The Almost Complete 'Orchestra Wives'

About eight years ago I prepared what I described as the "almost complete Sun Valley Serenade," which involved wrangling the soundtrack recordings to the Glenn Miller band's first movie. They had appeared piecemeal across a few different releases over the years.

Today I am doing the same for Miller's second and final film, Orchestra Wives, an uneasy amalgam of musical and melodrama, with a score just as glorious as the first Miller film. And again, the recordings have been cobbled together from several sources.

Meanwhile I've revamped and added to the Sun Valley Serenade post, which you can find here. The music from both films is available in sterling ambient stereo.

The primary sources for both films are the RCA Victor albums that came out in 1954, timed to the release of Hollywood's Glenn Miller Story, and the 20th Century Fox LPs that were issued about five years later. Each set contains materials that can't be found on the other. For this go-round, I've added an alternate take for each film, derived from a long-ago bootleg.

Here are the details of the Orchestra Wives recordings. This second Miller film comes from 1942, just a year after Sun Valley Serenade. The bandleader was to enter the Army soon after its completion. Two years later his plane disappeared over the English Channel.

The Orchestra Wives score opens with a brief version of Miller's theme, his own composition "Moonlight Serenade," heard over the titles. This is an alternate version that adds a swirling harp opening.

Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Ray Eberle and the Modernaires tighten their belts

Respecting its wartime setting, the next song, "People Like You and Me," is half sentiment and half patriotism, concluding with a "let's pitch in" stanza:

We'll have to roll up our sleeves, 

Tighten our belts,

But through the dark we'll see
The lady with the liberty light for
People like you and you and you,
And people like me,
People like you and me!

As with many Miller performances, what makes the song work so well is the brilliant arrangement (by Jerry Gray or George Williams) and the meticulous execution by the band and the vocalists - Marion Hutton, Ray Eberle, Tex Beneke and the Modernaires. The song itself is a highly professional effort by the stellar Hollywood team of composer Harry Warren and lyricist Mack Gordon. They also wrote most of the Sun Valley Serenade songs.

The next number is an instrumental, "Boom Shot," which the band plays at a dance in Iowa and which kicks off the plot. (Per a blog post by Miller expert Dave Weiner, the title relates to the overhead camera technique used during the sequence.) This is a Billy May original with a George Williams arrangement.

Pat Friday

"At Last" is one of the most enduringly popular songs in the Miller canon, not least because of Etta James' 1960 cover version. But the performance in the film is perfect in its own right. The song is one of Harry Warren's best, with a fine Mack Gordon lyric, and a powerful vocal by Pat Friday dubbing for Lynn Bari's viperish band singer. Friday's excellence is matched by Ray Eberle, in fine voice, the Modernaires, and a crack chart by Jerry Gray and Bill Finegan. (Miller at the time employed several famous arrangers - Gray, Finegan, George Williams and Billy May).

"At Last" was actually written for (and cut from) Sun Valley Serenade (available here), where Friday also dubbed for Lynn Bari. Her partner that time was male lead John Payne, who sang for himself but was no match for Eberle. The Orchestra Wives version is more romantic; it also has a slightly revised melody line.

"American Patrol" is a joyous swing march, an arrangement by Jerry Gray of F.W. Meacham's "American Patrol March" of 1885. As with all these songs, the playing is flawless.

Moe Purtill

"Bugle Call Rag," which dates from 1922, is from the New Orleans Rhythm Kings band book. This spirited version, arranged by Miller himself, has a feature for the band's flashy drummer, Moe Purtill.

"Serenade in Blue" is one of the Miller band's best known songs. Written for the film by Warren and Gordon, it receives an almost impossibly romantic treatment by Billy May and Bill Finegan, vocalists Pat Friday and Ray Eberle, the Modernaires, cornetist Bobby Hackett and tenor saxophonist Tex Beneke. This version from the RCA release is much longer than what is heard in the film; notably it has a moody instrumental opening that is a marked contrast with the balance of the song.

Following this swooning number is the jaunty specialty (also by Warren and Gordon) "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo." It was an entirely successful attempt to replicate the popularity of Sun Valley Serenade's "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." Once again, Beneke is on the move to see a girl in another town, and again he is interrogated by the Modernaires in the process. Instead of "Hi there, Tex, what you say?" we get "Hi there, Tex, how's your new romance?" The performance is polished and the Jerry Gray arrangement is most effective.

The amazing Nicholas Brothers

As with "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," "Kalamazoo" was the basis of an extended dance sequence featuring the astonishing Nicholas Brothers. The extended version of the song, with the brothers' contribution, only appeared on the RCA Victor release.

Marion Hutton

Now for three songs that were cut from the film, but appeared on the later 20th Century Fox LPs. The first is a feature for Marion Hutton, a personable singer who was not quite as explosive as her sister Betty. "That's Sabotage" makes use of a wartime concern to admonish a wayward suitor - "If you've been untrue, that sabotage!" Hutton insists.

Glenn Miller and Chummy MacGregor

"Moonlight Sonata" is a Bill Finegan arrangement of Beethoven featuring pianist Chummy MacGregor and Beneke on tenor sax. It is better than the usual run of such things. Miller expert Dave Weiner says that it probably was meant as a feature for Cesar Romero, who played a pianist in the film. Miller had recorded a commercial version of the song in 1941.

George Montgomery, Cesar Romero, Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, Lynn Bari

The final unused song was "You Say the Sweetest Things, Baby," a song that Warren wrote for the Alice Faye film Tin Pan Alley. Here, a subset of the Miller troupe parodies the overripe sound of a society band until it is interrupted by a raucous trumpet solo. Dave Weiner says this was apparently supposed to be the soundtrack of a scene in which trumpeter George Montgomery, the film's lead, interrupts a square ensemble with his hip playing. The trumpet you hear is Billy May.

To close the set we have an alternate take of "Serenade in Blue." This one has a different moody intro to the main melody, a modified arrangement and no vocals. Please excuse the noise and pitch wobble on this decades-old bootleg.

Why do I call this the "almost complete" Orchestra Wives? I believe there may be a snippet or two I don't have that can be found on a limited edition of the soundtrack.

Several of the musicians mentioned above have appeared elsewhere on this blog: arrangers Jerry Gray, Bill Finegan and George Williams, vocalists Pat Friday (here and here) and the Modernaires, cornetist Bobby Hackett and tenor saxophonist/vocalist Tex Beneke.

The photo below of the band on set shows three actors in place of the real musicians: Cesar Romero is at the piano for Chummy MacGregor, Jackie Gleason is on bass instead of Doc Goldberg, and George Montgomery is at the left in the trumpet section, replacing Johnny Best - who is in the photo as well.

George 'The Fox' Williams in Hi-Fi

It's about time for Christmas music shares, but before I start down that path, I thought I might feature one of the most repulsive covers of the 1950s, or any other decade.

Someone at Decca Records (and it my have been Alex Steinweiss) decided it was a great idea to honor bandleader George "The Fox" Williams by dressing up someone in a ratty fox costume, giving him a baton, putting the results on the cover, and expecting it to sell records.

You have to spend a few moments examining the magnificence of this misguided art direction - the evil eyes, the leering mouth and the mangy fur, accented by a scarf and matching gloves, all topped off by a pair of earphones.

Fortunately, the music is good! Like Buddy Morrow, Williams decided the way to the charts might lie in adopting the R&B style. Unlike Morrow, he wrote his own material, although it is mostly simple riff tunes. Performing the results are several groups of superb New York studio musicians, with one constant being the authentic R&B tenor sax of Sam "The Man" Taylor. I particularly like the way the arranger uses bass sax in the textures.

There is one vocal among the instrumentals, delivered by Belfast-born Cathy Ryan in a convincingly bluesy style. Ryan had made records with Art Mooney and Lucky Millinder, and went on to make several sides as a single for M-G-M, Cardinal and King.

The 12 items here were originally issued as Coral singles from early 1954 through 1955. The sound is excellent. For more on Williams, see the earlier posts here.

George Williams Remembers Jimmie Lunceford

A few weeks ago the blog presented a Ray Anthony record that was almost certainly arranged by George Williams. At that time, I said I would upload this LP that RCA Victor issued under the arranger's own name in 1957.

I wish I had chosen Williams's Brunswick LP instead, because it has a spectacularly repulsive cover showing a gentlemen in a ratty fox costume conducting the band - in honor of Williams' nickname, "The Fox".

Then again, this cover isn't bad, what with the gentleman grasping his impressively large instrument between the lady's legs.

George Williams

But what of the music? Williams (or RCA) decided to do a tribute to band leader Jimmie Lunceford, on the tenuous premise that Williams was a Lunceford arranger for a few months back in the late 1930s. Homages of this kind were popular in the late 50s, as people looked back fondly on the vanished swing era.

The results are what you might expect - streamlined versions of Lunceford standards played by a talented group of studio musicians who appeared on hundreds of other records of the time. The cover details the performers. Two of them are given pseudonyms - trombonist Jimmy O'Heigho is presumably Jimmy Cleveland and trumpeter Swede Enlovely is Harry "Sweets" Edison. This peculiar custom of fanciful renamings, common at the time, was probably done for contractual reasons.

The music is enjoyable, if not characteristic of the records that had been issued under Williams' name in earlier years. Those recordings, mainly in a quasi-R&B mode, are collected on the Brunswick album I mentioned above. Maybe I'll present that one as well, if people are interested.

More Fox Trots from Ray Anthony

Not long ago, I posted the Ray Anthony album of Swing Fox Trots, part of the 1950s Capitol series designed to promote the Arthur Murray dance studios. I had the earlier Anthony recording of Fox Trots at hand as well, so thought I might as well go ahead and add it to the blog.

Swing Fox Trots was recorded in the period of a week in August 1954, possibly with arrangements by Billy May. In contrast, Anthony laid down the songs for Fox Trots over a series of eight sessions, from February 1950 to September 1952.

The Fox Trots charts were probably by George Williams, former Miller and Lunceford arranger who reputedly did most if not all Anthony's scoring at the time. Williams and Anthony wrote "Saddle Shoe Shuffle" (trying pronouncing that one) and "Lackawanna Local," included here. Coral gave Williams a recording contract of his own in 1953. I may transfer a Lunceford tribute LP that Williams made for RCA in 1957.

This is an enjoyable album by a very fine ensemble, and the sound is good, too. My LP still contains a certificate for two free dance lessons (see below). It may not work 60 years later, but you can always try.