The Jo Stafford Holiday Collection

Jo Stafford and Paul Weston

Considering my affinity for Jo Stafford's voice, it's surprising that her seasonal output has never made an appearance here.

I suppose that's because her holiday LPs are well known. Even so, I think it's time we presented the three of them - along with a surprising number of orphan tracks that have appeared hither and yon through the years.

Let's start with those 16 assorted numbers, which take us back to near the beginning of Jo's career. Then we'll get to her Happy Holiday, Ski Trails and The Joyful Season LPs.

Miscellaneous Christmas Tracks

Jo Stafford and the Pied Pipers

Stafford joined the Tommy Dorsey band in 1939 as the lead singer of the Pied Pipers, a popular and influential group. Their sole song with a seasonal connotation would seem to be "Winter Weather," a very good piece by Ted Shapiro that was popular in 1942. Jo would return to the song on her 1955 Happy Holiday LP.

Capitol News, December 1948

Stafford went solo in 1944, and soon was with the new label Capitol, whose music director was Paul Weston - formerly of the Dorsey band - whom she would marry in 1952. But it wasn't until 1946 that they began recording seasonal fare. That year, the label issued her coupling of "Silent Night" and "White Christmas" with the Lyn Murray Singers and Weston's orchestra. The Murray group had done a good Christmas album for Columbia in 1942. It's available here, newly remastered.

Then it took until 1948 for something that could be called a follow-up - the setting of the "Ave Maria" to a Schubert melody, oddly coupled with the musty "Smilin' Through" (not included here).

Stafford made up for the lack of holiday material the next year with several releases.

We start with her early album Jo Stafford Sings American Folk Songs, where we find the first of her three recordings of "I Wonder as I Wander," which did have a folk origin but was turned into the song we know by John Jacob Niles. Regardless of its origin, it is a haunting work both melodically and lyrically that Stafford and Weston handle beautifully.

Also that year, Capitol paired Jo with Gordon MacRae in a perfect partnership that has been featured on this blog several times - including their two Christmas medleys that originally came out on a 12-inch 78.

The final 1949 release was a beautiful version of "Gesù bambino," written by Pietro Yon in 1917 and later adapted by Frederick Martens. This was later added to the Stafford-MacRae medleys that had been issued on 78 to make the EP depicted above.

The next year, Jo was featured on CBS' Carnation Contented Hour radio show. (Carnation made canned milk, which it boasted came "from contented cows.") Jo sings "It's a Marshmallow World," a fun number that was new that year. Peter De Rose and Carl Sigman were the authors.

In 1952, Jo's new label Columbia paired her with a singer much different from MacRae, but just as simpatico - Frankie Laine. He and Stafford had a notable rapport that is immediately apparent in their superb singing on "Christmas Roses," a charming country-style song by the team of Hy Zaret, Alex Kramer and Joan Whitney.

Jo with Frankie Laine

The next year, her holiday offering was the excellent Sammy Cahn-David Holt song "Christmas Blues," also recorded by Dino and newly popular in recent years with recordings by the likes of Bob Dylan.

Stafford and Weston kept themselves busy with her two seasonal LPs for Columbia in 1955 and 1956, which are covered below. But one recording apparently made in 1955 was not included on those albums. It was a version of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" that was not issued until a 1968 LP otherwise consisting of material from Jo's holiday LPs. This is with an unidentified organist. Thanks to Ernie Haynes, who alerted me to this number!

From there, we jump ahead to 1962 when another version of "I Wonder as I Wander" was included on her stereo remake of Jo Stafford Sings American Folk Songs, with the same arrangements as the first go-round. She must have liked the song - it also ended up on the Winter Weather LP below.

Stafford made a quick stop-over on the Reprise label for a version of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" that appeared on a Christmas compilation in 1963.

The next year Jo recorded a spot for the Marine Corps Reserve's "Toys for Tots" drive, doing a nice job with the tune and with the messaging as well. Jack Marshall conducted. This was presumably made during the sessions for The Joyful Season, covered below.

Stafford largely retired in the mid-60s, but we do have one more item, here presented out of chronological order because it is a New Year's song - "Auld Lang Syne," taken from Jo's 1956 LP Songs of Scotland.

LINK to miscellaneous Christmas tracks

Happy Holiday

Happy Holiday of 1955 is an entirely pleasing album, but doesn't display the generosity of the season, being short, repeating material that had appeared elsewhere - in new versions - and featuring two numbers that don't include the artist named on the cover.

What it does include are a few appearances by Tim Weston, the three-year-old son of Jo and Paul, who also shows up in the cover photo, bundled up for a winter storm of soap flakes and styrofoam. Jo made do without a coat.

As for the LP, it presents two versions of Irving Berlin's "Happy Holiday," which together last a minute and a half, and remakes of "Winter Weather," "I Wonder as I Wander" and "Silent Night." New to Jo's recorded repertoire were "The Christmas Song," "Let It Snow! (etc.)," "Toyland" and "Winter Wonderland." There also was a recitation of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" with Weston's musical backing.

Jo must have been out of the room for two numbers: "O Little Town of Bethlehem" is performed by an unidentified children's choir and "The March of the Toys" by Weston's orchestra.

All of this is not unpleasant, but, gee, let's hear more of Jo! 

LINK to Happy Holiday

Ski Trails

This parsimonious approach continued the following year with Ski Trails, which even repeated two songs from Happy Holiday - "Let It Snow (etc.)" and "Winter Wonderland." Meanwhile, the Norman Luboff Choir showed up with forceful renditions of "Winter Song," which seems to be an old choral item from Dartmouth College (Weston was a graduate), and "The Whiffenpoof Song" from Yale. Presumably Luboff's forces were portraying hearty fraternity fellows at an après-ski party.

For Stafford, the only remake seems to be "By the Fireside" (aka "In the Gloaming"), which she had recorded years before with Gordon MacRae. New to her recorded repertoire were "Baby, It's Cold Outside," "Moonlight in Vermont" (with lyrics adjusted to make it more wintery), "It Happened in Sun Valley" (from Glenn Miller's film Sun Valley Serenade), "I've Got Me Love to Keep Me Warm," "The Nearness of You," "June in January" and "Sleigh Ride."

So quite a few new items, just not as many as there could have been.

LINK to Ski Trails

The Joyful Season

So long as I am picking nits, let me start with the title - The Joyful Season really ought to be The Joyous Season, "joyful" relating to people and "joyous" to things.

But the important point to mention is that this 1964 LP features "the Voices of Jo Stafford," signifying that she sings in harmony with herself throughout the album, à la Mary Ford or Patti Page.

Jack Marshall

Together with the sparse arrangements of Jack Marshall, this gives the LP an aura that I have previously likened to an aluminum Christmas tree.

But that is too harsh. The album offers much to enjoy.

Again, there are songs Jo had assayed previously - that's hard to avoid with Christmas material. But there are new things under the tree as well - "Deck the Hall," "Silver Bells," "Little Drummer Boy" and "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." 

Most notable are two new songs that Paul Weston wrote with Alan Bergman and Marilyn Keith Bergman - "Merry Christmas" and "Christmas Is the Season." Not classics, but worth hearing.

So overall, the set is much to be preferred to an aluminum Christmas tree, even one with a rotating color wheel.

LINK to The Joyful Season

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

Gordon MacRae and Lena Horne Christmas Seals Shows from 1959

Following up on the previous set of Christmas Seals shows from Julius La Rosa and Jack Benny, here is an LP from 1959 featuring Gordon MacRae and Lena Horne.

Unlike the previous 16-inch record, which came from 1954, this LP was a 12-inch product and came in a sleeve. The cover is above, but I will confess I embellished it  -  the only thing in color on the original was the troupe of zombie children marching to the mailbox.

The other difference to at least the La Rosa program is that none of the musical specialties were recorded specifically for Christmas Seals. They all came from commercial LPs. The intros and spots, of course, were done for these programs.

Each program includes five musical selections, three Christmas Seals spots, and announcements. Here is a quick rundown of the selections.

Gordon MacRae Show

Gordon MacRae

Most of MacRae's songs came from his then-recent Capitol LP, The Seasons of Love - "It Might as Well Be Spring," "Autumn Leaves" and "It's Summer in Your Eyes." (There are no winter songs on that album, save for "June in January.")

Also on the Christmas Seals program were "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face," likely his 1956 recording, and "Count Your Blessings," from 1954. The latter is sometimes considered a Christmas song because it was introduced in the film White Christmas. Van Alexander leads the band on all these selections.

Gordon is a big favorite around these parts. Here are links to his recordings on this blog and the singles blog.

Lena Horne Show

Lena Horne

Lena Horne has appeared here only a few times, mainly because her recordings are widely available. I did transfer her first LP (on M-G-M) as a memorial 13 years ago, only to find that the songs were to be reissued the following week. And with her Black & White singles, those too have been reissued, as I discovered recently in preparing a post devoted to those early discs.

I've newly redone the M-G-M LP in ambient stereo for those interested.

Horne's Christmas Seals program starts off with a song that Billy Strayhorn wrote for her - "You're the One," a very good piece that surprisingly is otherwise unrecorded. 

The Strayhorn number, "You Do Something to Me" and "It's All Right with Me" come from her 1956 LP It's Love. "Just in Time" and "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" come from 1958's Give the Lady What She Wants. The orchestra is led by Lennie Hayton on all songs.

Happy holidays to all!

LINK

Gordon MacRae in Victor Herbert Operettas - Plus a Bonus LP

My posts of pop operettas starring Gordon MacRae have been surprisingly popular. (They are The New Moon and Vagabond King, Student Prince and Merry Widow, and Desert Song and Roberta). So let's complete the set (and fill a request) with this disc combining The Red Mill and Naughty Marietta, two enduring Victor Herbert favorites.

As before, these are pop versions of the operettas, such as audiences might have heard from MacRae's weekly Railroad Hour on radio. Most of the song selections are quite brief, allowing more of the numbers to be included on each side of a 12-inch LP (or separately on 10-inch albums).

My transfer comes from a 12-inch disc, although I believe I have at least Naughty Marietta in yet another format - a double EP.

This post also includes a bonus - a 10-inch LP of selections from Naughty Marietta and Herbert's 1905 operetta Mlle. Modiste, from the RCA "Show Time" Series of the early 1950s, featuring Doretta Morrow.

The Red Mill

Still from the 1906 production

The operetta was a precursor of the American musical comedy, generally with slight but amusing stage business stitching together the singing. The Red Mill is a good example; Wikipedia describes it well: "The farcical story concerns two American vaudevillians who wreak havoc at an inn in the Netherlands, interfering with two marriages; but all ends well." To make sure you can place the opera, Capitol is sure to show you on the LP cover a red mill and the delightful Lucille Norman in a Dutch bonnet.

The photo of Norman and MacRae that inspired the cover art

Henry Blossom wrote the book and lyrics for the operetta, which opened on Broadway in 1906. The main attraction is Herbert's endless supply of melodies, including "The Isle of Our Dreams," "Moonbeams," "Because You're You" and "In Old New York.

The arranger and conductor for The Red Mill was Carmen Dragon, making his only appearance in this series. He was a Capitol mainstay for many years - as was George Greeley, who filled the same roles for Naughty Marietta. Neither use Herbert's own charts, even though the composer was famed for his orchestrations. For those, you can look to several more modern recordings.

Carmen Dragon and George Greeley

MacRae and Norman both sing well, although MacRae had a tendency to let his vocal line go slack during this period, a problem that never afflicted Norman. Capitol enlisted Los Angeles contralto Katherine Hilgenberg to sing "'Neath the Southern Moon."

From the 1906 production

These Capitol recordings date from 1954, and were the last in a series that began in 1950.

Naughty Marietta

Victor Herbert

Naughty Marietta, which graced Broadway in 1910, is Victor Herbert's most famous operetta and possibly his greatest achievement. Featuring an intricate - if unlikely - story by Rida Johnson Young, it takes place in the New Orleans of 1780, and involves pirates, slaves, disguises, a scheming politician and of course naughty Marietta.

Marguerite Piazza and Katherine Hilgenberg

Capitol decided to cast the title role with Marguerite Piazza, a talented singer with the required temperament but who also had a tendency to be squally and whose diction was not the clearest. She does match well with MacRae, however. Los Angeles contralto Katherine Hilgenberg joined the cast for "'Neath the Southern Moon," a good performance.

No matter who sings, Herbert's melodic profusion wins out. This particular work include both my own favorite Herbert melody ("I'm Falling in Love with Someone") and his most parodied piece ("Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life"). Capitol saved them both for the grand close of this quick and pleasant spin through Herbert's most enduring legacy. It and its disc mate are very well recorded, with the impact enhanced by ambient stereo.

Film still with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald

Unlike The Red Mill, I found no stills from the first production of Naughty Marietta, so we'll have to make do with a publicity photo from the famous 1935 film, with Jeanette MacDonald as Marietta and Nelson Eddy as the hero, Captain Richard Warrington.

The download includes a few additional stills from the original production of The Red Mill, plus a brief review of Naughty Marietta from The Gramophone. W.A. Chislett liked the production, but complained of McRae's diction: "I do not like 'comrade' pronounced with a short 'a'." OK then.

Bonus - Songs from Mlle. Modiste and Naughty Marietta

In the early 1950s, RCA Victor marketed a set of EPs and 10-inch LPs with excerpts from popular musicals, which it called the "Show Time" Series. For one of the entries, the label reached back to the early 1900s for Naughty Marietta and another Victor Herbert score, that of Mlle. Modiste.

These materials (and all the "Show Time" Series entries) have appeared on the blog once before, but this is a new ambient stereo mastering based on the Internet Archive's 10-inch LP, rather than the EPs I presented years ago.

Felix Knight and Doretta Morrow

The leading lights of these Herbert operettas were Doretta Morrow and Felix Knight, both veterans of stage and film productions. Morrow introduced many famous songs as an original cast member of Where's Charley ("My Darling, My Darling"), The King and I ("I Have Dreamed" and "We Kiss in Shadow") and Kismet ("Baubles, Bangles and Beads"). Knight was a regular in the operetta and musical recordings of this era, having taken part in productions of The Merry Widow, The Desert Song, The Red Mill, Can-Can, Kiss Me Kate and others. 

Edward Roecker

Radio and stage vocalist Edward Roecker joined the cast for Mlle. Modiste's "I Want What I Want When I Want It." Leading the orchestra for this LP was Broadway veteran Jay Blackton.

The "Show Time" presentations were even more abbreviated than the Capitol series - four songs from each of the two shows on a 10-inch LP. But the selections here are appropriate, and the performances and sound are excellent. Morrow in particular is an exciting performer. RCA sensibly leads Mlle. Modiste with her gorgeous performance of "Kiss Me Again," one of Herbert's best songs.

Gordon MacRae in 'New Moon' and 'Vagabond King'

A few years ago I posted two LPs worth of highlights from four operettas, all made in the early 1950s and featuring baritone Gordon MacRae. Over the next few posts I'll complete the set, with two more albums and four more sets of operetta excerpts.

Today's post presents the first two operettas that Capitol produced - The New Moon and The Vagabond King, both recorded in 1950. In the near future I'll offer the remaining two - The Red Mill and Naughty Marietta. They are the last in the series, dating from 1954.

Capitol offered each operetta on its own 10-inch LP, then combined two of them onto one 12-inch record. My posts come from the 12-inch versions.

The New Moon

Sigmund Romberg's The New Moon and Rudolf Friml's The Vagabond King were both hits on Broadway in the 1920s, and as such were among the last of the species to become popular in this country. But while musicals took over the stage, operettas maintained popularity in films (Nelson Eddy, Jeanette MacDonald, etc.), radio and to a degree on records. This lasted well into the 1950s (e.g., the rise of Mario Lanza) and even the 60s, when MacRae himself re-recorded four operetta sets in stereo. Even today, community groups and some professional ensembles stage these enduring favorites.

For this first pair of Capitol productions, MacRae was joined by the superb mezzo-soprano Lucille Norman. They were co-stars on radio's Railroad Hour, where the duo presented highlights from musicals and operettas much as these LPs do. The back cover mentions the radio show, and has a drawing of their giant heads trundling by, pulled by an old locomotive.

The New Moon had book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, Frank Mandel, and Laurence Schwab, and was the third in a series of popular successes for Romberg. The other two, The Student Prince and The Desert Song, also appear in this series and have been featured on this blog (links below).

Listening to the New Moon selections is pure pleasure, at least after you get past "Stout Hearted Men." The songs are memorable - "Marianne," "One Kiss," "Wanting You," "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" (always preferable to an evening sunrise), and "Lover, Come Back to Me." "Wanting You" demonstrates that MacRae and Norman had the same rapport as the baritone and Jo Stafford, who often recorded together. "Lover" is a fine showcase for Norman. These recordings usually include the verses, which are enjoyable to hear.

Lucille Norman

A word about Lucille Norman (1921-98). Although she had appeared in a few films and on Broadway in the 1940s, her primary fame came from her radio shows, both with MacRae and on her own. In 1951, she returned to films to appear with Dennis Morgan in Painting the Clouds with Sunshine. Capitol issued a "songs from the film" LP (right) featuring her and Morgan, which I posted here years ago and have now remastered in ambient stereo, with new scans. In 1952, she took on a dramatic role with Randolph Scott in the western Carson City.

For The New Moon, Capitol's competition in the market was a 1949 RCA Victor recording led by Al Goodman, who had co-orchestrated and conducted the 1928 Broadway production. Victor's principal voices were Earl Wrightson and Frances Greer. In 1953, Decca countered with a Lee Sweetland-Jane Wilson recording conducted by Victor Young. (I have that record if anyone is interested.)

The Vagabond King

The Vagabond King is another operetta with the usual formula of nobility, conflict and romance. The 1925 show had music by Rudolf Friml, with book and lyrics by Brian Hooker and William H. Post. It was based on Justin Huntley McCarthy's novel and play If I Were King.

10-inch LP cover

As with The New Moon, Capitol's Vagabond King recording comes out of the overture with a hearty number, "The Song of the Vagabonds," and as with The New Moon, that isn't where the song appeared in the stage show. 

The record then provides a specialty for Norman ("Some Day") and for MacRae ("Only a Rose"). Here, the baritone betrays a tendency to croon, which shows up in both shows. My guess is that he was tired, having a full schedule of films (both Tea for Two and The West Point Story were issued in 1950), radio (The Railroad Hour) and records (Capitol was having him wax such tunes as "You Dyed Your Hair Chartreuse" and "Hongi Tongi Hoki Poki").

The two stars then combine for "Love Me Tonight" and, appropriately, "Tomorrow." "Nocturne" is a feature for the choir, with the men rather thin-toned. Oddly, the gorgeous "Huguette Waltz" is not sung by Norman but by the choir. As with The New Moon, the selections conclude with a finale, and mercifully MacRae and Norman reappear.

For both operettas, Paul Weston led the orchestra and chorus, and presumably supplied the smooth arrangements.

As with The New Moon, Capitol's Vagabond King had competition from RCA Victor's Al Goodman, Earl Wrightson and Frances Greer, via a 1949 album. In 1951, Decca would counter with its own production led by Victor Young and starring Alfred Drake and Mimi Benzell. The latter LP was featured on this blog a few years ago, packaged with nine of Drake's solo recordings. That collection is still available here.

The Student Prince, Merry Widow, Desert Song and Roberta in Ambient Stereo

Previously in this MacRae series, we've enjoyed (I hope) excerpts from four operettas - The Student Prince, The Merry Widow, Desert Song and Roberta. (The last is a musical, but is in the operetta tradition.) I've now remastered them all in ambient stereo - links to the original posts are below; download links can also be found in the comments to this post.

The Student Prince and Merry Widow. The Student Prince was another deservedly popular operetta by Sigmund Romberg, dating from 1924. For its 1953 disc, Capitol paired MacRae with the excellent Dorothy Warenskjold. For Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow of 1905, the label again turned to the reliable Lucille Norman to appear opposite MacRae. That LP dates from 1952. George Greeley was the conductor for both operettas.

The Desert Song and Roberta. For The Desert Song, we finally move from Ruritania to Morocco, presumably for its exotic allure. This is the third Romberg score in the set of six, with McRae again paired with Norman, and with Greeley handling the arrangements and conducting. The Desert Song came out when MacRae was starring in a filmed version with Kathryn Grayson. RCA issued a competing LP version with Grayson and Tony Martin, which I posted in 2008 and remastered not that long ago. Roberta, too, brought together MacRae, Norman and Greeley for a pleasing version of the Kern-Harbach musical from 1933. Alfred Drake's 1944 set of Roberta songs, made with Kitty Carlisle, is available here.

Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae - Sunday Evening Songs (and Much More)

One of my favorite posts from long ago is the 10-inch LP of Sunday Evening Songs by two of Capitol's leading singers, Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae. To me, this selection of eight 19th century songs by these superb vocalists is pure pleasure.

Stafford and MacRae often recorded together in the late 1940s and up until Stafford and arranger Paul Weston decamped for Columbia Records in fall 1950.

Today's post expands on Sunday Evening Songs by adding 12 more items from the same period. These include the four additional songs that Capitol later included on the 1956 LP Memory Songs - a retitled expansion of Sunday Evening Songs. Also included are the flip sides of those four songs when they were first issued as singles, plus a promotional record that Capitol issued to plug one of them, the duo's version of "Wunderbar." That promo also included pitches for solo singles by both artists, so I've added those songs and their B-sides to the mix as well.

Hopefully all this will become clear below, but if not, the tunes will still sound as good.

Jo and Gordon

Both Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae were stars when they began recording together. Stafford had been the lead singer of Tommy Dorsey's Pied Pipers before she went solo in 1944. She immediately began recording as a single for the young Capitol Records company. Starting in 1945, she was a host of radio's Chesterfield Supper Club, alternating with Perry Como.

Jo Stafford in 1947

MacRae had his own radio show in 1945, and later became the lead personality on The Railroad Hour, sponsored by the Railroad Association. He quickly became popular in Hollywood, first in a few dramatic roles, then in musicals, such as Look for the Silver Lining and The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady, where he introduced "As We Are Today," one of the songs in this collection. He recorded for Musicraft before moving to Capitol in 1947.

Both MacRae and Stafford were on ABC radio in 1949

Sunday Evening Songs

This is a new transfer of Sunday Evening Songs. Here is what I said about the LP in 2010:

"Two of the favorite artists of this blog and many of its readers are Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae, who frequently recorded together while at Capitol.

"In this 10-inch LP from 1950, they present what they call 'Sunday evening songs.' The liner notes tell us that in the early years of the 20th century members of the household would gather around the piano for a group sing of sweet, familiar songs. Stafford and MacRae, aided by Paul Weston's apposite arrangements, present eight of these songs in straightforward, but infinitely pleasing renditions.

"None of this material would have been new even at the turn of the 20th century. It dates from as early as 1833. The notes tell us that such songs were enjoying a renaissance in the postwar world; would that there would be such a renaissance today. But this music is as passé as the green piano cloth on the spectacular album cover."

All the recordings come from August 1950, near the end of Stafford's tenure at Capitol. The other items in this collection are from 1948 and 1949.

Promoting "Wunderbar" and Solo Songs

You didn't need much of a memory to recall most of the other "memory songs" that Capitol included on its 12-inch version of Sunday Evening Songs. Three of the four were not old, and "Wunderbar," the subject of the promotional disc presented here, dated back only to 1949.

MacRae and Stafford had recorded the number when it was new and was being featured in Cole Porter's giant Broadway hit, Kiss Me, Kate. In about April 1949, Capitol sent a two-record set of promotional discs to the nation's disc jockeys to plug their "Wunderbar" duet, along with their current solo singles of "Kisses and Tears" (Gordon) and "Open Door, Open Arms" (Jo). The promo disc I have in hand (courtesy of Internet Archive) has spoken introductions to these three recordings. The idea was that the disc jockey would conduct a fake interview with Stafford and MacRae, reading from a script (which I don't have), and the artists would lead into their discs. As you might expect, the results are stiff and strained - which has its own charm, of course.

Among Capitol's most important artists

This collection also includes the B-sides to those three numbers: "I'll String Along with You" (a duet), "As We Are Today" (Gordon) and "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" (Jo). The latter is associated with Marilyn Monroe, who vamped her way through it in the 1953 film version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but this record was in conjunction with the 1949 stage production, where Carol Channing introduced the song.

"Wunderbar" also ended up in a 1950 Stafford-McRae album of Kiss Me, Kate songs. That collection also included six solo numbers from the score, equally split between Jo and Gordon, plus a choral version of "Too Darn Hot." While only "Wunderbar" is included in this post, the duo's Kiss Me, Kate LP has appeared on this blog and is available here in newly remastered form.

The Remaining Memory Songs and B-Sides

Although most of the numbers added to Memory Songs were not old, only "Wunderbar" wasn't a stylistic fit with the 19th-century compositions on the earlier 10-inch LP.

"Beyond the Sunset" is a beautiful sacred song that Virgil and Blanche Brock wrote in 1936, and the MacRae-Stafford duo recorded in 1950. It's B-side is "Near Me," a cover of a Johnny Lee Wills song that had appeared on the flip side of his 1950 "Rag Mop" single. (Jo and Gordon didn't attempt "R-A-G-G M-O-P-P, Rag Mop!")

Also in the collection is "Need You," a new but antique-sounding tune that was popular in 1949. Its flip side is "'A' You're Adorable." This Stafford-MacRae single was popular, but not as much as the big hit version by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters. 

The final tune added to Memory Songs was a precursor to Sunday Evening Songs in that it dates from the 19th century. "Whispering Hope" did well for the duo in 1949. The song has a strange history, at least according to one source. The composer was Septimus Winner ("Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone," "Listen to the Mockingbird") under the name of Alice Hawthorne. "Whispering Hope" was published in 1868, but Winner had written it during the Civil War under the name "Give Us Back Our Old Commander," a plea to return Gen. George McClellan to service. McClellan had broken with Lincoln and in fact ran against the President in 1864. Winner's song was supposedly considered treasonous, resulting in his being jailed until he repudiated it. The tune that ended up as "Whispering Hope" is now often considered a gospel song.

I can't imagine how the lovely melody of "Whispering Hope" could have been used to promote Lincoln's antagonist, but regardless, it makes for a beautiful record. Paul Weston apparently had recalled the 1920s recording of the song by Louise Homer and Alma Gluck, and suggested it to Stafford and MacRae. The result did very well.

1949 Billboard ad

The B-side of "Whispering Hope" - "A Thought in My Heart" - is included here as well.

These recordings, which come from my collection and Internet Archive, generally have excellent sound. I have tracked the promotional bits to that they can be removed from your playlist when Gordon and Jo's remarks lose their charm.

Stafford and MacRae were again Capitol artists in the early 1960s, and recorded two additional LPs together, both of sacred material. The first, Whispering Hope, included both that song and "Beyond the Sunset" from this collection, in new renditions.

As a companion to this post, I've uploaded a rare promotional single that MacRae produced in about 1950 for the benefit of Community Chest, the forerunner of today's United Way in the US. It's on my singles blog.