Buster's Unusual Spring

If your heart doesn't go dancing at the thought of another spring-themed compilation, I hope this collection, "Buster's Unusual Spring," will at least start your feet tapping.

In these 28 selections, I've avoided the usual spring songs - "Spring Is Here," "It Might as Well Be Spring," and so on - in favor of more esoteric fare. Multiple genres are represented - pop, classical, jazz and country among them. I myself was unfamiliar with most of these numbers. The best known are probably "It Happens Every Spring" and "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most" - and you will recognize a few classical melodies in new settings.

As usual, the recordings are discussed below in chronological order.

The first selection is the only acoustic recording in the set, and a late one at that - it's from 1926 and the technology-challenged Gennett label. Chic Winter (other sources say it's Winters) and orchestra offer the peppy "Spring Is Here" (not the Rodgers and Hart song). Winter(s) led a fancy outfit that was in residence at the impressive but long-gone Hotel Gramatan in Westchester County, north of New York City.

The following year, HMV had the incomparable John McCormack in London's Queen's Hall for a session devoted in part to settings by Granville Bantock of poems by Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng (the name itself is poetry) that were based on ancient Chinese texts. "A Dream of Spring" is from a work by the eighth century writer Ts'en Ts'an. McCormack sings with his usual penetrating intelligence, sympathy for the text, sweet tone and faultless diction.

Harry McClintock by R. Crumb

We abruptly switch genres from Sir Granville to the musings of Haywire Mac, the author of "Big Rock Candy Mountain." Here, under the name of Radio Mac, the America folk singer Harry McClintock presents the "Hobo's Spring Song," done for Victor in 1929. Mac was a colorful character who was a member of the International Workers of the World and spent time as a union organizer.

Harold aka Scrappy aka Burt

Also from 1929, we have tightly-muted trumpeter Henry Busse with orchestra and the much-recorded vocalist Scrappy Lambert under the name Burt Lorin. They offer up "Like a Breath of Spring-Time," which makes me wonder when "springtime" became a compound word. The song comes from the lost film Hearts in Exile, which was issued both as a silent and a talkie. Presumably the song was more effective in the latter version. By the way, this song was also recorded by Dr. Eugene Ormandy's Salon Orchestra before the conductor went uptown.

From 1930, Waring's Pennsylvanians give us "It Seems to Be Spring," written for the film Let's Go Native. With a title like that, the movie had to be offensive in some manner, but the plot summary just sounds inane, as does the casting - Jack Oakie and Jeanette MacDonald. One hopes that MacDonald rather than Oakie introduced the song. In either case, they had to be better than the anemic Three Girlfriends who assist Fred Waring on the record.

"Spring in Manhattan" of 1934 is one of the earlier releases from the Liberty Music Shop label, which specialized in cabaret music. Most of its artists were familiar from New York nightlife, but here, despite the song's title, we have Los Angeles' Bruz Fletcher, who recorded very little but has a following even today. Fletcher's song comes from the album above.

Ray Noble

We now transport you from Manhattan to France for "Paris in Spring," which Mack Gordon and Harry Revel wrote for the film of the same name. Despite the titles of movie and music lacking the definite article, Al Bowlly sings "Paris in the spring." The South African vocalist had come to the US with English bandleader Ray Noble, who assembled a superb American band. The troupe began recording in 1935, including this fine song, here in a wonderfully polished and presented arrangement with a characteristic vocal by Bowlly, an exceptional singer. Noble was to stay in the States, but Bowlly moved back to England in 1937 and perished in the London blitz.

Ella and Chick

"I Got the Spring Fever Blues" is from 1936 and and the band of Chick Webb with the young Ella Fitzgerald sounding surprisingly like Connie Boswell with a touch of Mildred Bailey. Ella is great, and the band, led by the short-lived drummer Webb, is as well. In the ensemble are such luminaries as Taft Jordan, Teddy McRae and Sandy Williams.

Peg LaCentra

Another great band was led by Artie Shaw, here with one of his first recordings, also from 1936. At this early date Shaw was known as "Art Shaw." Some of you may be familiar with "There's Frost on the Moon (Spring in My Heart)," which turns up in Christmas compilations. Shaw already had started incorporating strings in his arrangements - unusual for a swing band at the time. One of the violinists here was Jerry Gray, later a famed arranger for Glenn Miller (who himself was a Ray Noble sideman and played trombone on the "Paris in Spring" date above). The success of the Shaw record, though, is largely due to the excellent singer Peg LaCentra.

Teddy Wilson

Moving to 1939, we hear the evocative song "Some Other Spring," from the band of pianist Teddy Wilson and vocalist Jean Eldridge. Billie Holiday fans will likely be familiar with her Columbia recording of this song. Although Holiday made many great recordings with Wilson earlier in her career, she had moved on by this point. Eldridge was a sensitive singer, but didn't have a strong voice. Wilson's piano is excellent, as always.

Fletcher Henderson

The fashion for adapting classical airs for swing numbers was in full flower when Benny Goodman and band decided to adopt Mendelssohn's "Spring Song" for a 1939 record with a Fletcher Henderson chart. I can't imagine the composer approving this version, but he had been gone for almost a century at the time. More than 80 years later, we can enjoy both Mendelssohn's piano piece and the Goodman-Henderson swing interpretation.

Earl Robinson and Paul Robeson

A very different "Spring Song" comes to us from the great Paul Robeson and frequent collaborator Earl Robinson, working with Harry Schachter. Robeson and Robinson had their biggest success with "Ballad for Americans" in 1939. "Spring Song," an anti-war ballad, was issued in 1941 during the run-up to the American involvement in World War II. Robeson and Robinson were Communists, a group that wanted to keep the US from waging war on Germany, which had signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviets in 1939. "Spring Song" was released shortly before the German invasion of Russia.

Jerry Mazanec

From 1942, Jerry Mazanec and his Bohemian polka band regale us with "Spring Awakening." I believe Mazanec was from Cleveland, but his more traditional approach soon was supplanted on Columbia records by the propulsive Slovenian band of that city's Frankie Yankovic, who became nationally popular after the war.

Larry Green led a Boston society band in the Eddy Duchin mold. He offers "Spring Is Really Spring This Year" (as opposed to being autumn, I suppose). It's a nice song and the leader's florid Carmen Cavallaro-style piano playing occasionally gives way for a good Gil Phelan vocal. This one comes from 1946; I have a Green LP on Vik from about 10 years later, but it tells us nothing else about him.

Charlie Spivak

The trumpeter Charlie Spivak was at the helm of a swing band for many years and many recordings, among them "Spring Magic" from 1946. You will immediately recognize the melody for this one. Alexander Borodin invented it for one of his string quartets. Alec Wilder rudely appropriated it without attribution for this pleasant tune with vocal by Jimmy Saunders and the Stardreamers. Several years later, Wright and Forrest borrowed the same melody for "And This Is My Beloved" from Kismet.

Old friend Johnny Johnston peeks in with "I Bring You Spring" with the assistance of the Crew Chiefs and bandleader Sonny Burke. This is a good tune with a sonorous vocal that wasn't included in my 2019 compilation of Johnston's recordings. It comes from 1947.

Hal McIntyre

That same year, excellent Hal McIntyre band featuring the sorely underrated vocalist Frankie Lester produced an M-G-M single of "Spring in December" - another song that features in holiday compilations. Some of Hal's later recordings have appeared here.

Fans of Frank Sinatra and Dick Haymes may be familiar with "It Happens Every Spring," which originated in the 1949 film of the same name. The tune is nothing special, but Mack Gordon's lyrics paint a charming American scene at mid-century. This interpretation is from the future talk-show host and media mogul Merv Griffin, working with Freddy Martin's band.

Bill Farrell

The talented but now-forgotten vocalist Bill Farrell sings "Spring Made a Fool of Me" with support from Russ Case. Farrell, supposedly discovered by Bob Hope, had been listening to two other Bills - Billy Eckstine and Billy Daniels - but his singing is nonetheless impressive. He recorded for a few labels circa 1950, then made a few albums for Dobre in the 1970s.

At the same time and also for M-G-M, Russ Case recorded instrumentals under his own name, including an inoffensive "Symphony of Spring," which is our next selection.

In December 1951, Mercury invited Paul & Roy the Tennessee River Boys (seems like there should be some punctuation in there) to Nashville's Tulane Hotel to set down their own "Spring of Love." Paul & Roy were in the Bill Monroe bluegrass mold, minus the banjo. Good stuff.

Early the following year, the popular Four Aces Featuring Al Alberts did "Spring Is a Wonderful Thing" for Decca. Al's vocal gyrations have never been a favorite of mine, and here he is at his most elaborately emotive.

Back to the country genre for the Maddox Brothers and Rose and their "The Time Is Spring." This comes from 1953 and a group that is always entertaining, here supplemented by guitarists Joe Maphis and Johnny Bond.

The Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen and the illustrious arranger Nelson Riddle turned their attentions to Matt Dennis' excellent ballad "Love Turns Winter to Spring" for a 1954 release on the Capitol label.

Next, an obscurity - the multi-talented Ken Moore, who not only sang and played the piano on "Spring May Come," but wrote the piece and released it on his own Lucky label in 1954. Billboard called it "listenable after-hours wax" and so it is.

Kitty Kallen came out of a big-band background for a successful solo career, with her biggest hit being "Little Things Mean a Lot" in 1954. "Come Spring" is from the next year, about the same time that Kallen began having the vocal problems that impeded her career for several years. I don't know if this is why Decca turned the vocal reverb up to 11 for this record; I do know that the sound would be better without the intrusion.

Jimmie Rodgers

Bobby Troup's touching song "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" is perhaps better known as the reworked Beach Boys tune "A Young Man Is Gone," yet another James Dean homage that is beautifully sung but pointless. The Boys' harmonies were modeled on those of the Four Freshmen in that group's recording of the original. Here we have the excellent folk-oriented pop singer Jimmie Rodgers backed by Hugo Peretti. His rendition was on the flip side of his big 1957 hit "Honeycomb."

Our final selection will be familiar - perhaps overly so - to any fan of the cabaret singer set. It is "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," a wonderful Tommy Wolf-Fran Landesman song that is done perfectly by jazz vocalist Mark Murphy. This is taken from the singer's 1962 LP Rah, which I have featured in its unexpurgated version. (See the post for an explanation.)

Except for the final number, these files have been remastered from lossless needle drops found on Internet Archive.

Hope your spring is going well; it snowed here today.

Gordon Jenkins - The 1942 Capitol Recordings

By 1942, Gordon Jenkins was still only 32 years old, but had already enjoyed considerable success as a songwriter and arranger. He started contributing charts to the well-known Isham Jones orchestra when he was just 22, and began writing both music and lyrics for hit songs soon thereafter.

Jenkins had, however, made only a few records as a bandleader - I can only find four sides backing Martha Tilton on Decca in 1941. 

He finally came into his own as a recording artist with the founding of Capitol Records in April 1942. As one of the label's earliest signings, Jenkins led several sessions in June and July of that year, both under his own name and with his orchestra backing Capitol vocalists. This burst of activity was to be short lived - the first recording ban intervened, choking off most sessions from August 1942 to November 1944. Jenkins eventually ended up with Decca. He devoted his first date there, in December 1945, to one of his most famous creations, Manhattan Tower. Jenkins enjoyed great success with Decca, remaining there until 1955, when he joined "X" Records.

This post compiles 17 of the 22 Capitol records that Jenkins made in 1942. The five remaining titles can be found in my 2019 Johnnie Johnston compilation.

I am again indebted to collector extraordinaire and frequent collaborator Bryan Cooper for his help in assembling this program.

Time to Dance with Gordon Jenkins

Eight of Jenkins' 1942 sides can be found on the Capitol LP Time to Dance with Gordon Jenkins, which I posted back in 2009. I've now remastered this early 10-inch LP, which provides the first eight songs in this post.

Connie Haines

Although the album identifies all eight songs as Jenkins recordings, some were issued on 78 with him as assisting artist to a vocalist, with the rest under his name as bandleader.

For example, Don Raye and Gene de Paul's "I'll Remember April" was originally issued as a Martha Tilton record, with Jenkins and his orchestra as backing artists. Similarly, "At Last" and "Be Careful, It's My Heart" came out with Connie Haines as the main attraction. Johnnie Johnston was the primary credit on the 78 issue of "That Old Black Magic." 

All three of those songs derived from current films. Amazingly, the superb "I'll Remember April" is from Ride 'Em Cowboy with Abbott and Costello (eek!). Harry Warren's "At Last" comes from Glenn Miller's Sun Valley Serenade. Haines is good on "At Last," but you must hear the fabulous original soundtrack version sung by Pat Friday. Finally, Bing Crosby introduced "Be Careful, It's My Heart" in Holiday Inn.

As I mentioned above, Jenkins backed Johnnie Johnston on five other Capitol recordings - "Dearly Beloved," "Easy to Love," "Light a Candle in the Chapel," "Singing Sands of Alamosa" and "Can't You Hear Me Calling Caroline" - which can be found in my Johnston compilation.

Bob Carroll

The rest of the songs on the Capitol LP featured Jenkins in the leading role. Three are instrumentals: "Always," "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," and "Paradise," the latter of which does not seem to have been issued at all before appearing on the LP.

"Chasing Rainbows" has an uncharacteristic arrangement, starting off with a brass fanfare and quickly subsiding into a quasi-baroque chart with Jenkins (presumably) on the harpsichord. This must be one of the earliest appearances of the harpsichord on a popular record. I'm not sure if the arrangement is supposed to represent Chopin, who wrote the melody, but if so, Jenkins undershot the mark stylistically.

"There Will Never Be Another You" is another Harry Warren-Mack Gordon song, this one from Sonia Henie's skating spectacular Iceland. The recording has a vocal by the excellent Bob Carroll, a Charlie Barnet alumnus. (Some of Carroll's later records are collected here.)

The 1942 78s

With the help of Internet Archive and Bryan Cooper, I've assembled what we think are the balance of Jenkins' issued recordings from Capitol that date from 1942.

In tandem with "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows," "He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings" made up Jenkins' first record as a leader and one of the first Capitol issues. Connie Haines was the sensitive vocalist on the latter song.

Next we have Ferde Grofé's "Daybreak" with a vocal by Bob Carroll, which was the flip side of "There Will Never Be Another You." Carroll returned for Holiday Inn's "White Christmas" and for "Heaven for Two," a fine Don Raye-Gene de Paul song written, improbably, for Hellzapoppin'.

Six Hits and a Miss

Jenkins also helmed four songs for the vocal group Six Hits and a Miss. "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," one of Cole Porter's better songs, was introduced in Something to Sing About by Don Ameche, who did sing, sort of. The septet also appeared on the wartime novelty "Would You Rather Be a Colonel with an Eagle on Your Shoulder or a Private with a Chicken on Your Knee," "Bye Bye Blackbird" and another Raye-de Paul song, "Two on a Bike."

None of the Six Hits and a Miss songs are characteristic of Jenkins' later work or even the charts elsewhere in this set. "You'd Be So Nice" starts off with a semi-Dixieland chorus, sliding into the smooth vocal. "Would You Rather Be a Private with an Eagle on Your Shoulder or a Chicken with a Banjo on Your Knee," sounds more like the fare that John Scott Trotter was producing for Crosby than the approach Jenkins adopted for his other Capitol arrangements. "Bye Bye Blackbird" also is atypical, although here the group name checks Jenkins and he responds with a typically spare piano solo. "Two on a Bike" even has a Tex Beneke-style whistling chorus.

Six Hits and a Miss were originally Three Hits and a Miss before inflation set in. The group was formed in 1937 with Martha Tilton as lead voice, but the talented Pauline Byrns took over the following year and was still in that slot when these records came out. The group was ubiquitous on the radio during the war years.

Martha Tilton

Along with Jenkins, Tilton was one of the first Capitol artists. Jenkins' final 1942 recording for Capitol was their collaboration on "Comin' Through the Rye," where Martha somehow makes Robert Burns sexy.

Most of the other arrangements are a cross between the dance-band charts Jenkins would have produced for Isham Jones or Shep Fields and the more lush string sound he would use for Sinatra and others in the 1950s and later.

As was the general practice back then, when the singer was primary on the label, he or she took the first chorus. When Jenkins was billed as the main artist, a band chorus came first. The vocalist would sing a chorus, dance-band style. Jenkins' single-finger piano solos can be heard on both the vocalist-led and bandleader sides.

The sound on most of these records is very good. The download includes brief Billboard reviews for most of these songs.

One final note: Jenkins apparently was not an exclusive Capitol artist - he also led the band for a June 1942 Dinah Shore session for Victor. I am preparing a post of the six resulting songs for my other blog. These include "He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings" and "Be Careful, It's My Heart," both of which he also recorded for Capitol at about the same time, but with much different arrangements.

Despite what the Billboard ad above implies, Jenkins
apparently did not back Tilton on Moondreams

Johnnie Johnston: 'Platinum Hair, SIlver Pipes'

Capitol News, September 1945

Johnnie Johnston (1915-96) is forgotten today, but at one it time seemed possible that he could become a star not only as a singer but in the movies.

Today his legacy includes his excellent records on Capitol and M-G-M, plus a few Soundies and one starring role in a B picture. In this post we'll examine 28 of his single sides, while speculating why he never took the final step to lasting fame.

Band vocalist

Like most singers of the era, the St. Louis-born Johnston first gained notice by stepping out to handle the vocals with a big band. He was featured with Art Kassel and Richard Himber, both well-known leaders.

Johnston made his first records with Himber. The download includes his solos on that leader's singles of "Day Dreaming" and the "Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup" of Hildegarde and later Nat Cole fame. He handles the vocals well, betraying the influence of Bob Eberly in his phrasing. That phase soon passed, and from then on he was his own man, although recognizably from the school of Bing Crosby.

Radio Mirror, May 1938

Johnston also was on the radio during this early period, increasing his popularity so much that he became a single act and began a film career. He continued appearing on radio through the 40s and into the 50s. The download includes a few articles on him from Radio Mirror, including one fanciful biography that has him boxing, jumping freight trains, working on a passenger liner and selling matchbooks door-to-door, some of which might be vaguely related to the truth.

1942, Capitol records and films

The new Capitol Records company called him shortly after setting up shop in 1942, and he became the fourth artist to record for the company.

We start with the painful Jule Styne-Herb Magidson novelty "Conchita Marquita (Lolita Pepita Rosita Juanita Lopez)," a sort of Latin "Abie's Irish Rose." This comes to us from the inexplicably titled Paramount musical Priorities on Parade, set in a war factory. Johnston was fourth-billed in the film, and can be seen with co-star Ann Miller doing "I'd Love to Know You Better" on YouTube.

With Ann Miller in Priorities on Parade

It was a busy year for the singer. He also can be seen in the Soundie "Sailboat in the Sky" and the then-current novelty "Goodbye, Mama, I'm Off to Yokohama," the latter with Marilyn Maxwell, here billed as Marvel Maxwell.

The flip of "Conchita Marquita" was the more palatable "Windmill Under the Stars," an attractive and almost unknown Kern-Mercer song.

His next Capitol waxing included another Kern-Mercer song, "Dearly Beloved," the gorgeous balled from the Astaire-Hayward musical You Were Never Lovelier. Johnston handles it beautifully. The anonymous backing comes with a two-beat piano solo that seems out of place. The other side of the record was Cole Porter's "Easy to Love," with a Gordon Jenkins accompaniment.

Jenkins returned for Johnston's next single, "That Old Black Magic," the famous Arlen-Mercer torch song written for and introduced by Johnston in the film Star-Spangled Rhythm - surely one of the high points of his career. Johnston also sang the Styne-Loesser "Here Comes Katrinka" in the film. Capitol spared us that one, instead backing "That Old Black Magic" with the oldie "Can't You Hear Me Calling, Caroline."

1944-45 singles

The Musicians Union struck the record companies on August 1, 1942. This was a particular hardship for Capitol, which had only started issuing records a month before. Capitol became one of the first companies to settle with the union, in October 1943.

Billboard ad

We pick up Johnston's Capitol output with two songs from 1944 films: Raye-dePaul's "Irresistible You" from Broadway Rhythm, and the fabulous Frank Loesser song "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year" from Christmas Holiday, which, despite the title and the presence of Gene Kelly and Deanna Durbin, was a downbeat film noir. Paul Weston led the orchestra, and presumably provided the sumptuous charts.

The next number was one of Johnston's biggest hits - "(All of a Sudden) My Heart Sings." A French song by Henri Laurent Herpin, it was a hit for Jean Sablon as "Ma Mie" in 1942. With English lyrics by Harold Rome, it was interpolated into the Gene Kelly-Frank Sinatra musical Anchors Aweigh in 1945, where it was sung by Kathryn Grayson. Coincidentally, she and Johnston were to marry in 1947, one of his five ot six marriages (sources vary). The flip side of "My Heart Sings" was Ray Noble's "What a Sweet Surprise."

Next we have another success for Johnston - "Laura," written by Johnny Mercer and David Raksin for the film of the same name. Mercer - one of the owners of Capitol - apparently had great confidence in Johnston. It was well placed; Johnston's version is very fine. The backing here, as on the previous single, was by Paul Baron. The B-side was "There Must Be a Way," a pop song of the day that has some lasting appeal.

Also from 1945, we have another Johnny Mercer song, this time with music by Harry Warren - "Wait and See" from The Harvey Girls score. A good song but not one as well remembered as others from Warren. "Autumn Serenade" from Peter DeRose and Sammy Gallop completed the single coupling. Carl Kress, better known as a guitarist, was the orchestra leader.

For Johnston's final Capitol single (at least in this collection) we have "One More Dream (and She's Mine)" coupled with "As Long as I Live." The Manning-Kaye "One More Dream" is a precursor to "Five Minutes More," a Cahn-Styne song of the following year with a similar theme and melody. "As Long as I Live" was a Max Steiner-Charles Tobias song written for Saratoga Trunk. On these records, Johnston acquired the backing of the Satisfiers, who usually backed Perry Como on his radio show sponsored by Chesterfield ("They Satisfy!").

On to M-G-M Records

Capitol News, December 1945

For reasons unknown to me, Johnston left Capitol in 1946 for M-G-M Records. My guess is that the move was related to his being signed to appear in M-G-M biopic of Jerome Kern, Till the Clouds Roll By. In any case, Johnston's two numbers - a duet of "The Song is You" with Kathryn Grayson and a reprise of "Dearly Beloved," which he had recorded for Capitol in 1942 - were dropped from the film. It's been written that this was because Johnston had offended studio honcho Louis B. Mayer. That may be true, but I will note that three other non-Johnstone songs were deleted from the final print as well.

Whatever his relations with Mayer, Johnston did continue to make good singles for the M-G-M recording company - and as with Capitol he was blessed with good material, at least initially. Our first M-G-M single, from 1947, couples Victor Young's "Stella by Starlight" with the lesser-known but still excellent "Spring Isn't Everything," a Harry Warren tune with words by Ralph Blane. Leading the band is the little known Emil Vandas.

The next single also contains a gem: "Lazy Countryside," written for Disney's Fun and Fancy Free by Bobby Worth. It was backed by a lesser song, "Forgiving You." Dick Jones held the baton for this and the following session.

The next set produced a cover of the O'Connor-Kassen tune "How Lucky You Are," which had been a UK hit for Vera Lynn in 1946, backed by "Why Should I Cry Over You," later recorded by Sinatra.

Another musicians strike cost the recording industry most of 1948. When Johnston returned to the studio, he was faced with somewhat weaker material. "The Rose of Tularosa" is one of the many songs where the wandering singer meets an enchantress in a bistro. Often (e.g., Marty Robbins' incredible "El Paso") these scenarios end tragically. This one has a happy ending. For the geographically curious, Tularosa is in New Mexico. The backing is the annoying "Echoes," where the arranger (presumably bandleader Russ Case) couldn't resist having a group called the Chansonettes provide a reverb-laden echo effect.

Two songs from 1950 complete our survey of Johnston's recording career. First is "As We Are Today," an Ernesto Lecuona song with English lyrics by Charles Tobias that was slotted into Warner Bros.' The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady. The other side of the 78 was another movie tune, the attractive "Autumn Serenade," from Young Man with a Horn. Ray Heindorf and Sammy Cahn were the authors.

Coda

Although his M-G-M contract and the best part of his Hollywood career ended in 1950, Johnston did have one final success left. He was cast as one of the leads in the Broadway musical adaptation of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which boasted a well-regarded score by Arthur Schwartz and Dorothy Fields. Johnston was featured throughout, singing most of the songs except for "Love Is the Reason."

With Shirley Booth in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Although the play ran for the better part of a year, it was not considered a success, mainly related to choices that director and co-author George Abbott made. Abbott built up a subsidiary part to feature Shirley Booth. This threw the play off kilter. He also added an elaborate nightmare ballet that wasn't a success.

Johnston never appeared on Broadway again. He returned to Hollywood and occasional roles on television and in films, including an improbable featured part in Rock Around the Clock.

Why wasn't he more successful? Luck always is involved in these matters, but some anecdotes (such as the Louis B. Mayer incident) indicate that he may not have been that easy to work with. Whatever the reasons, he left a substantial body of song for us to enjoy.

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