More New Year's Music, Plus New Items and Reups

Every year about this time, when the rest of you are busy with resolutions and revelries, I like to sink into my own little ritual and indulge a nasty viral infection. It's sort of a tradition around my place, as welcome and as comforting as being attacked by feral hogs.

And so, for the last week as I've been occupied by my physical miseries, I've had little time to inflict any musical miseries on you all. Today that changes. I have for you one additional collection of New Year's songs, two new/old transfers that have not appeared here before, and several reups. Details follow.

A Carpe Diem New Year's Eve

Just at about the time the bug hit me, David Federman graciously donated his latest collection to the comments page of my last post. While it was themed to New Year's Eve, the 35 well-chosen selections are beautifully timeless, I recommend them heartily - and let me clarify that I do not include his collection among the "miseries" threatened above.

As always, David ranges widely across pop music of the early- and mid-20th century. I noticed that he has included some favorite artists who have not appeared here before - folks such as Alice Faye, Lee Wiley, Ray McKinley, Hal Kemp and Milton Brown and His Brownies. Good stuff! The link is in the comments; David's notes are in the download.

Jack Sheldon

Trumpeter-vocalist-actor Jack Sheldon died late last year, and in remembrance I have uploaded one of his most elusive albums - The Cool World of Jack Sheldon, from 1969.

Sheldon is best known for television appearances as Merv Griffin's bandleader and on the 70s series Schoolhouse Rock, but his background was in the West Coast cool school. The LP on offer today was made during a time when music was changing rapidly, so it includes everything from "The Whiffenpoof Song" to the Turtles, Burt Bacharach, Randy Newman and other odds and ends. It ends up being less a collage than a hodge-podge, but it is distinguished by Sheldon's lyrical trumpet and gravelly vocals.

I transferred this one for Will Friedwald about 10 years ago but never uploaded it here. No scans on this one; sorry.

Link is in the comments.

This Is Kim (as Jeanne Eagles)

This 1957 LP is another transfer from a decade or more ago. I remember working on several soundtrack records featuring composer George Duning, but put this one aside because it didn't actually include much original music. For whatever reason, rather than producing a soundtrack LP, Decca decided to market a Kim Novak exploitation album in conjunction with her starring role in the Columbia biopic Jeanne Eagels, calling it This Is Kim (as Jeanne Eagels). The resulting album includes the theme from the film, a Duning tribute song for Novak, which shows up as a leitmotif throughout the album, and a bunch of easy-listening numbers including three Duke Ellington and two Ray Noble songs.

Poor Duning is identified only on the record label - Columbia music director Morris Stoloff has his name all over things, as was his wont.

Here too, the link is in the comments.

The Two Manhattan Towers

Oh, I know there were more than two Manhattan Tower LPs, but here we have the first two versions of Gordon Jenkins' popular suite, which I've reupped on request by loyal follower Kwork.

The original Manhattan Tower was a 16-minute piece that first came out in a 78 set in 1946. My transfer is from an early Decca LP reprint. That record also included the California suite that Jenkins wrote to Tom Adair's insipid lyrics. The download includes complete scans of the LP and 78 album covers and the 78 set's insert booklet. The wonderful radio actor Elliott Lewis is the protagonist, supported by Jenkins' wife Beverly Mahr.

In 1956, Capitol asked Jenkins to expand Manhattan Tower into a full-length LP, and in response Jenkins added some of the suite's best known excerpts - "Married I Can Always Get" and "Never Leave Me." Lewis and Mahr again take the lead roles, although Lewis is not as fresh as he had been 10 years earlier.

These records are available via the original posts - Decca and Capitol.

Art Hodes - Out of the Back Room

I am preparing a piece on pianist-singer Charles LaVere, and some of his work put me in mind of Art Hodes, who appeared on one of the first posts here. Hodes' Out of the Back Room, an early Blue Note LP, collected eight sides he made with a few Chicago-style groups in 1944-45.

The sound here was always a bit rough and not well reprocessed by Blue Note - I commented at the time that the added echo made the record sound more like "Out of the Bath Room" than "Out of the Back Room." I've now remastered things and the sound is presentable for the most part.

Again, find this one via the original post.

The Naked City

Just to clarify, this "Naked City" is not the 1948 film, it's the television show of a decade later. That was the first incarnation of a trendsetting TV program that later came back on a different network with a somewhat different cast - and different music.

The music here is by George Duning, a solid Hollywood craftsman. The words and narrative are by lyricist Ned Washington. And the spoken narration is by radio actor John McIntyre, who took the leading role in the first season of the police drama.

Those of you who are looking for crime jazz, look elsewhere. This is a solid middle-of-the road effort, and the first voices you hear will be those of Jud Conlon's singers, who were perhaps best known for backing Bing Crosby. They present the title tune along with future teen idol James Darren. This was before Darren hit it big with Gidget, so his name is nowhere to be seen on the cover.

Gritty, this isn't. It is closest in concept to, and appears to have been inspired by, Gordon Jenkins' Manhattan Tower. Radio actor as narrator - check. Story in song - check. Singing lovers - check. Throw in a gangster named Big Harry, and you have The Naked City.

The plot involves Lt. Dan Muldoon (McIntyre) playing guardian angel for a Broadway hopeful voiced by Jo Ann Greer, a band singer and vocal double who is a superb vocalist and the best reason for hearing this record. She is being menaced by Big Harry, and the whole thing ends up in a chase. I suppose that's what is depicted on the cover, although if so, Big Harry must have been the only mobster in New York history to wear Pat Boone-style white bucks.

Naturally, this being the 50s and all, the story ends with the ingenue leaving the big city behind for her cowpoke boyfriend (played by Darren, improbably). "Give me solid food, solitude and you," she tells him. (Not sure what she was being fed in New York; must have been a liquid diet.)

I doubt that this plot came from one of the televised episodes, which were written for the most part by the famous Hollywood screenwriter Stirling Silliphant.

The record is particularly recommended to all the fans of Manhattan Tower and anyone who wants to hear fine singing (by Greer; Darren isn't that good).

REMASTERED VERSION

Celebrating with Salome

We've come to the one year anniversary of this blog, and what better way to celebrate than with a favorite post from last year in a new and much improved transfer.

It's George Duning's beautiful music from Salome, which came wrapped in this eye-popping cover (or uncover, in this case) featuring Rita Hayworth and her not terribly concealing veils. These are new scans of the cover and back cover (below).

There's more about the recording under the original post.

Thanks to all who have stopped by during the previous year, especially those who have commented. Much appreciated. I have learned a lot from you and made many friends, which is very rewarding.

No thanks to those who come by, take the many rare items here, and then pawn them off on other blogs as their own work. It has taken me many years to acquire these items, and it takes many hours to prepare them for this blog. It's a labor of love, but believe me, there is no love lost on those who leech.

Ah, but why waste the moment on complaints. I enjoy doing this, and my fond hope is that you enjoy listening.

REMASTERED VERSION

George Duning's Me and the Colonel

The latest in our series of 1950s soundtracks on 12-inch LPs is another contribution from George Duning (pictured on the back cover below). He's one of those names that you don't hear much about today, but he produced much fine work.

This score was written for the Danny Kaye vehicle, Me and the Colonel, and features some beautiful sounds, here reproduced from an excellent pressing.

The cover drawing sure seems to be by Al Hirschfeld, but it lacks his characteristic signature.

REMASTERED VERSION

Promoting the Perfect Furlough

Here is the time-honored way of promoting a movie. First, get someone (in this case Frank Skinner) to write a theme song. Then get someone marketable to record that song, and send it out to the radio stations, promoting both it and the movie. With any luck, they both will become a hit.

In this case, the movie didn't do too badly, but the song went nowhere. The record above is the theme song for The Perfect Furlough, here presented by one of the stars of the film, Linda Cristal, whose character was "Sandra Roca, the Argentine Bombshell." A Universal promo man sent this record out to a radio station with his sticker that seems to suggest that the DJ should play the record because it is from a Universal film.

The promo man also sent along a recorded interview with Linda Cristal (see below). That would have been accompanied by a script (which I don't have). The DJ would read the questions off the script and this 45 would obligingly answer. The record has silences for the questions to be read, which I have edited out of the file linked below.

Besides the theme song and promo records, the file also includes the flip side of the musical 45, which is a tune called It's Better in Spanish. (English, Spanish, doesn't make much difference - it's not good.) Cristal is not a bad singer, but has a little too much "personality" for my taste.

LINK

Three for the Show

I saw this 1955 musical a very long time ago and don't remember much about it, except it wasn't very good. But Mercury saw fit to issue a soundtrack album and here it is. It hasn't been reissued, as far as I know, so this is a rarity.

The music is a hodgepodge of contributions by the Gershwin brothers, Hoagy Carmichael, Tchaikovsky, and George Duning, who seemed to spend a lot of time on such thankless tasks.

This was Betty Grable's final musical, and she has quite a bit of singing to do, only passably. Marge Champion also sings, barely passably. And Jack Lemmon can be heard as well on I've Got a Crush on You.

Lemmon was a good musician (although, again, only a fair singer). In my collection are two records of his singing and piano playing and one other of solo piano, and he may have made more.

The person who owned this record before me was either a heavy smoker or was inclined to coat his or her records with shellac. I had a devil of a time cleaning the item, and some minor noise remains, but probably not enough to spoil whatever enjoyment you may derive from this tepid entertainment.

LINK

Rita and George Again

A little while ago I wrote about the LP from the movie Salome, with Rita Hayworth and music by George Duning. Now here comes Miss Sadie Thompson, with Rita doing a different kind of dance (trading in her seven veils for a cocktail dress) and music by George Duning again - I think.

In soundtrack days of yore, the actual musical artists were sometimes uncredited, or nearly so. Then as now, a soundtrack was a sales tool for the film - a poster of Hayworth with musical accompaniment. Who cares who wrote the music?! So this LP does not provide any credits for the soundtrack composer, and in some contemporary sources the credit goes to Morris Stoloff, who is listed as directing the orchestra on the jacket. But the film shows up in Duning's filmreference.com resume, so let's assume he actually was the one who did the score.

As a practical matter, it doesn't make a whole lot of difference, because you don't hear much of the actual score on this record. What you do hear are a few songs by Lester Lee with lyrics by Ned Washington. The tune about the Marines has words by Allan Roberts. Those three do get a credit. Poor Jo Ann Greer, who dubbed the vocals for RH, is (like most such artists) uncredited. She was a Les Brown band vocalist for a long time and also made some records under her own name. The harmonica player you hear is Leo Diamond, who made a number of notable space age pop records.

Besides the music, the record also contains a dramatic scene, in which Jose Ferrer, playing a religious fanatic, confronts Hayworth's "fallen woman." It isn't much of a confrontation - Ferrer displays all the passion of a radio announcer. After the confrontation, he favors us with a reading of Psalm 23. I've never seen this movie, but I can't imagine that this sort of thing went over all that well even in 1953. The whole effect is quite dull - not nearly as ostentatiously pious as the Sermon on the Mount scene on the Salome OST - perhaps it would have worked better if it had been.

The cover photo is interesting, but Rita reclining for the Salome cover is far more attractive than Rita squatting and grimacing for this one.

Salome

Hollywood may not have invented the idea of using sex to sell products, but may have perfected it with this astonishing item.

On the cover we get the eye-popping image of Rita Hayworth as Salome. Those who know their Bible, Oscar Wilde or Richard Strauss will expect Hollywood to follow the familiar story line and have Rita dance for Herod so that he will grant her wish that John the Baptist have his head lopped off.

Well, that plot may have been OK for the Bible or for those decadent Europeans, but Columbia Pictures had other ideas. In this version, the noble girl dances not to slay the Baptist but to save him. (Unfortunately for John, her dancing was more effective when she wanted him dead.)

The most impressive thing about this record (other than Hayworth's chest) is the excellent music by George Duning, although for some reason, the dance of the seven veils music is by Daniele Amfitheatrof. I could do without the shriek at the end of that track, which signifies the entrance of the Baptist's head on a platter. That apparently spoiled the atmosphere at the party, which beheadings tend to do.

When this record came out, it wasn't common for LP covers to feature color photos. Those were generally reserved for the likes of Hollywood stars and Frank Sinatra. Black and white photos and illustrations were the norm until a few years later.

REMASTERED VERSION