David Allyn's 'Face the Music' LP - and Much More

Our journey through the recorded legacy of the great vocalist David Allyn today takes us to his fine World Pacific release of 1958, Let's Face the Music and Dance.

This was the singer's second LP for the label, following his Jerome Kern release A Sure Thing, which recently appeared here.

For today's album, we have two different versions - the original World Pacific release and a reissue from the 1970s, which switched the title to Yours Sincerely and reputedly comprised alternate takes from those on the original pressing. In any case, the differences are not remarkable, but I suspect they will be of interest to completists.

Please note that this set of songs was never issued in stereo, to my knowledge.

Let me also mention that this post includes another of the American Popular Music radio shows from the 1970s. with Allyn singing the works of Harold Arlen. As always, the program featured songwriter Alec Wilder and composer-pianist Loonis McGlohon.

Appropriately, the LP below begins with an Arlen song.

Let's Face the Music and Dance

The less said about this cover, the better

Unlike A Sure Thing, the second World Pacific LP had three arrangers - Johnny Mandel, who helmed the earlier album, Bill Holman, and Jimmy Rowles, who was also the pianist heard on the sessions. The band for the dates was called "the Bill Holman Orchestra."

Holman was a tenor saxophonist who joined Stan Kenton's band in the early 50s and soon was to become one of Kenton's primary arrangers. The arrangements here are in all ways supportive and the musicianship is excellent. Sorry but there is no information available about who is playing on the selections, nor who arranged which items.

Bill Holman with Stan Kenton

Allyn, Holman and the arrangers came up with a nice mix of excellent songs that aren't overly familiar, with a few exceptions. 

The LP begins with one of the lesser-heard Harold Arlen standards, "Hooray for Love," which he wrote with Leo Robin. The song was introduced by old friend Tony Martin in the 1948 film Casbah, which had an excellent score, including "For Every Man There's a Woman" and "What's Good About Goodbye."

Jimmy Van Heusen and Eddie DeLange wrote "Shake Down the Stars" in 1940. Sinatra and Tommy Dorsey had a hit with it.

Vernon Duke and Yip Harburg wrote "I Like the Likes of You" for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1934

"You Send Me" is not the Same Cooke song that had been on the singles charts in 1957, but rather a Jimmy McHugh and Harold Adamson number written for the 1944 musical Four Jills in a Jeep. Dick Haymes sang it therein with the Dorsey band. This is a good example of a worthwhile song that isn't often heard these days.

Steve Allen's second best-known song is probably "Impossible," which David handles wonderfully. Teddi King's single version is available here.

"Can't Help It" was a new song that Allyn was apparently the first to record. It's a nice piece that doesn't deserve its obscurity. The authors were Marvin Fisher and Jack Segal.

Not the Mississippi Sheiks' version

"I'm Sitting on Top of the World" is a great title that spawned two songs - one by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatman of the Mississippi Sheiks, the other by Ray Henderson, Joe Young and Sam Lewis, the latter made popular by Al Jolson. David chose the second song and did well by it.

The Gershwins wrote "They All Laughed" for Shall We Dance, the Astaire-Rogers hit of 1937, where Ginger was the vocalist. Fred's commercial recording is here.

A terrific Rodgers and Hart song that isn't often heard is "Yours Sincerely," which comes from 1929 and the show Spring Is Here. David's sincerity is on full display in this one.

One song that is still performed today - although not as much as decades ago - is "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries." DeSylva, Brown and Henderson penned it for 1931's George White's Scandals and the young Ethel Merman.

La Merman also introduced "I've Got the Sun in the Morning" in Irving Berlin's huge 1946 hit Annie Get Your Gun.

Finally, the LP's title tune, which is another number from the Astaire-Rogers catalog. This one is by Irving Berlin and comes from 1936's Follow the Fleet. Fred's commercial recording is here.

LINK to Let's Face the Music and Dance

Yours Sincerely

For those of you who didn't read the introductory paragraphs, let me mention again that this is the same album as the one above, only reissued under a different name and cover in the 1970s - and reputedly with alternate takes.

I will tell you that the processing of this version was not all that good. The sound from vinyl was screechy and muddy, which I've adjusted. It now sounds as good as the original above.

LINK to Yours Sincerely

Harold Arlen: American Popular Song with Alec Wilder

Alec Wilder

In 1976, National Public Radio sponsored a series on the great American songwriters with the noted songwriter and author Alec Wilder (1907-80). The show's title was derived from Wilder's influential 1972 book American Popular Song: the Great Innovators, 1900-1950. The host and musical accompanist was pianist Loonis McGlohon (1921-2002).

Each episode of the program featured a notable vocalist. We recently heard David Allyn in the works of Jerome Kern. This second 1976 show is devoted to Harold Arlen.

Allyn conveniently starts his selections with "Hooray for Love," which also began the LP above. He follows this with "This Time the Dream's on Me," which Arlen and Johnny Mercer wrote for the film Blues in the Night. Wilder surprisingly professes to be unfamiliar with the piece, which is strange because it's hardly obscure. More to the point, it's a fantastic song, here most affectionately sung by Allyn.

"Let's Fall in Love" comes from the 1933 film of the same name, where it was sung by Art Jarrett. The composer himself recorded it at the time. (If you are interested as Arlen as a vocalist, I posted a set of 13 songs by him a few years ago.) Ted Koehler did the lyrics for this number.

Loonis McGlohon with Charles Kuralt

As mentioned on the show, "Last Night When We Were Young" is associated with Judy Garland. But it was introduced on records in 1936 by Lawrence Tibbett. He had been slated to sing it in the film Metropolitan, but it was unused. Yip Harburg wrote the words.

Garland did introduce "The Man Who Got Away" (here "The Gal That Got Away"), in the 1954 version of A Star Is Born. It's one of the great songs (and performances). Allyn does it well. Ira Gershwin was the lyricist.

Arlen and Harburg wrote "Down with Love" for the 1937 Ed Wynn show Hooray for What! David mentions that he recorded it years ago for an unreleased album. This LP was to be issued in 1979 as In the Blue of Evening, and it is coming up next in this series. Allyn's performance here is over-emphatic.

No, Priscilla Lane did not sing 'Blues in the Night'

The famed "Blues in the Night" comes from the 1941 film of the same name, where it was sung by William Gillespie and later reprised instrumentally. Johnny Mercer was the lyricist.

Mercer also worked on "Out of This World," the title song of an Eddie Bracken film of 1944. That's the one where Eddie is a messenger who can sing like Bing - and is dubbed by Crosby himself. It's a great song for sure, but David is a little unsteady here.

Wilder praises "My Shining Hour" to the heavens, and rightfully so. David includes the seldom heard verse, always welcome. This is one of the many songs introduced by Fred Astaire, in this case in the film The Sky's the Limit - where it's actually co-star Joan Leslie who sings the complete version of the song. Mercer was again the lyricist.

The program concludes with a Wilder-McGlohon number called "Saturday's Child," a nice song indeed.

As before, this program has been remastered and is completely tracked.

LINK to Harold Arlen: American Popular Song with Alec Wilder

Lee Wiley Sings Harold Arlen

Here is the third in our exploration of the composer songbooks recorded by the great Lee Wiley from 1939-43. The earlier posts were devoted to Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart. The R&H article provides background on the singer.

This time, Wiley does wonders for Harold Arlen, a distinctive composer whose songs are suited to her vocal manner.

Lee Wiley Sings Songs by Harold Arlen dates from 1943 and was issued by the Schirmer label, in succession to the Liberty Music Shop (Gershwin and Cole Porter) and Rabson's (R&H). 

Along with the Schirmer album, for this collection I've added five other Wiley recordings of Arlen, dating from both earlier and slightly later in her career.

Wiley's Cole Porter recordings will be next in this series.

Shirmer's Lee Wiley Sings Songs by Harold Arlen

As with the previous songbooks, for the Harold Arlen album the vocalist is accompanied by a group of like-minded musicians, led in this case by guitarist Eddie Condon.

Eddie Condon

The album starts off with a jaunty version of "Down with Love," with a intensely swinging Billy Butterfield trumpet obbligato that plays off Wiley's vocal perfectly. She is in excellent voice here, and the session is notably well recorded. A strong opener.

Billy Butterfield

"Down with Love" comes from the 1937 musical Hooray for What, where Arlen worked with his frequent partner, lyricist Yip Harburg. Introducing the song was Jack Whiting, June Clyde and Vivian Vance.

The contrasting next number is "Stormy Weather," which was premiered by Ethel Waters and Duke Ellington in the 1933 Cotton Club Parade revue, but could have been written for Wiley. Her combination of weariness and wistfulness is ideal for the song. Butterfield is again a standout. Ted Koehler wrote the famous lyrics for this one.

Ernie Caceres

Lee sings the verse for many songs, including "I've Got the World on a String." Her vocal quality and presentation do wonders for the song. The clarinet soloist here is the versatile Ernie Caceres, who was at the time the baritone saxophonist in the Glenn Miller band. The song, again with Koehler lyrics, dates from the 1932 Cotton Club Parade.

"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" is another celebrated number with a relatively unfamiliar verse, which sets off the chorus nicely. It comes from a 1931 Cotton Club show, again with words by Koehler. Ernie Caceres is featured.

Bobby Hackett

For the second set of four songs, the band is augmented by three trombones, with Billy Butterfield succeeded by Bobby Hackett, who also wrote the arrangements for the first two songs. The busy pianist you hear is Dave Bowman.

"Fun to Be Fooled" is a strikingly good song that is not heard often enough. It comes from the 1934 revue Life Begins at 8:40, where Frances Williams introduced the number. Yip Harburg and Ira Gershwin were the lyricists.

The earliest song in the set is "You Said It," from the 1931 college musical of the same name, with book and lyrics by Jack Yellen. It has an ecstatic element that is well suited to Lee's vocal quality.

"Let's Fall in Love" is another Ted Koehler collaboration from a 1933 film of the same name. Ann Sothern sang it on screen. This is another favorite song of mine, and Wiley does it well. She does not include the distinctive verse, though.

One of the least known songs in the Schirmer set is the final one, "Moanin' in the Mornin'," another number from Hooray for What, sung on Broadway by Vivian Vance. It's an extraordinary piece, one of the most attractive songs in Arlen's catalog. Wiley is superlative; Hackett too is memorable in this fine composition.

Harold Arlen

More Arlen Songs

We have five additional Arlen songs that Lee recorded both before and after the Schirmer album, starting relatively early in her career. The first song comes from a 1933 Dorsey Brothers date that remained unissued until decades later, when it turned up on a Epic LP set devoted to 1930s recordings.

The young Dorseys

The song is "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues," from a 1932 Earl Carroll Vanities. It is very much suited to Lee's talents and temperament. She is in splendid voice and already a full formed artist at age 24. The obbligato is by Bunny Berigan. I've also included an alternate take that has appeared on bootlegs over the years, but it doesn't differ markedly from the Epic release.

During the 1940s, Eddie Condon promoted a variety of jazz concerts, at times with Lee as vocalist. A second version of "Down with Love" is taken from a March 31, 1945 date at the Ritz Theater in New York. It uses the same arrangement as the Shirmer recording, and even the same trumpeter - Billy Butterfield. Unsurprisingly, it's just as good a performance.

Jess Stacy

A few months later, Lee was in the Victor studios with her erstwhile husband, pianist Jess Stacy, and a relatively large ensemble. The subject was one of Arlen's most familiar songs, "It's Only a Paper Moon." That number was written for the 1932 play The Great Magoo, where it was known as "If You Believed in Me." The next year, it was interpolated into the screen version of the musical Take a Chance. A number of artists recorded it at the time, including Paul Whiteman.

In 1944, Nat Cole revived it and had some success, which apparently stimulated other recordings, perhaps including the Stacy-Wiley session. The easygoing arrangement features Stacy's idiosyncratic pianism, followed by Wiley's equally idiosyncratic singing. In truth, Russ Case's chart is not all that suited to either pianist or vocalist, but it's well played even so.

Dick Jurgens

Finally, we have a second version of "Stormy Weather," taken from a 1948 aircheck of the Dick Jurgens band. This large ensemble is very good indeed - and Lee is too - but she is best in a small group setting.

These selections for this post are taken from Internet Archive needle drops and my own collection, cleaned up for listening. The sound is generally splendid.

LINK to Lee Wiley Sings Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen Sings Harold Arlen

Harold Arlen himself was a singer who began making records in the 1920s and was still at it in the 1960s. As a performer, he was sly, witty and attuned to conveying the meaning of the lyrics. He had everything but a great voice, but even so is fun to hear. I've gathered 13 of his 1930s recordings in a new post on my other blog.

Ellis Larkins Plays Harold Arlen

Ellis Larkins is best known as an accompanist for Ella Fitzgerald and other singers, but he was a formidable artist on his own. This, his first solo LP, came soon after his first, classic Gershwin album with Ella. In it, his understated but sophisticated style is well matched with the melodies of Harold Arlen.

Larkins is a melodic improviser, with a sure sense of where he is going at all times. Allied to his strong rhythmic impulse, this gives his performances a pleasing sense of inevitability.

Larkins went on to a long career as a highly esteemed accompanist and solo artist in the clubs. He also made a number of records with another soft-spoken artist, cornetist Ruby Braff.

These songs were recorded in New York in June 1951 and January 1952. The sound was dead and distant; I have addressed this so that the results are a much better representation of what a piano actually sounds like. This was done at the cost of raising the noise level on what was a typically awful Decca pressing, so be prepared for some background noise. It's worth it, I think, to hear Ellis Larkins in his prime in great music.