A Budget-Line Christmas

It's rare that I would feature budget recordings, but they are often interesting, giving you a chance to hear name-brand artists who were past their peak and others who were mainly professional studio singers.

Today we have two LPs on the Tops label that are good examples. The names on the two covers are Martha Tilton, famed from her work with Benny Goodman, and the Pied Pipers, who first became popular with the Tommy Dorsey band.

In true budget-label fashion, the name artists present a minority of the songs on these LPs. Most of the singing is by artists with lesser pedigrees - folks who made a living in vocal groups and in the studio setting; little-known but undeniably talented.

Before I give the details about the songs and singers, let me mention that this post is made possible through the generosity of frequent collaborator Ernie Haynes, whose Ernie (Not Bert) site is well into his annual foray into the wide world of holiday music. I told him I was looking for the Pied Pipers LP, and he not only came up with a transfer, it was the stereo version - and he sent along a stereo version of Christmas at Our House, the album that touts Martha Tilton on the cover. I had only the mono version of the latter.

Both The Pied Pipers Sing Christmas Carols and Christmas at Our House came out in 1958, at first in mono and a bit later in stereo.

The songs on these LPs are what you might expect - well-worn holiday classics, most of them in the public domain, and most repeated on both LPs, although not by the same vocalists. 

What follows are some notes about the artists involved, who were barely mentioned by Tops, except for Martha Tilton and the Pipers. The rest are only named on the labels - and even then not always accurately.

The Pied Pipers - Lee Gotch, Sue Allen, Allan Davies, Clark Yocum

Let's start off with the Pied Pipers, who as I mentioned became known with Tommy Dorsey's band - that is until one of the members made the bandleader mad and was fired. The entire group then quit the band in solidarity. The object of Tommy's ire was Clark Yocum, still in the group when this record was made.

The leading light of the Pipers back in the Dorsey era was Jo Stafford. By the time this record was made, the female lead was Sue Allen, a studio singer who had been in several well-known groups. The other members were Lee Gotch and Allan Davies. Their performances here are pleasing, and amusing when appropriate, such as their version of "Jingle Bells."

The Pipers sang on six of the 12 numbers on the LP named for them, but not at all on the other record.

Martha Tilton

The artist mentioned - in relatively small print - on the Christmas at Our House LP cover, Martha Tilton, was with Goodman's band in the 1930s, then had some hits as a recording artist for Capitol in the 1940s.

Although Martha is touted on the sleeve, she is heard only on two songs - but they are the high points of the LP. Like the Pied Pipers, she makes "Jingle Bells" fun again, even including the seldom-sung second verse. And she has a good time with "Rudolph" and his red nose as well. Tilton does not appear on the other album.

Marni Nixon

The singer with the most numbers on Our House LP is the well-regarded vocal double Marni Nixon, with three - "Silent Night," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Away in a Manger." Her perfect technique is well in evidence throughout. She also does not show up on the other disc.

John Gustafson

Just as impressive is tenor John Gustafson, who was allotted two songs on Our House - "The First Noël" and "Deck the Hall." Gustafson recorded gospel music and was a choir director in the Los Angeles area. He too was not selected for the other album.

Thurl Ravenscroft

Thurl Ravenscroft's mighty bass was celebrated here recently, so it's good to hear him in holiday mode with "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," even though he is uncharacteristically subdued on that number. On the other disc - at least the stereo version - the label claims that he sings "Joy to the World," but the pleasant fellow who spreads holiday cheer is not Thurl, but a lighter-voiced singer who may be Bill Reeve, discussed below.

Thurl's version of "Joy to the World" actually does appear on the mono edition of Christmas at Our House, so I've added that track to the end of the transfer.

Doris Drew

Doris Drew had been a band singer, then recorded several singles followed by a well-regarded LP for the Mode label in 1957. She later became a voice artist. For these records she contributes charming versions of "White Christmas" and "The Christmas Song."

John Gabriel

Singer-actor John Gabriel, then in his 20s, was appearing as a guest star on television shows when he recorded "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" for these LPs. He later would have a long-running part on a TV soap opera, appear on Broadway in The Happy Time and become a producer.

Norma Zimmer

Norma Zimmer was a well-regarded studio singer when she recorded of "Joy to the World," "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and "The First Noël" for Tops. She would later become famous as the "Champagne Lady" on Lawrence Welk's television show.

Bill Reeve is the most obscure member of this cast. His credits include a vocal in Disney's Westward Ho The Wagons! and the pre-recordings for the Ice Follies of 1953 - where he worked with Norma Zimmer. He sings on both LPs - "Silent Night," "O Come! All Ye Faithful" and (I think) the stereo "Joy to the World."

Tops kept the musical background simple for these records - just "George Mather at the console," presumably handling the both electronic organ and chimes. (The latter do tend to get in the way, if truth be told.) The recording is typical of early stereo - mostly the vocalist and the chimes on the left and George and his organ on the right. It is otherwise pleasing, although too much reverb was added to the stereo vocals. Sorry, I haven't been able to find any information about the organist.

The mono artwork

Tops named its stereo line "Mayfair" and at least in these early days pressed the discs on yellow vinyl. The stereo LPs also had different covers. For record nerds like me (and Ernie), the much different mono covers are shown above.

LINK to Christmas at Our House

LINK to The Pied Pipers Sing Christmas Carols

The Voice of Sally Sweetland

Although she never became a big star, Sally Sweetland (1911-2015) had an extraordinary voice that led to a long career as a studio singer and later as a teacher.

Born Sally Mueller, she acquired the name "Sweetland" upon marrying her husband Lee Sweetland, himself a well-known studio singer and actor.

In this post, we'll examine the breadth of Sally's achievements, which spanned film dubbing, band work, solo recordings, backup vocals and children's records. There are 29 selections in all.

Film Work

Throughout the 1940s, Sweetland was busy in the studios, dubbing for Joan Fontaine, Brenda Marshall, Martha Vickers and particularly Joan Leslie in several films. In our first selection, she introduces the famous Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer song "My Shining Hour" in the 1943 Fred Astaire film The Sky's the Limit, dubbing for Leslie.

Joan Leslie and Fred Astaire in The Sky's the Limit

It's a song that's associated with Astaire, but Sally sang it first in the film - Leslie played a vocalist. Soon thereafter, Fred's brash character tells Leslie she sang it too straight, and proceeds to demonstrate how it ought to go, as the characters seemingly improvise new lyrics (which actually don't make too much sense).

Also from this film is the duet "A Lot in Common with You," which involves Fred intruding on Joan Leslie's act. (You will hear her telling him to "Get out!")

With Tommy Tucker

Tommy Tucker was not as famous as, say, Tommy Dorsey, but he did lead a good band for 25 years. Sally made several records with him in 1950 and 1951, starting with "Looks Like a Cold, Cold Winter," where she did a pleasing duet with Don Brown. The disk did OK in the market, but I believe Bing and Mindy Carson did better.

Don Brown and Tommy Tucker

Next was "Hullabaloo," which, true to its title, was a noisy polka, a genre popular back then. "Sonny the Bunny" was a kiddie novelty possibly themed to Easter 1951. Don Brown is the lead on this one with Sally mainly providing harmony. They made a good pair.

The final recording with Tommy Tucker was "Whisp'ring Shadows," where Sweetland duets with Peter Hanley, who became Tucker's male singer following Don Brown's death in a traffic accident. Hanley too was a talented vocalist. This is a charming waltz.

Religious Fare, Grandma Moses and Ted Maxim

Tucker recorded for M-G-M, which also engaged Sally for a series of religious songs. I've included "Our Lady of Fatima," where she contends with an organ and male quartet.

At about the same time, Columbia Records brought her in for one of her specialties - high-register vocalese. The song was "Lullaby," one of the numbers in the suite that Hugh Martin and Alec Wilder put together for a film on the painter Grandma Moses. This is truly gorgeous singing. The entire suite is available here.

Also in 1951, Sweetland was at Decca for two waltzes by polka bandleader Ted Maksymowicz (here credited as Ted Maxim). First was "Beautiful Brown Eyes," which had been written in the 1930s by the country artists Arthur Smith and Alton Delmore. Maxim's record would seem to have been a cover of Rosemary Clooney's revival of the song on Columbia.

Pat Terry and Ted Maksymowicz

The second Maxim record, "There's More Pretty Girls Than One," also was associated with Smith and the Delmore brothers, who recorded it in the 1930s. It was, however, a traditional tune. On both records, Sally works seamlessly with the excellent studio baritone Pat Terry.

Work for RCA Victor

We move on from Decca to RCA Victor, where Sweetland's first assignment was to record the vocal on Bob Dewey's record of Franz Lehár's "Vilia" from The Merry Widow score. It's not clear why RCA and Dewey (actually Guy Lombardo arranger Dewey Bergman) decided to record an operetta selection in sweet band style in 1951, but Sally does fine.

One of her most noted records was Perry Como's 1952 version of "Summertime." There could be no better singer than Como to present a number describing how "the living is easy." Sweetland's vocalese is heard throughout the record, which perfectly sets off Como's low-register vocal. A superb record.

Perry Como and Eddie Fisher

Victor repeated this formula the next year for Eddie Fisher's massive success "I'm Walking Behind You." Here, in addition to the vocalese, Sally  does some high-register duetting with Fisher, which is very striking. It's a memorable record - one I owned myself when I was four. (I started collecting records early.)

Solos with Enoch Light

Sweetland recorded several cover records for bandleader/impresario Enoch Light in 1952. This type of work required the ability to sing many genres convincingly, a Sweetland specialty. We've already heard her in operetta, polka, and kiddie material. Her first record for Light was a cover of Hank Williams' "Jambalaya," which suits her well. Here, I suspect the real intention was to cover Jo Stafford's pop version for Columbia. This is a thread that runs through her other Enoch Light records.

Enoch Light

Jessie Mae Robinson's "Keep It a Secret" was a hit for Stafford in 1952-53. Sally and Stafford also recorded Pee Wee King's "You Belong to Me." Sally sounds particularly like Jo in this recording.

The melodramatic "Kiss of Fire" is based on a 1906 song "El choclo" by Victor Argentine. Louis Armstrong revived it in 1952, but the hit was by Georgia Gibbs. Sweetland does what she can with this overheated item.

The Ice Capades Brigadoon; "Getting to Know You"

In 1953, the Ice Capades traveling show presented an ice skating version of the Broadway hit Brigadoon. Columbia records decided to issue a potted version of the show in honor of the program, with Lee Sullivan and Sally as the fine soloists in the seven-minute presentation. Sullivan had been in the original cast of Brigadoon in 1947.

Brigadoon picture sleeve; Lee Sullivan

Sally is heard in abbreviated versions of "Almost Like Being in Love," "Heather on the Hill" and "From This Day On." I've presented this record before, but this is a new version.

Sweetland made a substantial number of children's records. I've included one of the group she recorded for Golden Records - "Getting to Know You" from The King and I. It's a brief rendition, but nonetheless effective. As with many of the Golden records, the support is by the Sandpipers vocal group and an orchestra led by Mitch Miller.

With Sauter-Finegan

Eddie Sauter and Bill Finegan engaged Sally for several records by their Sauter-Finegan Band. First was their sumptuous 1952 version of "April in Paris," where Sweetland does nicely both in vocalese and snatches of the lyrics. This was the first superior big band version of the song from the 1950s, along with Count Basie's much different arrangement from a few years later.

Bill Finegan and Eddie Sauter

Speaking of different, "The Moon Is Blue" is a quirky pop song with lyrics by Sylvia Fine and music by Herschel Burke Gilbert, written for the 1953 film of the same name and performed by the S-F band. Sauter and Finegan (or RCA Victor) did not give Sally a label credit for "April in Paris," but rectified that omission on this release.

Sweetland is heavily featured in the band's version of the Rodgers-Hart "Where or When," both with the lyrics and a climactic venture into high vocalese. This comes from the album Concert Jazz. The principals comment on the cover, "Our first love, Sally Sweetland. We hope you appreciate her as we do."

Two SF covers - one by Jim Flora (left), the other in his style

The band's 1954 LP Inside Sauter-Finegan features Sally in a muted and very lovely version of "Autumn Leaves."

Sauter-Finegan's "Where's Ace" is a spoof of the crime jazz genre of the time. The band keeps asking Sally "Where's Ace?" and she replies "Who??" They search him for in various locales. Sally ends up asking the band, "Where's Ace" and they reply "Who?"

With Hugo Winterhalter

The popular maestro Hugo Winterhalter engaged Sweetland for a few records as well. In 1953 she joined with studio vocalist Bud Dee to present an enjoyable reading of Jessie Mae Robinson's "The Lovers' Waltz."

Hugo Winterhalter

In 1955, she recorded one of her best discs - "Autumn Rhapsody," a conventional but attractive ballad by Carolyn Leigh and Alex Alstone.

An Unusual Children's Record

Sally Sweetland and Marni Nixon

We complete this exploration of Sally's legacy with a slightly later record - from 1964, the story of "Hansel & Gretel" with music from Humperdinck's opera. (A orchestral suite from the work can be found here.) Sweetland combines with another eminent studio singer, Marni Nixon, for two superb and all too brief selections: "Brother, Won't You Dance with Me" and "When at Night I Go to Sleep." I believe that Sally is the voice of Hansel. Tutti Camarata leads the band.

* * *

This collection was inspired by David Federman, as have many things I posted over the years. I believe that David was enchanted by Sweetland's stratospheric vocalese - me too - but there are many other items to appreciate here. I was surprised to find that I liked in particular her children's records of "Getting to Know You" and the Humperdinck adaptations. She also works beautifully with the relatively little-known Don Brown and Pat Terry (among others). A wonderful legacy by this talented and much loved singer and vocal teacher.

This selections are cleaned up from Internet Archive and my collection. 

LINK