The Complete Lee Wiley on Columbia, Plus Bonuses

Following her series of songbooks for small labels in the 1940s, Lee Wiley moved on to a major company, Columbia, for which she recorded three LPs in 1950 and 1951.

Today's post brings together all those albums, and adds a few bonus items as well.

Specifically, we have:

• Night in Manhattan - Wiley's first Columbia LP, from 1950
• Lee Wiley Sings Irving Berlin - A return to the songbook format, from 1951
• Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans - Recorded at about the same time as the Berlin album
• Treasury Department Guest Star - The songs from a program promoting savings bonds, circa 1951
• Maggy Fisher's Piano Playhouse - A 1950 LP by Wiley's piano accompanists for these LPs - Cy Walter, Stan Freeman and Joe Bushkin

All the Wiley recordings are from my collection. The piano disc was remastered from Internet Archive. There are separate links at the end of each section below.

Previously, Lee has been featured here in the music of Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, George Gershwin and Rodgers and Hart.

Night in Manhattan

For Wiley's first Columbia LP, she was co-starred with trumpeter Bobby Hackett, with pianist Joe Bushkin (and "His Swinging Strings") in smaller type. Both had often appeared with Lee, so this was a promising line-up.

The addition of strings was becoming a popular way to add some "class" to the proceedings. It became fashionable in jazz following Charlie Parker's 1950 LP. Previously, Sinatra often had used strings in his recordings, as had many other singers and big band leaders.

Perhaps it is the surroundings, but both Bushkin and Hackett sound more inhibited than they had in earlier recordings with Wiley, and the song treatments lack variety without the additional soloists that could be heard in the previous songbooks.

Bobby Hackett

That aside, the album is a complete success vocally. Lee, who is in great form, chose four songs by her mentor, bandleader Victor Young - "Any Time, Any Day, Anywhere" (which Wiley co-wrote), the fabulous "Street of Dreams," "A Ghost of a Chance" and the lesser-known "A Woman's Intuition," with an awkward lyric by the usually reliable Ned Washington.

Joe Bushkin

Also on the program was Bushkin's "Oh! Look at Me Now," with a special set of lyrics by Johnny DeVries. As vocal expert Will Friedwald noted, "the original hero sings of his desire to fall in love, the new heroine sings of her avaricious desire for checks and jewelry."

The other songs are two Wiley often recorded - "Sugar" and "Manhattan" - and the Gershwins' "I've Got a Crush on You," which she had revived for her 1939 songbook. Friedwald thinks the new version was influenced by Frank Sinatra's 1947 recording, which also features Hackett and perhaps not coincidentally Mitch Miller (on oboe). Mitch produced Lee's Columbia records.

Alternative 10-inch cover; 12-inch cover 

Night in Manhattan was originally a 10-inch LP. Columbia later issued it in 12-inch format, adding two songs each from Lee's Berlin and Youmans collections, which are discussed below.

LINK to Night in Manhattan

Lee Wiley Sings Irving Berlin

For her 1951 LPs, Columbia (probably in the form of Mitch Miller) teamed Wiley with the regular two-piano team of Cy Walter and Stan Freeman, who had appeared on radio as a duo, made a 1950 LP for M-G-M (see below) and would record separately and together for Columbia. 

Both were interesting characters. Walter was a fixture on the New York club scene, while Freeman is best known for playing the harpsichord on two hits - Rosemary Clooney's "Come On-a My House" and Percy Faith's "Delicado." (Stan also was a comedian.)

Cy Walter and Stan Freeman looking glum in the radio studio

Friedwald speculates that this teaming was an attempt to appeal to cabaret habitues, as was Wiley's sophisticated appearance on the LP cover.

Whether the accompaniment works or not is a matter of some dispute. There's no question that Lee sings beautifully. Walter and Freeman mesh quite well. But they also can sound as if they are in a different world from the vocalist, like they are in a separate acoustic. And there is a lack of variety in the sound, even more so than on Night in Manhattan.

Wiley complained to her friend Gus Kuhlman that she was not too happy with the records, and others agree. I'm not among them. Taken by themselves, they are a joy to hear, not least because they include some seldom-heard songs.

The Berlin LP starts off with one of the composer's greatest songs, "How Deep Is the Ocean?" from 1932. (I am reminded here of Sinatra's 1960 recording with a famous bass trombone solo - probably by George Roberts.)

The unfamiliar "Some Sunny Day" comes from 1922, and is one of the many, many Mammy-Alabamy numbers of the time. This one does have the distinction of including a talking hen, which you won't find in many songs. While the lyrics aren't great, the tune itself is catchy.

Irving Berlin

"I Got Lost in His Arms" is from Berlin's 1946 hit Annie Get Your Gun. Introducing the song was Ethel Merman, a much different artist than Wiley, to be sure. But Wiley is at her best here, and the pianists appropriately scale back their sound.

The performance of "Heat Wave" is fascinating because it features Berlin's opening verse and an interlude that few other artists have included, making a seemingly simple number far more complex. The song comes from 1933's As Thousand Cheer, where it was performed by Ethel Waters, one of Wiley's influences. Waters' 1933 recording also reflects the complete as-written composition.

J. Harold Murray and Katherine Carrington introduced "Soft Lights and Sweet Music" in 1932's Face the Music. A popular success, it was recorded by many artists at the time, then revived by Dick Haymes in 1948.

Lee Wiley in performance, circa 1950

"Fools Fall in Love" is a superior song, although little known. Will Friedwald remarks that the few other singers who performed it included Teddi King (who learned it from Wiley) and Marlene VerPlanck (who learned it from King). Several artists did record the song upon its being published in 1940, but it was little heard thereafter until Lee's performance.

Back in 1926, "How Many Times" was popular with recording artists, but today it isn't one of Berlin's most recognizable compositions. Wiley handles this up-tempo number with great authority. It is one of the best items on this LP.

Finally, another Ethel Waters song from As Thousands Cheer - the wrenching "Supper Time," where the singer's husband isn't coming home any more. He has been lynched. The song and performance are brilliant.

LINK to Lee Wiley Sings Irving Berlin

Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans

Vincent Youmans is perhaps the only composer with a Wiley songbook who isn't a household name today. He was popular in his prime, but he wrote almost nothing after contracting tuberculosis in 1934, while still in his 30s. His neglect is a shame - there is much to admire here.

Youmans was famous for building melodies from short phrases. Lee starts off her LP with perhaps the best known example, "Tea for Two." It came from the composer's huge hit of 1924-25, No, No Nanette (which endured a campy revival in 1971). 

Vincent Youmans

Wiley's second song, "Sometimes I'm Happy," is even earlier and was first published with different lyrics before being cut from one show, used in a flop and eventually finding a home in the 1927 success Hit the Deck. It, too, is repetitive, but the initial melodic figure complements the lyrics and the song also has a soaring section to provide contrast. Both songs have Irving Caesar lyrics.

Lee herself had recorded the next selection, "Time on My Hands," soon after its introduction by Marilyn Miller in 1930's Smiles. The song is deservedly famous, and Wiley's knowing reading of Harold Adamson's languid lyrics is perfect.

In performance, about 1950

So, too, is the much different song "Rise 'n' Shine," a cheerful Depression-era ditty introduced by Ethel Merman in 1932's Take a Chance. I believe the song had fallen into obscurity until Lee revived it. Buddy DeSylva was the lyricist.

"More Than You Know" is one of Youmans' most famous compositions, and for good reason. This torch song has been featured by artists from Ruth Etting to Barbra Streisand. Here it is in an affecting version by Wiley. The song, which comes from the 1929 musical Great Day, has words by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu.

Like "Rise 'n' Shine, "Should I Be Sweet?" is from Take a Chance, and is just as unknown today. June Knight performed it in the original production. Victor Young recorded it in 1934, which may be where Wiley learned it. Buddy DeSylva wrote the words.

Cy Walter and Lee Wiley

The yearning "Keeping Myself for You" is beautifully suited to Wiley's sympathetic approach. The pianists are at one with her on this number. Youmans and Sidney Clare wrote the song for the 1929 film version of Hit the Deck. Jack Oakie (of all people) and Polly Walker sang it in the film, which is now lost. It is another song that fell into an undeserved oblivion before Lee revived it.

The LP concludes with "Why, Oh Why," another little-known song, although I suspect some of you may have heard it before. It comes from the stage production of Hit the Deck. The lyrics are by Clifford Grey and Leo Robin. It's an excellent song in a terrific performance.

In summary, this record is a gem, and should be better known.

LINK to Lee Wiley Sings Vincent Youmans

Treasury Department "Guest Star"

Wiley appeared on a US Treasury Department "Guest Star" transcription that radio stations broadcast in early 1952. I've included her two songs, along with an introduction by announcer John Conte and a plug for US Savings Bonds by Lee and Conte.

The label says that the program is with "Harry Sosnik and the Defense Bonds Orchestra," but the Lee Wiley Bio-Discography speculates that her songs are actually airchecks from a late 1951 radio program with trumpeter Billy Butterfield and Joe Bushkin's combo.

From the early 1950s

The arrangements are similar to the ones used on the Night in Manhattan album, and her two songs are selected from that record's repertoire - "Manhattan" and "A Ghost of a Chance," both of which she does well.

This transfer is from the original 16-inch transcription disc.

LINK to Treasury Department Guest Star

Cy Walter and Stan Freeman - Maggy Fisher's Piano Playhouse

Cy Walter and Stan Freeman performed together for a few years on a curiously name radio program, Maggy Fisher's Piano Playhouse. Among their guests on the program was Joe Bushkin, and the LP the three made for M-G-M in 1950 is a fitting way to close this post.

The seven selections include only one song on the Wiley LPs above - Irving Berlin's "Soft Lights and Sweet Music." That's one of the two numbers that includes Bushkin; the other is a double-length version of "Indiana."

Richard Rodgers in the radio studio with Cy Walter and Stan Freeman

Otherwise, Walter and Freeman present "Falling in Love with Love," "Orchids in the Moonlight," "Oh! Lady Be Good," "Younger Than Springtime" and "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World."

Note: In the first version of this transfer there was a truncated opening to Indiana due to an editing error. Corrected versions of both the song and the complete LP are below.

LINK to Maggy Fisher's Piano Playhouse (corrected)

LINK only to corrected Indiana (Parts 1 and 2)

I expect to devote a similar post to Wiley's RCA Victor recordings soon.

Lee Wiley Sings Cole Porter

The fourth composer songbook recorded by vocalist Lee Wiley was devoted to Cole Porter, issued in a 1940 Liberty Music Shop album.

It's the fourth songbook, that is, in its appearance on this blog; the Porter album actually was second in its date of recording, preceded by a George Gershwin set from 1939, and succeeded by the music of Rodgers and Hart (1940) and Harold Arlen (1943).

As before in this series, I've augmented the eight-selection Porter album with other Wiley recordings from the same general period. The bonuses brings the total number of songs to 11.

This collection displays the talents of the singer in both the clever and romantic songs associated with Porter, as well as her sensitivity in reflective pieces such as "Why Shouldn't I?"

Cole Porter Songs by Lee Wiley

The album leads off with an accomplished reading of "You Do Something to Me," one of two songs here from 1929's Fifty Million Frenchmen, and surely the more popular.

The next item is one of my favorite Porter compositions: "Looking at You," which is popular with some cabaret singers but otherwise ignored. Wiley is a persuasive advocate.

The song comes from the London revue Wake Up and Dream, where it was overshadowed by two of Porter's best known inspirations - "What is This Thing Called Love?", which doesn't appear in this collection, and "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)" which does. The latter had actually been introduced by Irene Bordoni in 1928's Paris before being added to the London show.

Lee sings the third and fourth choruses of "Let's Do It," which are delightful and not often heard. She does not favor us with the seldom-performed verse, alas.

"Easy to Love" is from the 1936 Eleanor Powell musical Born to Dance, where it is sung by a game Jimmy Stewart, among other performers. The song is notably well constructed lyrically and memorable melodically. Lee is entirely comfortable with it.

"Why Shouldn't I?" is a treasurable song from Jubilee, a 1935 musical. It has become a standard but even so is superseded in popularity by that same score's "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things." Wiley handles "Why Shouldn't I?" supremely well.

Paul Weston

As with other albums in this series, the eight selections were distributed between two sets of accompanists. The songs above, except "Let's Do It," are with a small band led by Paul Wetstein, in later years better known as Paul Weston. The accompaniment is discreet; the only musician who stands out is pianist Joe Bushkin, who is well matched to Wiley's style.

Joe Bushkin

The other songs are with a group identified as "Bunny Berigan's Music," which is far more assertive. The trumpeter has several characteristic solos; Bushkin is again on the piano bench.

Bunny Berigan

"Let's Fly Away" is one of the two most recognized songs from 1930's The New Yorkers. (The other is "Love for Sale.") It is an example of Porter's marvelous ability to produce smart lyrics. Parenthetically, I am fond of Noël Coward's second set of lyrics for this tune. They can be heard on the album Bobby Short Is Mad about Noël Coward.

Wiley is faultless in "Find Me a Primitive Man" ("I don't mean a kind that belongs to a club / But the kind that has a club that belongs to him"), supported by Berigan's growl trumpet and George Wettling's tom-toms. I don't even mind the slight bowdlerization of the lyrics because Wiley delivers the extended verse so well. The song is from Fifty Million Frenchmen.

The final song - "Hot-House Rose" - is almost unknown. The album notes date it to 1929, but the sheet music bears a 1927 publication date. It's a good but sad song that may have remained unrecorded until this collection: "When I saw those flowers all in bloom / I almost forgot my basement room. / I'm hot-house Rose from God knows where / the kind that grows without fresh air."  Wiley is attuned to this lament, although it was much different from her typical repertoire.

Cole Porter

Porter was pleased with the set. "I can't tell you how much I like the way she sings these songs," he wrote the annotator. "The combination of voice and musical accompaniment is excellent. Please give my congratulations to Lee Wiley."

As with other Liberty Music Shop records, the sound quality is reasonably good. Working from the Internet Archive 78s provides better fidelity than the LPs in my collection.

One final note: many alternate takes of these performances have been in circulation. I find such compilations to be too much of a muchness, but let me know if you disagree.

More Porter from Lee Wiley

Despite the composer's professed affinity for the vocalist, she did not make all that many recordings of his work. I've found only three more from this general time period.

Two are of the same song: "I've Got You Under My Skin" is from Born to Dance, where it was performed by the talented actor Virginia Bruce. Wiley recorded it in 1937 for Decca in a performance led by her mentor Victor Young. The vocalist was second-billed, and as usual in these circumstances, the orchestra performs a few choruses before the singing begins. We also have another reading of the song from an 1938 aircheck, done with an unidentified band.

Lee Wiley and Victor Young

Our final selection is a live performance of "Why Shouldn't I?" from a 1945 live set with an Eddie Condon-led band that included the ever-present and invaluable Joe Bushkin. Lee was having some vocal problems at this date. She never had much range, but here she misses notes that she previously could reach. It somehow makes this wistful song even more affecting.

These Wiley collections have been popular. While I've completed posting the 1939-43 songbooks, I have other collections coming up.

LINK

Lee Wiley's Two Rodgers and Hart Albums

Lee Wiley sings with Eddie Condon, guitar, Cozy Cole, drums, Sid Weiss, bass, Jess Stacy, piano, 1943

Everything about vocalist Lee Wiley (1908-75) was distinctive - her singing style, her looks, her accompanists, even her choice of songs.

Not that she selected unusual numbers; rather that she pioneered the concept of albums devoted to one songwriter or songwriting team. Today's post is devoted to just such a team - Rodgers and Hart. They were the subjects of her second such compilation, dating from 1940, along with a later R&H album, which came out in 1954. While the former set has been reissued a number of times, the latter is more neglected - but still worthy.

About Lee Wiley

The young Lee Wiley

Born in 1908 in Oklahoma, Wiley (streamlined from "Willey") was in New York at a young age, and was engaged by one of the biggest bandleaders of the time, Leo Reisman, soon thereafter. She was making records with him as early as 1931, followed by dates with Victor Young and Johnny Green, along with radio work.

For whatever reason, following these early accomplishments, she moved back to Oklahoma for a period, returning to New York after a year or so. Her biggest successes followed, generally in the company of the so-called Chicago school jazz musicians, whose style was compatible with her own. The series of "songbooks" she made for small labels were all with those musicians - one of whom (Jess Stacy) she was to marry. The music was great; the marriage not so much.

Her career continued into the 1950s, when she made records for Storyville (the second album included here), RCA Victor and others. The market changed, and her career sputtered, like many others', but she was never forgotten, because she made memorable records.

"She moved easily in and out of the world of high society and the raucous, barrelhouse world of jazz. She often sought the sleek, sophisticated wealthy and brittle world of society, only to pull away to the warmth, love and uncertainty of the world of jazz," Frank Driggs wrote.

As for her legacy as a vocalist, critic Stanley Green wrote, "All Lee Wiley ever had to do was to sing a song and it was hers. For keeps. No one ever sang anything quite her way and no one ever could. And she managed this closeness of identity not through histrionics and bombast but through controlled nuances and phrasings."

Lee Wiley Rodgers and Hart Album

If you are at all susceptible to the Wiley magic, you will be enchanted before she makes it out of the verse on the first song on her first Rodgers and Hart album. The song is "Here in My Arms," a prime example of the songwriters' art and the singer's sorcery. Appropriately, it comes from the first R&H show, Dearest Enemy from 1925.

The Rodgers and Hart album was released on the Music Box label issued by Rabson's Music Shop of New York, which was then a new emporium on W. 52nd St. This was in a time when some record stores produced their own discs. In the recent past, we have encountered the products both of the Liberty and Commodore Music Shops, who were active in issuing Broadway, cabaret and jazz records.

The Rabson's album was a follow up to Liberty's album of Gershwin songs, which Wiley had recorded just a few months before. And three months thereafter she would be doing a Cole Porter collection for Liberty, followed by a Harold Arlen set for Schirmer in 1943. These boutique labels loved her, and its clear why - artistically, these are entirely successful records.

The songwriter sets were the idea of a young advertising artist and jazz buff, John DeVries. He came up with the expressionist cover above showing an 12-foot tall Wiley towering over Kaminsky and Bushkin, along with the covers for the other songbooks.

Max Kaminsky

The small groups that generally accompanied Wiley are one key to her success. They created an intimate, improvisatory atmosphere that set off her elegant, yet elemental singing. For some reason, the Rabson's records are attributed to two different leaders - pianist Joe Bushkin and trumpeter Max Kaminsky - although the same musicians appear on all items. The others are Bud Freeman, tenor sax, Artie Shapiro, bass, and George Wettling, drums. Two arrangers are credited, although the charts seem to be limited to who solos when. Regardless, those named are Brad Gowans and Paul Wetstein, later to become better known as Paul Weston.

Joe Bushkin

But back to the Rodgers and Hart songs. The second song is a contrasting fast number - "Baby's Awake Now," one of the more obscure items in the collection, derived from 1929's Spring Is Here. In that score it's overshadowed by the likes of the title song and "(With a) Song in My Heart."

"I've Got Five Dollars" is one of the two hits from 1931's America's Sweetheart, the other being the little-remembered but excellent "We'll Be the Same." I recently posted this particular Wiley recording on my other blog in conjunction with the Arden-Ohman single that came out when the show was new. Her personable interpretation was something of a corrective to the stiff Frank Luther vocal on the Arden-Ohman record.

"Glad to Be Unhappy" was still a relatively new song when Wiley recorded it, dating from 1936 and On Your Toes. It remains one of the enduring R&H favorites, seldom done better than here.

The next number is perhaps the best known in the set - "You Took Advantage of Me," from 1928's Present Arms, where it outshone such fare as "Crazy Elbows" and "Kohala, Welcome."

None of the songs from the next show, 1926-27's Peggy-Ann, are remembered today, but perhaps "A Little Birdie Told Me So" should be. It is entirely charming, sung with much grace by Wiley.

One of the selling points for this set was the presence of a new, unpublished Rodgers and Hart song, "As Though You Were There," a particularly fine example of Lorenz Hart's writing that amazingly may still be unpublished.

The final song is one of the duo's best, "A Ship without a Sail," with a soaring melody allied to one of Larry Hart's most personal set of lyrics. As he writes in the verse, "I go to this or that place / I seem alive and well / My head is just a hat place / My breast an empty shell / And I've a faded dream to sell." The number is from 1929-30's Heads Up!

The Rabson's recordings also came out on the Gala label in addition to Music Box. These transfers are a mix of pressings from the two original sets, restored from Internet Archive needle drops. "You Took Advantage of Me" and "A Little Birdie Told Me So" were mastered (or transferred) very sharp, which I've corrected.

The liner notes of the original album claim that Rodgers dropped everything to help ensure the success of this collection, which seems unlikely. Other observers have marveled that the composer approved a jazz approach to his songs, given that he reputedly preferred them to be sung as written.

Then again, as Rodgers himself pointed out in his notes to an Andre Kostelanetz collection, "Let it never be said that I resist the idea of large sheet music and record sales. Mr. Kostelanetz and I have formed the habit of eating and we like it." A practical man.

Lee Wiley Sings Rodgers and Hart

For this 1954 set on Storyville records, Wiley's song choices were more mainstream, perhaps reflecting the taste of producer George Wein. (He fancied himself a singer, making a vocal album for Atlantic in 1955.) "You Took Advantage of Me" and "Glad to Be Unhappy" are repeat choices from the 1940 album. The other songs are mainly items you might find on any Rodgers and Hart collection, then or now.

Lee Wiley, c1952

That's not to say they are unwelcome, and Wiley does them beautifully, if more cooly than in the 1940 album. Some of that was probably due to her vocal chords being 14 years older. Some may have to do with the musicians on hand. Pianist Jimmy Jones was an experienced vocal accompanist, having worked for years with Sarah Vaughan. But he was a much different stylist and much more linear pianist than others who had recorded with Wiley, such as Jess Stacy and Joe Bushkin.

Jimmy Jones

Ruby Braff was a young trumpeter who was contracted to Storyville. His playing is closer to what Wiley was used to hearing, but he was not always a distinctive player as yet. On "It Never Entered My Mind," for example, his obbligatos seem almost perfunctory (and are under-recorded). Meanwhile, on the verse Jones tries to stay out of the singer's way, and they end up sounding of two minds about the tempo.

Ruby Braff

But the next song, "Give It Back to the Indians," is much better. The trumpet obbligatos are more positive, and Braff provides a very good solo. Then too, Jones' support throughout is a plus. This is the best item on the LP; unfortunately it also is the last. (Mary Jane Walsh introduced "Give It Back" in Too Many Girls; her recording can be found here.)

About the other songs on the LP: "My Heart Stood Still" (written for a 1927 London revue) is done very well, including the verse, as was Wiley's usual practice. "My Romance" comes from 1935's Jumbo. The contrast here between Jones' horizontal playing and Wiley's more rhetorical singing is marked.

Hart assures Rodgers that beans could get no keener reception in a beanery

"Mountain Greenery," from 1926's Garrick Gaieties, can be heard on what seems like three-quarters of the R&H albums ever issued. Vocalists love to sing "Beans could get no keener reception in a beanery." It's an up-tempo song, so it makes a good change of pace for such ballads as "Spring Is Here." Wiley does it well.

Finally, "My Funny Valentine," a no-doubt great song that suits Wiley down to the ground, although her limited vocal range comes into play on the higher notes. The song comes from Babes in Arms.

As for the album cover, we go from the giant Wiley on the Rabson's album cover to a photo of her singing in a darkroom for the Storyville LP. This second image is the handiwork of art director/photographer Burt Goldblatt, who specialized in murky covers featuring underexposed photos further obscured by a saturated color overlay (cf., the Joe Derise Sings album).

I transferred the Storyville LP from a slightly later reissue with very good sound. If you have a few moments, read over the garrulous liner notes on the Storyville back cover by the journalist George Frazier, in which he admits he wants to have sex with Wiley, laments the end of his marriage, and criticizes the clothing choices of author and radio personality Clifton Fadiman. He even writes a bit about the record, which he likes.

And in that regard, let's give Frazier the last word: "Wiley is one of the best vocalists who ever lived, with a magical empathy for fine old show tunes and good jazz. Indeed, I know of no one who sings certain songs so meaningfully, so wistfully."

I expect to post more of her records as time goes by.