

As this LP shows, at this time RCA was having Fisher record the tunes of the day, such as "Sorry" and the country song "I Love You Because," almost always with the support of Hugo Winterhalter.

Billboard ad

Our second memorial offering for Fisher is the 1954 EP below, titled for its first song - "A Girl, A Girl." That song has Eddie giving out with some Prima-style Italianisms - "I'm just a fella / who wants to ring-a the bell-a". (It's-a dreadful.) The second song is more of the same, but on the other side we switch to German repertoire with "Oh! My Pa-Pa," a sentimental item that became an enormous hit for Fisher in the US and for trumpeter Eddie Calvert in the UK.

Fisher went on to have several more hits, but soon became more noted for his love live than his singing. First he married Debbie Reynolds, leaving her for Liz Taylor after her husband (and Fisher's best friend) Mike Todd was killed in a plane crash. Taylor later dumped Eddie for Richard Burton. This American La Ronde played out in endless gossip columns and movie magazine covers.

It's hard to say what was more influential in derailing Fisher's career - his personal habits or changing musical tastes and styles. But he was a prodigious hitmaker for a time.

I had a number of Fisher records as a juvenile record aficionado, and remember being fond of "Oh! My Pa-Pa." But my special favorite was Eddie's version of "Lady of Spain," which I believe was on a promotional EP put out in association with Fisher's hosting of the Coke Time TV show. I played that one incessantly. This suggests two things - that taste is not inborn and my parents were among the most indulgent of people.