The Songs of 'State Fair'

The poster above is from the 1945 film State Fair, a charming film with six good songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein in the Americana mode that for them started with the blockbuster stage musical Oklahoma!

My intent was to collect some of the commercial recordings of songs from the 1945 film. Then I remembered that Richard Rodgers had written both words and music for several new songs for a 1962 remake. This in turn led me to the 1996 stage musical, which had its own additions from the Rodgers & Hammerstein back catalogue. And that production had been a reworking of a 1969 staging, which featured different R&H additions.

Eventually I ended up with 26 selections, which can be categorized as follows:

• The songs from the 1945 film: eight selections, including one song cut from the film and one alternate take. The title song also is included, albeit in a 1962 recording.

• The new songs for the 1962 film: four songs by Rodgers.

• The R&H catalog songs added to the 1969 stage musical, in their original versions.

• The seven catalog songs inserted into the 1996 Broadway musical, in their original versions, plus one song that was a reworking of another song cut from an R&H musical.

All this will become clear, or at least clearer, as we proceed. First some background.

The Story of State Fair

Ground zero for all these musicals - and a 1976 non-musical television adaptation - was Phil Stong's 1932 novel with the same name, which related the story of an Iowa farm family named Frake - father Abel, mother Melissa and teen offspring Margy and Wayne - and their trip to the State Fair. Romance for the youngsters and blue ribbons for Ma and Pa ensued.

Hollywood immediately picked up on the story. The following year, a non-musical film starring Will Rogers, Louise Dresser, Norman Foster and Janet Gaynor showed up in the nation's film emporia. You'll notice Lew Ayes snuggling with Janet Gaynor above. He's one of the love interests. Not sure who the other figure is. It can't be Louise Dresser, so it must be Sally Eilers, whose slinky attire apparently was designed to allure Wayne.

Songs from the 1945 Film

State Fair was the only musical that R&H composed directly for the screen. Although it is set at the fair, the story is really about two restless young people who are dreaming of a world beyond the farm. Ma and Pa provide comic relief - Abel with his giant hog; Melissa with her mincemeat pies.

"It Might as Well Be Spring"

The "dreaming" theme is quickly established by the most famous song from the score - "It Might as Well Be Spring," which Margy (Jeanne Crain, dubbed by Louanne Hogan) sings from an open window:

I keep wishing I were somewhere else / Walking down a brand new street

Hearing words that I have never heard / From a man I've yet to meet

This longing for something new was common in the times, and was a theme in American literature at least as far back as Eugene O'Neill's 1918 play Beyond the Horizon. In films it had shown up in The Wizard of Oz ("Over the Rainbow'). Later it would become integral to Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land.

There were surprisingly few commercial recordings of the State Fair songs at the time. The most notable set was an album with five songs by Dick Haymes, who took the role of Wayne Frake. This collection includes three of those - "It Might as Well Be Spring," "All I Owe Ioway" and "It's a Grand Night for Singing." In the film, he features only in the latter, in ensemble.

Vivian Blaine and Dick Haymes

Oddly, Dick did not record his main song in the film - "Isn't It Kinda Fun?", a duet with Vivian Blaine, who played his prospective love interest, band singer Emily Edwards. So I've added an aircheck from his radio show, where his partner is Helen Forrest, along with a solo version that's an outtake from the film, I believe.

Haymes is wonderful, of course - his voice is evenly produced in a resonant baritone, with remarkably accurate pitch.

I've also included a few commercial recordings of interest. Margaret Whiting did a fine version of "It Might as Well Be Spring" with Paul Weston. This was one of Maggie's first recordings - Weston was top billed - and in truth his arrangement is beautiful.

Some jazz artists adopted the ballad as well. Stan Getz recorded it at least twice. He's here in a 1951 recording with the young Horace Silver on piano.

"That's for Me" also attracted a few record companies. This collection includes a version by Jo Stafford from 1945 that is too cool-toned for this enthusiastic number. Artie Shaw also recorded it with a vocal by the warm-voiced Hal Derwin (called "Hal Stevens" on the label).

One song was cut from the film - "We Will Be Together," presented by Vivian Blaine and the band's male singer, played by Wayne Marshall. He was Haymes' rival for Vivian's attention. This song is included as well.

Songs from the 1962 Film

By the time the 1962 remake of State Fair went into production, Oscar Hammerstein had died, so Rodgers decided to write the lyrics for several new songs himself, as he was to do for the Broadway show No Strings, which opened that same year,

While the results are not bad, they are not at the level of the 1945 songs, so none of them became popular. To represent the show I've included the soundtrack versions, which are as follows:

• "Never Say No to a Man": questionable motherly advice from Ma (Alice Faye, who came out of retirement) to Margy (Pamela Tiffin).

Alice Faye and Pamela Tiffin

• "Willing and Eager": a duet for Wayne (Pat Boone) and love interest Emily (Ann-Margret), who is a dancer rather than singer in this version. Pat is very good; Ann-Margret was more dancer than singer, but she's effective here.

Pat Boone and Ann-Margret

• "This Isn't Heaven": Bobby Darin sings this to Pamela Tiffin. A good song, which Bobby does well, but neither he nor Pamela could act.

Bobby Darin and Pamela Tiffin

• "The Little Things in Texas": Tom Ewell (Abel) and Alice Faye do this one. I should have mentioned that this version of the saga moves the locale from Iowa to Texas.

Rodgers actually wrote five songs for the 1962 film. But I pigheadedly left out Abel Frake's love song to his hog Blue Boy.

Tom Ewell and Blue Boy

Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops did record a 1962 album with songs from both State Fair and No Strings that included instrumental versions of "This Isn't Heaven" and "Willing and Eager." To represent the LP, I've included their instrumental version of the opening song "Our State Fair" as a sort of overture to the entire proceedings. Rodgers wrote this as a march, and arranger Richard Hayman leans into it, making it quasi-Sousa.

The 1962 film was not a success. Here are a few excerpts from Bosley Crowther's New York Times review:

Twentieth Century-Fox' remake of minor bucolic tribulations ... is a basically obvious and, for the most part, dull fare. This "Fair" is at best, only fair. For all its good intentions, it seems to be a parody of moviemaking of the past...

One has the feeling that the songs are being sung on cue and not because the drama inherent in the scene demanded a song.

The 1969 Stage Musical

Harriet and Ozzie Nelson

State Fair was unusual in that it was a musical film that became a stage musical. The first attempt to do so was in 1969 in St. Louis. Pa and Ma were Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, longtime TV stars who had been musicians in a prior life. The production had pedigree: Oscar Hammerstein's son James was the director and Rodgers himself supervised the show.

This production added three songs from one of R&H's "smaller" shows, 1953's Me and Juliet, which was a backstage story that included a show within a show (also called Me and Juliet). It was hard to stage and confusing, so it has seldom been revived. It did boast several excellent songs, as always with R&H.

Isabel Bigley and Joan McCracken

To represent the 1969 State Fair, I've included the versions of these songs from the Me and Juliet cast album. I don't know how they were used in the 1969 production.

• "It's Me" - sung by female lead Isabel Bigley and Joan McCracken

• "Keep It Gay" - done by the male heavy, Mark Dawson

• "Marriage Type Love" - sung by Arthur Maxwell, the "me" of Me and Juliet, the show-within-a-show

The 1969 score also included a new song, "Away from Home." I know nothing else about it. (Addendum - reader John S. and Alan Gomberg send the following information: In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch review of the Muny production, it was stated that the lyric for 'Away from Home' was by Lucille Kallen. She adapted the screenplay for the stage and was credited for that in the program. She was not credited with the lyric. It is not known whether the song, with music by Rodgers, was wholly new or was perhaps a trunk song for which Kallen provided new lyrics to existing Rodgers music.

The 1996 Stage Musical

State Fair made it to Broadway in 1996, in a new production also co-directed by James Hammerstein. Abel and Melissa were John Davidson and Kathryn Crosby. Margy and Wayne were Andrea McArdle and Ben Wright. Donna McKechnie was Emily and Scott Wise was Pat, the new Margy love interest.

John Davidson, Ben Wright, Kathyn Crosby, Andrea McArdle

The show included eight new songs, all of which were taken from other R&H shows, or were cut or adapted from them. I've included the original versions when available and the 1996 recordings when not.

These are as follows:

• "Driving at Night" - adapted by James Hammerstein and orchestrator Bruce Pomahac from an outtake from the 1947 R&H musical Allegro, "Two Short Years." This ensemble number is taken from the 1996 cast album.

• "You Never Had It So Good" - cut from Me and Juliet and done here by Donna McKechnie and Scott Wise.

• "When I Go Out Walking with My Baby" - cut from Oklahoma! and sung here by John Davidson and Kathryn Crosby.

John Battles and Gloria Wills

• "So Far" - from 1947's story-of-a life Allegro, with Gloria Wills from its original cast.

• "The Man I Used to Be" - from Pipe Dream, a 1955 sequel to Cannery Row written by John Steinbeck with music by R&H, here sung by William Johnson of its original cast as lead character Doc.

• "That's the Way It Happens" - from Me and Juliet, sung by Isabel Bigley.

• "Boys and Girls Like You and Me" - this song had the misfortune of being cut from three productions - Oklahoma! and two more not otherwise by R&H, the films Meet Me in St. Louis and Take Me Out to the Ball Game. Judy Garland made a commercial recording of the song, but here we have Frank Sinatra's outtake from the baseball musical. It's a beautiful piece, although the verse is a fine example of Hammerstein poesy.

William Johnson and Judy Tyler

• "The Next Time It Happens" - from Pipe Dream, here sung by Judy Tyler of its original cast.

The 1996 production carried over two songs from the 1962 film, "More than Just a Friend" and "Willing and Eager."

In the New York Times, Vincent Canby summarized both the appeal of the score and the failure of the Broadway production (it lasted four months):

State Fair still clings today, in large part because of the lilting score that includes such songs as "It Might as Well Be Spring," "That's for Me" and "Our State Fair." Be warned, however: If you allow any one of the melodies to penetrate your consciousness, you put yourself at risk. It will buzz around in the mind forever, or until a deep doze sets you free...

Here's a faithful, utterly mechanical stage replica of a work that, while it was never exactly top-drawer, was typical of the kind of miracles Rodgers and Hammerstein could pull off when in good form...

There's nothing wrong with the good old family values that State Fair is still promoting, except they're now being promoted with less theatrical guile than brazen push.

The first production was sincere; a valentine to a rural America that was changing. Adapting that to later times proved challenging. But the music endures.

LINK

A Musical Version of 'Junior Miss'

Fellow blogger Ernie Haynes inspired me to bring back this post from 16 years ago with songs from a Christmas production that has been forgotten. What follows is an updated version of my commentary from back then with a link to a newly remastered version of the original four-song EP.

The musical programming that was presented on US commercial television in the late 1950s was remarkable. It  included an original Cole Porter musical, Aladdin, that was sponsored by DuPont, which only a few months earlier had mounted yet another original musical from a famous composer, Burton Lane, and lyricist, Dorothy Fields.

Unlike the score for Aladdin, which is still remembered today, Lane's music for Junior Miss is largely forgotten, as is the program that evoked it. Perhaps even more surprising, the Junior Miss stories themselves are no longer remembered.

Those once-popular Sally Benson stories, originally published in the New Yorker, were collected into book form in 1941, and then became a play, film and radio show - and finally this televised musical. Set at Christmas in New York, the superb 1945 film once made occasional appearances on television but hasn't been seen lately (at least by me). Its disappearance is very strange - the film is both delightful and touching, with wonderful performances by Peggy Ann Garner in the title role and Allyn Joslyn as her father.

Don Ameche and Joan Bennett

The TV musical featured 15-year-old Carol Lynley as Judy Graves (our protagonist), Don Ameche and Joan Bennett as her father and mother, and the 17-year-old Jill St. John as her sister. Also in the cast were Paul Ford, an unrecognizable (to me) Diana Lynn, and David Wayne. You can see the first part of the program via a kinescope on YouTube.

Carol Lynley and Suzanne Sydney

Unlike other more famous TV musicals, such as Aladdin and Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, there was no soundtrack recording to keep Junior Miss' memory alive - only this EP of performances by Columbia artists Vic Damone, Jo Stafford and Norman Luboff. I would have to assume this was issued in advance of the program, which aired on December 20, 1957. (This site says there is a poor quality bootleg of the performances by the TV cast, but I have never encountered it.)

The performances on the EP are as good as you would expect, and the recording as reverberant as you might expect if you are familiar with Columbia's 50s pop output. The songs themselves are quite enjoyable, even if the lyrics of "Junior Miss" are reminiscent of "Gigi" and if "I'll Buy It" brings to mind "I'll Buy That Dream." Also, "Let's Make It Christmas All Year 'Round" is not the most original concept.

It's fascinating to look through the listings for the DuPont Show of the Month in 1957-58. As I mentioned, Junior Miss came just two months before Aladdin. And two months after the latter show, DuPont and CBS mounted a version of The Red Mill with the following cast: Shirley Jones, Harpo Marx, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Donald O'Connor, Elaine Stritch and Edward Andrews. It was a different time.

LINK to December 2025 remaster

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 Obsolete Collection (Food Division)

I hope you will indulge me as I venture into one more Obsolete Collection - this time the Food Division. You can find the first Obsolete Collection here; and the Retail Division here.

For the Food Division, I've chosen both the foods themselves and the means of delivery. Let me illustrate by moving on to the first category.

The Cafeteria

Oh, I'm sure that cafeterias still exist; there's possibly one in your local junior high school. But their popularity has declined.

For those not versed in cafeteria culture, let me explain that in each such establishment, you pick up a heavy plastic tray and push it along a set of rails that unites all the food stations and ends with the cashier. You help yourself to a prepared delight such as pudding, and at certain points you ask the attendant for an entree - say, mashed potatoes and meat loaf.

These places did have a sort of plebeian atmosphere, so they have fallen from favor with many people. For example, the art museum near where I live once had an excellent cafeteria, which they have now changed into a fancy restaurant and a lunch spot where you have to move among disconnected stations to find what you want. It doesn't work well, but then again - it's not a cafeteria! (Well, yeah, it is - only atomized.)

To memorialize this once-proud institution, we hear from Cal Stewart and his hayseed character Uncle Josh, via "Uncle Josh in a Cafeteria." Previously Josh visited a big city department store; this time he takes the train from his New England home to New York to visit a cafeteria - a questionable enterprise to be sure. The record is from 1919.

The Hot Dog Stand

In this section, I intend to honor specifically the hot dog stand, not the hot dog carts that clutter up urban sidewalks. (For all I know there are hot dog carts on the moon.) These stands were small buildings where you could get a dog, perhaps a burger, and something to drink. I can't remember the last time I saw such a place, although ice cream stands still abound.

Hot dog stands and the wiener itself have been celebrated in song for some time. Back in 1939, there was a popular number called "At a Little Hot Dog Stand," where of course two hearts met to enjoy an encasement of processed meats and fillers. The song was recorded by several artists, but today we have Dick Todd, the "Canadian Bing" complete with Crosby's mid-period mannerisms, in a charming rendition of the Sam Coslow-Larry Spier tune. Todd finishes by inviting the listener to his wedding celebration - at the hot dog stand. Big spender!

There are also songs honoring the frankfurter itself, so I've included a few of them. First we have Chris Powell and the Five Blue Flames in a 1949 record of "Hot Dog," in which they declare their affinity for this sausage, which to their taste has to be accompanied by a cola. A good record, but I wish they would have revoked that man's tenor saxophone.

Finally, a terrific 1935 disc from Texas' Roy Newman and His Boys called the "Hot Dog Stomp." It's advertised on the label as "Hot Dance" music, and so it is. The group is a string band with guitar, clarinet, fiddles and all the trimmings.

The Diner

A giant "EAT" sign is the universal insignia of fine dining

Diners are still around, but few are the type that I am describing here. Like Chicago's Burlington Diner above, these were marooned old streetcars or Pullmans that were converted for the food trade. The interior presented a lineup of stools at a long counter. On the other side of the counter were the attendants and food apparatus.

Such diners often appeared in movies. The one that comes to mind is the Owl Diner in the Goldwyn Follies of 1938, with short-order cook Kenny Baker serenading Andrea Leeds via the Gershwins' "Love Walked In." You can see the clip here.

We have two songs today that are set in a diner. First is "Dinky's Little Diner" from 1946, with ex-Harry James vocalist Connie Haines. She was an expressive singer, but her diction isn't so good, so you may have a hard time following her. I did learn that Dinky fashioned his diner out of an old caboose.

You'll have less trouble following Harriet Clark as she tells her tale of finding love "At a Dixie Roadside Diner," which songwriters Edgar Leslie and Joe Burke located in Carolina because it rhymes with "diner," sort of. Harriet was the vocalist with the Charlie Barnet band. This comes from 1940.

The Automat

These days - and even back then - most people who are familiar with the Automat were exposed to it not in person but as a movie setting - such as Doris Day and Audrey Meadows carrying on a conversation through the Automat's windows in 1962's That Touch of Mink.

Let me explain. In the Automat, rather than having the food handed to you cafeteria-style, you would be confronted by what seemed like hundreds of small windows, each offering a delicacy (or some such). You plugged coins into a slot so as to unlock the window of your choice. An attendant would then refill the station.

It's the sort of thing that appealed to me in my youth, so I did eat at one. I don't remember the food but I do remember reading a book I had just purchased from Scribner's, a gorgeous store on Fifth Avenue. So the Automat had to be around there somewhere.

Anyway, in New York the Automat was also referred to as "Horn & Hardart," its proprietor (see photo at top of section). The format was invented in Germany, I believe.

In 1965, musical satirist Peter Schickele decided to immortalize the chain with his "Concerto for Horn and Hardart," which married the solo horn with his own semi-musical invention, the "Hardart." This instrument was essentially a baroque Automat, where you plugged in your nickel and received a toy instrument that then would become part of the musical proceedings.

Schickele (in his persona of P.D.Q. Bach) started out by performing send-ups of 18th century music. The audience for this live performance sure seemed to enjoy it - you may as well. I've included an edited version of Schickele's introduction followed by the opening Allegro movement. This is from his first LP, from 1965.

Thanks to my friend Ernie for suggesting the Automat as a subject!

The Bakery

Where I live, the shops that call themselves "bakeries" sell fancy cupcakes, fancy bundt cakes or fancy macarons. They ain't nothing like the old Indianapolis shop you see above. For that, you go to a supermarket, but it isn't the same. Instead of the uniformed attendants you see above, you get a adolescent in a cat t-shirt and ripped jeans.

There aren't a whole lot of songs about bakeries, but the young Jo Stafford did record "Bakery Blues" with her "V-Disc Play Boys" back in 1945. The bakery is an elaborate metaphor concocted by writer George Simon, and Jo presents the tale smoothly. She did have a tendency to croon, though, which is not exactly idiomatic to the blues, or to the style of  her "Play Boys," some of the finest traditional jazz musicians then active.

The Ice Cream Man

"Look like you're enjoying it. The photographer's paying."

He used to crawl down the street in a white truck, tinkling a bell or playing a jingle. He had to go slow to get the kiddies a chance to cadge money from mom or pop. He was selling ice cream along with popsicles and a few other delicacies.

The ice cream man was a beloved character with the young ones, if not mom or dad. After all, children are price-insensitive, so he almost could charge whatever he wanted.

This stealthy purveyor of treats has been the focus of a few songs. Today's selection is the highly enjoyable "Ivan, the Ice Cream Man" from the Kidoodlers, dating from 1939. Yes, this is a kids' record, but the Kidoodlers were a sophisticated novelty group that sang and played toy instruments, somewhat in the mode of the Foursome with their ocarinas. The whole record is great fun.

Ice cream is and was primarily sold as a packaged good, and in the days before snob brands, one of the major players was Sealtest, first as a franchiser and later as an operator of a chain of dairies. One of Sealtest's mainstays was ice cream, until that business was acquired by Good Humor-Breyers, which discontinued the Sealtest ice cream business five years ago.

But back at mid-century, Sealtest was busily producing promo records, including the "Sealtest Ice Cream Polka," with jingle specialists the Lande Trio, Julie Conway and "Johnny Cole's Music." It sounds like lots of other polkas, but you could make that statement about lots of other polkas.

Finally, the original version of "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream," from 1927. This odd tune takes you to the land of the Eskimos, as they were then known, and introduces you to a football team whose fight song is "I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream." Paul Johnson is your guide to this strange land. Warning: ethnic stereotypes ahead!

Leg of Mutton

"Guess what we're having for dinner!" "That better be pot roast!"

And now we move on to some foods that have lost at least some of their market. (Actually, these are all foods that I roundly dislike, so I may be trying to hasten some of them off the market altogether.)

Mutton leg is definitely hard to find. Anyone who has had mutton can explain why - it tastes gamy. Mutton comes from older sheep; the more tender veal from the younger ones. At one time mutton was more widely available, when wool production was higher in the US, and thus there were more sheep.

As you might imagine, there are few songs that mention this meat, but I did find one called "Mutton Leg" from tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet and band, from 1947. The riff tune is by Count Basie and trumpeter Harry Edison, but the name is in honor of trombonist Ted Donnelly, whose nickname it was. Jacquet plays the piece as fast as possible without running out of the grooves. I enjoyed the solos by baritone saxophonist Leo Parker and the young J.J. Johnson on trombone.

Liver

"Woof - liver!"

In my view, liver is only suited for dogs. Trouble was that my mom would cook it up - for the dog AND her.

Liver is apparently a great favorite with the canines (and some people), although my mother's pooch actually preferred boiled kidneys. I learned early to stay out of the kitchen when the fire was under the kidney pot. A more disgusting smell is hard to imagine.

There actually was a song about liver (if not boiled kidneys), and predictably it involved a dog. "Jump, Fritz, I Feed You Liver" was recorded in 1924 by Billy Jones and Ernest Hare under their own names for Columbia and OKeh, and as the Happiness Boys for Victor. I've chosen a competing version from the English label ACO by the Webster Brothers, who have particularly ripe falsches Deutsch accents. Warning! Ethnic stereotypes ahead (and liver)!

 

Bologna

Swift had it all going on in 1956 - sausage, hot dogs, bacon and bologna

When I was young, there were few things I detested more than bologna (invariably pronounced "baloney" around here), unless it were its processed meat cousins Dutch loaf and chopped ham. My sense is that bologna's popularity is on the wane, although that may be wishful thinking.

Bologna was popular enough in 1930 to inspire "The Bologna Song," which is in the nature of an elaborate ethnic joke with the Flanagan Brothers getting the best of their companion - a "Hebrew," as they identify him. Warning - ethnic stereotypes ahead!

Buttermilk

Not even a famous cow could get me to try buttermilk

I'm sure there are people who like buttermilk, but by gosh, I'm not one of them. I don't think it's as popular as once upon a time, and may be even less so after I explain to you that it is fermented milk. The thought of it makes me sweat like Elmer the cow above.

Surprisingly, I found two songs with "buttermilk" in their titles. Let's start off with the better-known tune, "Ole Buttermilk Sky," written by Hoagy Carmichael and Jack Brooks for Hoagy to sing in the 1947 film Canyon Passage. There were several popular versions of this song, but I've selected the one by its composer. The piece was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost out to Judy Garland and "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe." Judy on the rails was tough to beat.

I never figured out what "buttermilk sky" refers to, so I asked the great god AI for enlightenment. "The small, puffy white clouds that make up a buttermilk sky are often said to resemble a pattern of clabbered milk." OK, so what is clabbered milk? "Clabbered milk is a type of cultured milk product that's made by letting unpasteurized milk thicken and sour through fermentation." You can have it.

The second song is something of a bonus - a lively tune called "Buttermilk Polka" by Chet Ososki and his Blue Diamond Orchestra. A pleasant diversion probably from somewhere in the 1950s.

Pigeon

I was looking at a fancy restaurant menu from the 1850s, and was surprised to find pigeon on the bill of fare. Perhaps I shouldn't have been. Back then, passenger pigeons were so numerous that in some places the flocks blotted out the sun. They were so easy to kill that all a hunter had to do is shoot at the flock and be sure of hitting something. The passenger pigeon was extinct by 1914.

As you might expect, few if any songs survive extolling the pigeon, so I have resorted to using a song called "Bayou Pigeon," which is not a song about a bird in the swampland, rather about a small, unincorporated place on the bayou in Louisiana. It comes from Lou Millet, a Baton Rouge musician who ran Lefty Frizzell's band for several years. Lefty probably got Lou a Columbia contract, thus this very accomplished record.

These selections all come from Internet Archive, as fermented by me. The sound is by and large very good.

LINK

Songs from (or Cut from) 'Out of This World'

Previously in this series about the musical stage, we've tried to reconstruct original cast recordings where there were none. For this post, we'll look at a show where a cast LP exists, by exploring some of the commercial recordings by the popular artists of the day.

The subject is Cole Porter's score for Out of This World, a 1950 opening that lasted for about five months on Broadway. Not one of the composer's greatest hits, and a show whose best-known number was cut before the opening.

Still and all, it offered an entertaining collection of songs that were eagerly adopted by the record companies, providing plenty of grist for this musical mill. The inspiration for my post - if "inspiration" is the right word - was the following trade ad that ran in Billboard in early 1951.

Click to enlarge

As you can see (if you enlarge the ad, that is), nine songs from the score were recorded, eight of which are in this group. ("Hark to the Song" only appeared on a transcription that I haven't found.) The ad also touts the original cast LP, which has been reissued a number of times. Ironically, it lists the cast album right below the song "From This Moment On," which does not appear on said cast LP because director George Abbott cut it in tryouts. It is surely the best known (and best) piece that Porter wrote for the score. Fortunately it came to glorious life in the 1953 movie adaptation of his Kiss Me Kate. We'll eventually get to it in this collection, along with another song that was cut. And we'll add the song "Out of This World," which came from a 1945 film and wasn't by Porter.

Cole Porter and Charlotte Greenwood

Before I get to the music, let me pay homage to the show's star, Charlotte Greenwood, a wonderful comic actor who brightened vaudeville, Broadway and the films for several decades. Out of This World, based on Plautus' Amphitryon, had Greenwood playing Juno and George Gaynes Jupiter. While she does not appear in this collection, she can be heard on the cast album.

The songs below appear in show order - until we get to the cut items, that is.

Songs from the Show

"Use Your Imagination" was popular with the record companies, if not the record buyers, attracting many of the most popular artists of the day. That said, it's a lumbering creature that didn't bring out the best from the best. My favorite is the fresh-voiced Vic Damone with a band led by Harry Geller. Vic does sound fine, but even so, more animation might not have been amiss.

Jo Stafford and Paul Weston pose in the studio

"Where, Oh Where" is given a lush arrangement by Paul Weston that sets off Jo Stafford's lovely voice very well. It was her first Columbia single (and was backed by her own version of "Use Your Imagination," not included here).

Vic and Jo are well remembered, but our next artist is less so. She was a fine singer, though, and here takes up the most popular item from the score as it appeared on Broadway - "I Am Loved" - and does it wonderfully even when compared to such competitors as Frank Sinatra. She was Evelyn Knight, who recorded a great number of songs for Decca from 1944-52 and was often heard on radio. She retired from the business in the 1950s.

One oddity is that the Discography of American Historical Recordings lists Knight as being backed by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians. However, no label credit is given to the band, and the aural evidence does not point to the Lombardo clan, for sure.

Peggy Lee

With "Climb Up the Mountain," Porter decided to dabble again in the folk-spiritual realm, which he had mined in "Blow, Gabriel, Blow," for 1934's Anything Goes. This new song is similar, and it generated only one commercial recording, that of Peggy Lee. I am an admirer of the singer, but this is an execrable record, starting with the braying band vocal and carrying on through Lee's shrill, overemphatic singing. I'd say it is unlistenable, but then I am asking you to listen to it, and for all I know you might like it!

Rosemary Clooney and Frank Sinatra

Next, Porter tried to replicate the success of "You're the Top" with another simile song, "Cherry Pies Ought to Be You," which Columbia assigned to Frank Sinatra and the up and coming Rosemary Clooney. It's a tad abstruse, what with Porter comparing the loved one to "asphodels" and "Ambrose Light," a light tower in the waters off New York. (At the latter mention, Frank interjects, "Hey, that's a good one!", but then he was from around those parts.) Porter exercises his penchant for mildly risqué lyrics at several points, causing Frank to caution, "Hey, watch it!" when Rosie makes vague reference to Errol Flynn's sexuality. A fun record, even though the singers go out of tune at the end. (The 78 was also mastered considerably flat, which I fixed.)

Dinah Shore - nobody was chasing her

Another song from the show that was heard occasionally was "Nobody's Chasing Me," which was Juno's closing lament in the show but here improbably assigned to RCA Victor's Dinah Shore. It's another example of Porter revisiting an earlier song idea - instead of an entreaty for love, as in "Let's Do It," it's a lament for its absence: "The bull is chasing the heifer, but nobody's chasing me." Henri René accompanies Dinah with slide whistles and accordions.

Songs Cut from the Show

Now on to the songs cut from the show. First is "You Don't Remind Me," dropped during the tryouts but even so recorded by several notables, including Frank Sinatra. It's another list song, but this time a ballad, and Frank makes the most of it. Let me put in a word for arranger Axel Stordahl. This is more for his body of work, because here he and Sinatra seem of two minds about the tempo. It's a beautiful song, nonetheless.

As noted above the best known tune written for the show was "From This Moment On," recorded by several artists in 1950-1, but not achieving great popularity until it was used in the 1953 film version of Kiss Me Kate. It happens to be one of my favorites, so I've included three varied recordings from the later time period.

Dick Noel

First is a disc by the strong voiced Dick Noel, who never achieved great popularity as a record artist, but was hugely successful in the jingle field. It's a pleasure to hear his forthright singing, well suited to the material and ably backed by Decca mainstay Jack Pleis.

One oddity is that Noel has the same name as a well-known studio musician, trombonist Dick Noel, who appears on the next version of "From This Moment On," that by Les Brown's powerhouse band, with a superb chart by Skip Martin. This is exciting, but not more so than the version from the film itself.

There's also a link between Les Brown's record and the film version, because Skip Martin was one of the credited orchestrators on the film, along with Conrad Salinger, with uncredited contributions by Robert Franklyn and Wally Heglin. Any or all of them could have handled "From This Moment On." It is a wonderful chart, performed by the M-G-M Orchestra conducted by André Previn.

'From This Moment On'

On screen, the music's impact is heightened by the colorful set design and dancing. The film's choreographer was Hermes Pan, but at least some of this dance has more than a whiff of Bob Fosse about it, particularly his section with Carol Haney. Vocally, he is credited on the record label along with Tommy Rall, Ann Miller and Bobby Van. The strongest singing voice you hear is Rall's.

The download includes the audio version from the M-G-M commercial issue, along with the longer version directly from the film soundtrack. I prefer the edit because it seems better integrated and doesn't reflect the dancer's footfalls. The soundtrack is in stereo, though. (You can watch the dance on YouTube, of course.)

The Song "Out of This World"

Finally, let's discuss the song "Out of This World," which is unrelated to Porter's musical and predates it. It comes from a 1945 Eddie Bracken film of the same name, with a wonderful title song by Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Bracken plays a Bing-style crooner; his singing voice is, appropriately enough, dubbed by the man himself.

Sheet music from the film, George Paxton ad and vocalist Alan Dale

Crosby's Decca disc is desultory, so I turned instead to a relatively obscure recording, that of George Paxton, who had a strong band in the brassy mid-40s manner also adopted by Stan Kenton and Boyd Raeburn. Singing is the young Alan Dale, a very good romantic baritone. The Paxton-Dale record represents the Arlen-Mercer song very well.

These records are remastered primarily from Internet Archive needle drops. The sound is generally excellent ambient stereo.