The Vagabond Alfred Drake, Plus Singles

This post presents Alfred Drake's sole operetta recording, Friml's The Vagabond King, dating from 1951, and adds nine of his lesser-known single sides from that period, including four Kiss Me. Kate songs not derived from the original cast album.

The site already has covered quite a lot of Drake's recorded output from mid-century - Roberta, Brigadoon, Sing Out Sweet Land and Down in the Valley, while avoiding his biggest hits, Oklahoma! and the Kiss Me, Kate cast album.

The Vagabond King

Friml's operetta was based on the legend of François Villon, as related in Justin Huntly McCarthy's book and play If I Were King. The musical version dates from 1925. It had a brief Broadway revival in 1943, and there have been a few Hollywood productions.

Drake's recording is from 1951, and while it is the only operetta he officially recorded (if I am not mistaken, which is always possible), he was not a stranger to the genre. His first appearances on Broadway were in the Civic Light Opera Company's 1935 repertory stagings of Gilbert & Sullivan, and his next New York role was in Benatzky's White Horse Inn. These all were in the ensemble, but he soon was to break out singing the title song in Rodgers and Hart's 1937 hit Babes in Arms, a piece that must have been wonderfully well suited to his powerful baritone. He wasn't to become famous, however, until 1943 and Oklahoma!

For The Vagabond King, Decca paired him with soprano Mimi Benzell, with mezzo Frances Bible also making a few appearances.

Mimi Benzell was the first and only vocalist with 'no time for applause,' if this 1952 ad is to be believed

Benzell (1918-70) was one of the many opera singers of the day who branched out into the popular arts. She was often on television and even had a nightclub act, along with a presence in the ads of the day. On this LP she seems one-dimensional, which may have been the idea, I suppose.

Frances Bible

Frances Bible (1919-2001) appeared with the New York City Opera for 30 years, and with several other US companies. Although she was quite accomplished, she never became widely known, probably because her career was confined to America.

Directing the orchestra is Broadway veteran Jay Blackton, who conducted many of the great musical productions of the 1940s through 70s, starting with Oklahoma! Blackton was an arranger, too, but I don't know if he handled the orchestrations for this recording.

This was one of a series of operettas the Decca released around mid-century, but the only one that featured Drake or the other vocalists appearing here.

1944-51 Decca and RCA Victor Singles

Drake primarily recorded for Decca during this period, starting with his appearance in Oklahoma! During that show's run, the US Army asked the Music War Committee of the Theater Wing for a song celebrating the infantry. Oscar Hammerstein chaired that committee, so he and Richard Rodgers produced "We're on Our Way (Infantry Song)," and Drake recorded it with Waring's Pennsylvanians. That was on June 1, 1944, a few days before D-Day.

While Drake was starring in Kiss Me, Kate on Broadway, in addition to the Columbia original cast production he also, strangely, recorded four of its numbers for RCA Victor, where he had signed early in 1949. "So in Love" and "Were Thine That Special Face" were solos, with Jane Pickens joining him for "Wunderbar" and "Why Can't You Behave." (He did not sing the latter in the show.) The backings are by old friend Lehman Engel.

Jane Pickens and Alfred Drake

RCA also had Drake do a bravura version of "Malagueña" during the same 1949 sessions, backed with the more placid "In the Spring of the Year," an Alec Wilder composition I somehow missed for my recent Buster's Unusual Spring compilation. Arranger Henri René unaccountably introduces Lecuona's "Malagueña" with what sounds like a cimbalom solo. (It works, though!) This was touted as the first vocal recording of "Malagueña," with lyrics by Marian Banks, but Jimmy Dorsey and Bob Eberly had done the song earlier in the decade with Bob Russell lyrics under the title "At the Cross-Roads." You can hear the latter in my Lecuona compilation from a few years ago.

Our final 78 comes from 1951. Decca had Drake revive two songs for this release. "The World Is Mine (Tonight)" is a George Posford song with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz, writing as Holt Marvell. Maschwitz is best known for "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" and "These Foolish Things." Nino Martini introduced the song in the 1936 film The Gay Desperado. 

The flip side was even older: 1911's "Till the Sands of the Desert Grow Cold" with lyrics by George Graff, Jr., and music by Ernest R. Ball.

The Vagabond King comes from my collection; the singles were cleaned up from lossless copies on Internet Archive. The sound in all cases is very good.

1949 Billboard ad

Lehman Engel Conducts Christmas Carols

Lehman Engel

Lehman Engel (1910-82) was a well-regarded composer, arranger and conductor mainly remembered for his Tony-award winning work on musicals, although his background was much broader. He first came to my notice through the series of musicals he recorded in the studio for Columbia in the 1950s. I remember picking up used copies of his recordings of Babes in Arms and The Boys from Syracuse, among others. These single-disc abridgments are still among my favorite records.

Engel also conducted several albums of Christmas music. One such LP - featuring Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi of the Met - appeared here a number of years ago. Today we have two choral albums that he conducted, one near the beginning of his career, the other during his later tenure at Columbia records.

Let's look at the latter collection first.

Columbia Choristers - Christmas Hymns and Carols

This 10-inch LP was made with a studio group called the "Columbia Choristers". It dates from 1951, a typically busy year for Engel. In the studio, he also had conducted the first semi-complete recording of Porgy and Bess for Columbia. On Broadway, he provided the vocal arrangements for and conducted Bless You All, a short-lived musical by Harold Rome, with whom he was closely associated. (Engel conducted the cast album of Rome's 1946 revue Call Me Mister, which can be found here in a newly remastered version. The score includes a holiday song, the droll "Yuletide, Park Avenue.") Later in 1951, Engel provided incidental music for a Broadway production of Shaw's Saint Joan.

The Christmas LP is mainly composed of the standard holiday numbers, all of the more reverent variety, but does include several less-heard items among the old favorites. These include the Cornish "Holy Day Holly Carol," Gustav Holst's "Mid-Winter" and "Lullay My Liking" (not as well known then as now), Edmund Rubbra's "The Virgin's Cradle Hymn" and Peter Warlock's remarkable "Corpus Christi." (The latter carol can be heard in two vintage recordings on my other blog.)

The Columbia Choristers are an excellent small group, with fine ensemble, intonation, blend and diction. They very much put me in mind of the Robert Shaw Singers, so much so that I would not be surprised to learn that Engel contracted with that group for this session. Shaw himself was under contract with RCA Victor, which was to issue his second Christmas album the following year.

This 10-inch LP is well filled, with more music than many 12-inch LPs. In fact, Columbia would reissue it several years later as a 12-inch LP (cover at left) - with two fewer selections. This is the only time I can remember when a 10-inch album had more content than its 12-inch equivalent. My friend Ernie has featured the 12-inch record on his blog before - the disc came out on the budget Harmony label and for that issue the "Columbia Choristers" were transformed into the "Harmony Choristers".

Indeed, trusty Ernie came to me rescue for this post by lending me his transfer so that I could patch some noisy parts and skips in my dub. I even pinched one whole track from him. Thanks, pal! I should mention that Ernie is brightening up the interwebs as usual with his holiday selections. This year he is featuring large numbers of unusual singles from the vast offerings of the Internet Archive. That's a repository I mine myself, finding such treasures as the album below.

The Madrigal Singers - Songs for Christmas

Dating from 1937, the Madrigal Singers' album is actually a much earlier effort than the Columbia Choristers' release. Engel was just 27 years old, but already had compiled an impressive resume. Three years before he had written incidental music for the Broadway production of Sean O'Casey's Within the Gates, following that credit with music for T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral.

By 1937, Engel was recording both Christmas and contemporary music for Columbia, including the six seasonal songs contained in this album and a disc of choral music by Charles Ives and William Schuman, which I may share later.

Engel was consistent in his selections for the 1937 and 1951 compilations. Only "Jingle Bells" and "The Quilting Party (Seeing Nellie Home)" [is that a Christmas song?] were not to be included in the later album.

The Madrigal Singers weren't as well drilled as the Columbia Choristers, but the performances are pleasing even so. The recording is a trifle wooly but good enough.

The download includes a few contemporary reviews along with the transfers. The New Records was unimpressed with the Madrigal Singers album, saying that "the snap and the spirit of Christmas is (sic) missing." The New York Times, however, though that the Columbia Choristers "sing well." I like both sets, but the later one is undoubtedly superior and is a favorite of mine.

Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi - A Yuletide Song Fest

Rosalind Elias and Giorgio Tozzi were two stalwarts of the Metropolitan Opera in the 1950s and 1960s, taking featured roles in a spectrum of works. Both were in the cast of the premiere performances of Barber's Vanessa in 1958, the year before RCA Victor issued this seasonal album.

Giorgio Tozzi

Tozzi, a bass, has a voice that will be familiar to many music lovers who have never listened to opera. He dubbed the vocals for Rossano Brazzi in the 1958 film version of South Pacific - and very effectively.

Elias achieved no such crossover fame, but, like Tozzi, she had a strong, vibrant, well produced voice that is striking in its power. It is, indeed, a bit too striking in the opening "Deck the Halls," where she pops out of the texture obtrusively. Fortunately, this effect subsides in the balance of the program.

Rosalind Elias

RCA backs Tozzi and Elias with a chorus and orchestra led by Lehman Engel, who was active on Broadway and television, and who also conducted any number of studio recordings for Columbia and RCA during the period. His small pop-oriented chorus here is not well matched to the powerful Tozzi and Elias, sounding enervated in comparison.

The program is largely conventional, but does include the less-often-heard "Patapan," the "Cherry Tree Carol" and "Down in Yon Forest."

The sound is good but washy, as it often was when in the hands of producer Richard Mohr and engineer Lewis Layton.

More William Warfield Recordings

I promised another early recording by the great bass-baritone William Warfield, and here it is. This brief collection of songs of folk origin or folk influence was recorded in May 1952 in Columbia's 30th Street Studio, and issued in the label's low-priced AAL series. I don't believe it has been reissued - a pity; it's superb.

The cover is likely a reflection of both Warfield's then-fame from his portrayal of Joe in the 1951 film version of Show Boat, as well as the repertoire.

William Warfield

The conductor for this record is the estimable Lehman Engel. It's possible, even likely, that he authored the arrangements.

A few comments on the contents:

"Deep River" is an anonymous spiritual of African American origin. It has been used in several films, including the 1929 film version of Show Boat, although it was not in the stage production. This and two other songs on this record had also been recorded by Paul Robeson, one of Warfield's acknowledged inspirations.

"Water Boy" apparently originated as a work song. This version is apparently based on the arrangement made by Avery Robinson for Roland Hayes (another Warfield inspiration), although that arrangement was for piano and this is an orchestral arrangement. (I also have an odd version of the song recorded by Clara Rockmore on theremin.)

"Without a Song," a show tune with music by Vincent Youmans and lyrics by Billy Rose and Edward Eliscu, is from 1929. It would seem to have been influenced by "Old Man River." (And I suppose this entire LP was an attempt to capitalize on Warfield's famous rendition.)

"Mah Lindy Lou" is a superb song by Lily Strickland, who was influenced by African-American songs she heard in the American South. The song was published in 1920, and Robeson and the operatic soprano Amelita Galli-Curci had popular versions (both are on YouTube).

"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" is of course by the remarkable Stephen Foster, written in 1854.

"Dusty Road" has been claimed by two different songwriting teams - René and René and Parish and Perkins - which suggests that the song may have a folk origin. Its theme of enduring hard times on the path to an eternal reward is often found in the genre. Interestingly, the opening fanfare of the arrangement is influenced by the music written by English composers for nobility.

Leontyne Price and William Warfield

I mentioned in my previous Warfield post that he was in a famous production of Porgy and Bess with Leontyne Price. I've enclosed as a bonus their recording of "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" from that production. It was recorded live in Berlin in September 1952 - a few weeks after Warfield and Price were married.

Good sound on these fine recordings, now (June 2023) newly remastered in ambient stereo.

Betty Garrett in Call Me Mister

Betty Garrett died last week, and I am honoring her by presenting the cast album from Call Me Mister, a 1946 revue that was a big break for her - and is a favorite show of mine.

Betty Garrett asks South
America to take it away

Now why would Betty Garrett star in something named Call Me Mister? It's because the review pertains to soldiers who were being discharged into the postwar world, and who now could be called "Mister" rather than by their rank. Most of the cast was composed of ex-military personnel - Garrett and some others excepted.

Garrett takes on the role of a worker in a military canteen - in one scene teaching the soldiers to do the then-popular Latin American dances ("South America, Take It Away" - her show stopper); in another lamenting the fact that with the end of war came the end of her clientele ("Little Surplus Me"). She also presents an ode to conspicuous holiday consumption ("Yuletide, Park Avenue").

Lawrence Winters

The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent - the other main vocal star is Lawrence Winters, who later had a distinguished career as an operatic baritone. His numbers include "Going Home Train" (quite similar to "This Train Is Bound for Glory"); a mawkish ode to the late US President Franklin Roosevelt ("The Man on the Dime"); and "The Red Ball Express," which is about the supply-chain convoy in the European theater of war.

The music and lyrics are by Harold Rome, and with few exceptions, the songs are very strong. "South America, Take It Away" was the only hit, in a bowdlerized version by Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters. The original is not especially risque, but in 1946, lyrics concerning "my pan-American can" were not heard on the radio. Despite the lack of hits and the topical nature of the lyrics, the score is quite effective and affecting. It strongly conveys the joy, relief and pride of the ex-soldiers. My own favorite is the ballad "Along with Me."

Harold Rome

Call Me Mister was Rome's second notable revue, following Pins and Needles. His first book musical was Wish You Were Here, in 1952. Other scores include Fanny, Destry Rides Again, and I Can Get It for You Wholesale.

Betty Garrett went from this review to Hollywood, appearing in several notable musicals, including On the Town with Jules Munshin, who also was in Call Me Mister and is heard in one number here. She later was often on US television shows.

The cast album, conduced by the show's musical director, Lehman Engel, was first issued on 78s in 1946. This transfer is from the 10-inch LP issue of 1949. The sound is quite good.