A Jazz Version of Percy Faith's Music

In 1960, Percy Faith was already famous for his own records and for the many hits he arranged for pop vocalists. He also had written or adapted quite a few songs that had become popular.

By that time Columbia had many Faith albums in its catalog, but its budget arm, Harmony, apparently wanted to market an LP of Percy's music in the then-new stereo format, as opposed to putting out old-fashioned mono reissues.

At about this same time, jazz renditions of pop music became popular. These often encompassed the score from a particular musical, but they also touched the songbooks of pop composers (e.g., André Previn Plays Songs by Vernon Duke).

So (and this is my educated guess) the label might have brought the two concepts together for the album The Songs of Percy Faith, as played by the Lansdowne Jazz Group, a collection of top-shelf English pros. That LP is the subject of today's post.

The Lansdowne ensemble probably took its name from a London recording studio that Dennis Preston and Joe Meek had opened a few years before. That locale had quicky developed a reputation in the jazz community and was presumably where this session (actually two of them) was taped.

The result is very pleasant light jazz from experienced pros, whose names may be familiar to you. Since the cover notes are confusing, let me first provide this key to who is playing where. 

The songs:

• 01 My Heart Cries for You
• 02 Nervous Gavotte *
• 03 Song for Sweethearts
• 04 Be Patient, My Darling
• 05 The Last Dance
• 06 Music Until Midnight
• 07 Swedish Rhapsody *
• 08 Duet
• 09 Da-Du
• 10 The Stars
• 11 Goin' Home Train
• 12 Tropic Holiday *

The musicians:

• Kenny Baker (trumpet) 
• Johnny Scott (flute) on *
• Tony Coe (alto sax)
• Danny Moss (tenor sax)
• Dave Lee (piano)
• Dill Jones (piano), soloist in "Swedish Rhapsody" and most likely on *
• Phil Seamen (drums)
• Martin Slavin (vibes, arranger)
• Jack Fallon (bass) on * 
• Arthur Watts (bass otherwise)

[The liner notes are ambiguous as to whether Dill Jones plays on all the selections with an asterisk or just "Swedish Rhapsody."]

A few words on the music and the players follow.

The first selection, "My Heart Cries for You," was a huge hit in 1950. Percy didn't write it but he did arrange it from an old French melody that had been revived in the 1930s. Carl Sigman added the words. Faith and Columbia honcho Mitch Miller had wanted Sinatra to record it, but Frank told Mitch the piece was "crap." So Columbia brought in new singer Al Cernik, renamed him Guy Mitchell, and he had the hit. It's a pleasant, simplistic tune, one that may remind you of "The Chipmunk Song."

Kenny Baker

The version here features the powerful and agile trumpeter Kenny Baker, who was then performing with his Baker's Dozen in addition to his studio and concert work.

Johnny Scott

The "Nervous Gavotte," a more interesting work with a dislocated rhythm, is taken from Faith's 1951 LP Carefree Rhythms. It is the first number with flutist Johnny Scott as the lead. He later became better known as John Scott, and composed quite a number of film scores.

Scott is a full-toned flutist, with his fluent work set off by the vibes playing of Martin Slavin, who arranged all the songs on this set.

Tony Coe

"Song for Sweethearts (Come Close)" is a pretty piece that Faith and Sigman wrote for the 1954 LP Songs for Her, where it had a vocal by Betty Cox. The featured soloist on this LP is the acrobatic alto saxophonist Tony Coe, who was then in Humphrey Lyttleton's band.

Sigman and Faith wrote "Be Patient, My Darling" for a 1953 Lu Anne Simms single. Kenny Baker is again featured.

Danny Moss

"The Last Dance" originated with a 1956 Faith single. Featured here is the robust tenor sax of Danny Moss (presumably; the liner notes identify him as "Danny Ross," possibly conflating Moss with Ronnie Ross). Moss was then with Johnny Dankworth's band.

Faith's original is much more legato; Moss and group take a punchy approach. Percy's is more in tune with the title, certainly.

Dave Lee (in later years)

Faith wrote "Music Until Midnight" for Mitch Miller's oboe on their joint 1953 album of the same name. The melody line is carried by the alto of Tony Coe, who also contributes a fine solo. This is one of the best performances on the LP. Dave Lee has the thankless task of carrying the piano ostinato behind the theme.

Dill Jones

Faith also did not write "Swedish Rhapsody;" he arranged it from Hugo Alfven's Midsommarvaka (Swedish Rhapsody No. 1), which you can find here in the composer's own early stereo recording (well worth hearing). On the Lansdowne album pianist Dill Jones and Johnny Scott take a light approach that is most pleasing. Jones was a Welsh musician who emigrated to the US in 1961 and had some success in New York thereafter. Percy's own memorable recording of the "Swedish Rhapsody" was a chart topper in 1953.

"Duet" is another excellent theme that provides the basis of a well-fashioned solo work out by Danny Moss, who impresses. This another title from the Music Until Midnight LP.

Percy's "Da-Du" comes from a 1952 single that had a vocal by the Ray Charles Singers, recently featured here (with more to come).

Phil Seamen

"The Stars" was originally a 1957 single, and here the stars are Kenny Baker, Martin Slavin and Dave Lee. There is more fascinating interplay between Slavin and Lee in this one. You will notice the support of drummer Phil Seamen here (and elsewhere on the disc). A persuasive side.

"Goin' Home Train" is a strong swinger powered by Seamen and the walking bass of Arthur Watts, not to mention Danny Moss' tenor. This song is from Faith's 1958 album Carefree (not the same as the earlier Carefree Rhythms; the two discs only have the song "Carefree" in common).

And now the final number, which actually was the impetus for this post. Friend and frequent commenter centuri (the French conductor Jean Thorel) asked me if I had this LP; it contains one of his favorite Faith compositions - "Tropic Holiday," originally on the 1953 album Adventure in the Sun; redone on the 1966 disc Bim! Bam!! Boom!!!  I sent my transfer along to Jean, who enjoyed the jazz performance a great deal, as did I.

Although the album starts with its (to me) weakest material, it does build to become most enjoyable - I hope you agree. The early stereo is vivid.

LINK

Helen Ward - 1950s Recordings

Helen Ward (1916-98) was a very good singer who made her name with the Benny Goodman band, then worked to regain that prominence for the rest of her career.

This post is devoted to songs she recorded in the 1950s, derived from three LPs:

• It's Been So Long, one of her two solo albums, where she is backed by Percy Faith.

• With a Little Bit of Swing, where she is top billed over Peanuts Hucko and his band, even though she appears on only five songs.

• Larry Clinton in Hi-Fi, which recreates some of the bandleader's biggest songs, including four vocals by Helen.

The Hucko LP is presented in full, but the Clinton set includes only Ward's vocals.

In addition to these records, I've gathered 11 of Helen's 1934-40 singles for a post on my other blog.

It's Been So Long

The 1953 LP It's Been So Long was recorded after Helen appeared with Goodman on an abbreviated tour. In the liner notes to the album, producer George Avakian provides a useful if rose-colored view of her career to that date, and offers this summary of Ward's appeal:

"The ingredients of the Helen Ward style have always been the same: simplicity, taste, sincerity, and sound musicianship, Like all great singers, she also has the gift of complete individuality - no matter what she sings, one measure is enough to identify the voice as Helen Ward’s. There is an unaffected warmth in every note; her personality projects purely through the sheer honesty and directness of her singing. And under the straightforward voice is a simmering, pulsating drive which makes everything swing, even the sweetest ballad."

Percy Faith

There's much truth to that assessment, although in her mid-30s her voice did not have the flexibility of the young band singer. The eight songs on this 10-inch LP with Percy Faith are mostly standards, with the exception of "Same Old Moon (Same Old Sky)," which Rudy Vallee had recorded in 1932, "You're Mine," which she learned from trumpeter Charlie Shavers, and "When You Make Love to Me (Don't Make Believe)", written by Jim Hoyl and Marjorie Goetschius. Avakian doesn't mention that "Hoyl" was actually violinist Jascha Heifetz!

The LP oddly includes two versions of "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me" - slow and fast. So nine cuts, but eight songs.

Faith's arrangements are typical of his work - a bit fussy but enjoyable. The sound is very good.

LINK to It's Been So Long

With a Little Bit of Swing

With a Little Bit of Swing is actually a Peanuts Hucko record, although Ward is given top billing. It came out in 1957, although I believe it was recorded the year before. "A Foggy Day" appears on the 1956 album Dave Garroway Presents the Wide, Wide World of Jazz, which I included in the recent post devoted to Lee Wiley's RCA recordings.

Besides "A Foggy Day," the other Ward vocals are on the standards "I Get Along Without You Very Well," "Don't Cry Baby," "Gone with the Wind" and "I'm Shooting High."

Peanuts Hucko

Clarinetist Hucko was a veteran of many big bands, and an oft-recorded studio musician. For the Garroway LP, he (or RCA) called his aggregation Peanuts Hucko's Swing Band. Here it is simply Peanuts Hucko and His Orchestra; probably a good choice considering that swing was no longer the thing.

Whatever you call the band, it's a good LP, with fine musicians, excellent charts, primarily by the prolific Al Cohn, and good vocals from Ward. I don't believe the album sold well, unfortunately. There was not a follow-up until decades later.

LINK to with a Little Bit of Swing

Larry Clinton in Hi-Fi

Trumpeter-arranger Larry Clinton's specialty was reworking the classics into big band form. His biggest hit in that realm was "My Reverie," which he reworked from a Debussy piece.

I'm not overly interested in such material, so I did not transfer the complete LP, only the four songs which feature Ward.

Larry Clinton

Beside "My Reverie," these include two other classical transformations - "Our Love" from Tchaikovsky

and "Martha," from the Flotow opera of the same name. Helen's other number is the Carmichael-Loesser favorite "Heart and Soul," which was a hit repeatedly, starting with Clinton's 1938 version through Jan & Dean in the 1960s.

The Clinton LP comes from my collection; the others are cleaned up from Internet Archive transfers.

LINK to Helen Ward's vocals on Larry Clinton in Hi-Fi

1934-40 Singles

Young Helen Ward

My other blog has 11 selections from the many singles that Helen recorded in the 1930s (and 1940). These include two with Goodman, four with studio bands that predate or parallel her Goodman period, plus items with Gene Krupa, Joe Sullivan and Teddy Wilson.

The Two 'White Christmases'

That holiday favorite, White Christmas, is one of those films that doesn't have a soundtrack LP per se. But it does have two albums with some claim to authenticity because they separately feature the movie's biggest stars, Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney.

Bing and Rosie recorded for different companies (Decca and Columbia), each of which wanted its own product to capitalize on the popular film. So Decca assembled a 12-inch LP with Crosby and his co-star Danny Kaye, adding Peggy Lee to take over the Clooney spots. And Columbia came out with a 10-inch LP that had Rosemary singing eight of the songs from the film.

In this post, I'll discuss the Irving Berlin songs from that 1954 film, and assess the treatments found on the competing LPs. My presentation follows the order of the songs in the film. The download, however, keeps the two LPs separate and in their original running order.

White Christmas - The Old Man

The first song is, appropriately, "White Christmas," with Capt. Crosby singing to front-line troops who are about to get a new commander to replace the beloved Gen. Waverly (Dean Jagger). Bing's poignant rendition is interrupted by the appearance of the general himself. The troops serenade him with "The Old Man" (apparently carefully rehearsed for just such an occasion). The song has some amusing tongue-in-cheek lyrics such as, "We'll follow the old man wherever he may stray / So long as he stays away from the battle's fray."

A version of "The Old Man" is included on the Decca LP, where it was combined with "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army," which appears much later in the film and will be discussed below.

Heat Wave - Let Me Sing and I'm Happy - Blue Skies

After the war, Crosby forms an act and then a production company with Kaye, who saved his life during the enemy attack that ended their Christmas Eve show. A montage shows them performing the Berlin oldies "Heat Wave," "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" and "Blue Skies."

Once again, Clooney doesn't attempt these songs, but "Blue Skies" does turn up on the Crosby LP, yoked with "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show" and "Mandy," which again are from much later in the film and will be discussed below.

Sisters

Clooney and Vera-Ellen were cast as a sister act. Bing and Danny catch them at a remarkable outdoor night club in Florida presided over by Herb Vigran, a character actor who seemingly appeared in every other film and television show for decades.

Trudy Stevens and Dick Stabile

The sisters perform "Sisters," appropriately, to the rapt attention of Crosby and Kaye. In the film, Vera-Ellen's singing voice was dubbed by Trudy Stevens, a very good vocalist who was the ex-wife of bandleader Dick Stabile - who himself appears in the film later on.

Rosemary and Betty Clooney

On the Columbia record, Rosie was joined by her sister Betty for the duet. The two had appeared together for years as the Clooney Sisters with Tony Pastor's band. Betty was to make a good number of records as a single, without achieving Rosemary's popularity.

The Decca LP also includes "Sisters," here given to Peggy Lee, at the time a Decca artist and someone who had been considered for the Clooney part. Lee's sister act consists of Peggy doing a duet with herself, seamlessly. Both versions are very good.

The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing

Still at the Florida club, Kaye and Vera-Ellen do a romantic dance to "The Best Things Happen While You're Dancing." Trudy Stevens again is the singing double for Vera-Ellen. As a dancer Kaye isn't terrible, and as a singer he isn't half bad, which is helpful because Decca had him do a solo for its LP.

The song also appears on the Clooney LP. She doesn't partake in the dance on film, except to sneer at the couple at the end. (Rosie's character is kind of a pill throughout a good part of the film.) Her version is quite good (as is her whole LP, for that matter).

Snow

The two couples end up on a train together heading to Vermont, where the sisters are booked at an inn. They look forward to the dubious delights of the winter weather in the song "Snow." (Berlin recycled this melody from a Call Me Madam outtake titled "Free.")

Peggy Lee

For the Decca record, Crosby and Kaye were joined by Peggy Lee and Trudy Stevens, who as mentioned above also dubbed Vera-Ellen's singing voice on the film soundtrack. Clooney did a very fine solo version for Columbia.

I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show - Mister Bones - Mandy

The gang shows up at the Vermont lodge only to find there is no snow and no patrons. In a remarkable coincidence, Gen. Waverly turns out to be the inn's proprietor. He insists on the sisters staying and performing, and the Crosby-Kaye combo come up with the idea of putting on their show at the inn to attract customers.

This provides a convenient excuse to bring in some musical numbers, starting with a minstrel show, an atavistic tendency in musicals that hadn't died out yet, but here thankfully does not involve blackface. The setting provides an opportunity for Berlin to bring in two of his songs from the Ziegfeld Follies of 1919, "Mandy" and "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show."

In the film, Crosby, Kaye and Clooney sing in this sequence. On the Decca record, "Mandy" is yoked to "Blue Skies," as mentioned above, with "I'd Rather See a Minstrel Show" between the two, even though it is not listed on the LP's contents. It's been suggested that the Decca LP lifted these numbers directly from the soundtrack (sans Clooney) - I suspect that is the case.

On her Columbia LP, Rosie confines herself to a "Mandy" solo. She includes Berlin's original verse, which makes it clear that she is overhearing two lovers, not appealing to Mandy herself. The verse is not used in the film or on the Decca record.

Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)

Berlin's gorgeous ballad, "Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)," was the big hit from the film, and rightfully so. Crosby sings it incomparably, with such great feeling that it breaks through the reserve of Clooney. Their awkward kiss - interrupted by Waverly - nicely encapsulates both their relationship and Bing's ability to seem caressing in song and clumsy in the clinches. It's a wonderful scene.

Being the big hit it was, the number is done solo by Bing and Rosie on their respective LPs, which gives us two superior renditions.

Choreography

Back to the incipient stage show at the inn, we next have a specialty number for Danny Kaye, the clever but somehow distasteful "Choreography," in which Berlin and Kaye make fun of modern dance. ("Chaps who did taps / Aren't tapping any more / They're doing choreography.") In the film, Kaye's spoken intro is overdone, and on record his reading is even riper, if that's possible.

Robert Alton's choreography of this number is enjoyable, but you can't see that on the record.

"Choreography" seems tacked on to White Christmas to provide a specialty for Kaye, who was a last-minute substitute for Donald O'Connor. The latter would have partnered Vera-Ellen in the more intricate dance numbers. Those were beyond Kaye's ability, so the accomplished dancer John Brascia was pressed into service alongside Vera-Ellen for those spots.

It perhaps doesn't need saying that Clooney doesn't attempt "Choreography" on her album.

Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me

Through the intercession of the indispensable Mary Wickes, who plays the busybody major domo of the inn, Clooney thinks that Bing and Danny are going to use the general as to get publicity via a spot on the Ed Harrison (read: Sullivan) TV show. Disillusioned, she takes off for a solo engagement in a New York nightclub, leaving Bing and her sister behind.

At the Carousel Club, bandleader Dick Stabile talks her into doing her specialty "Love, You Didn't Do Right by Me," even though Crosby is in the house to patch things up. It's a very good number, although Berlin has her sing, "To send me a beau / Who had winter and snow in his heart / Wasn't smart," when the icy one is actually Clooney's character.

Clooney does the song beautifully, both in the film and on her LP. The Decca album assigns the number to her counterpart, Peggy Lee, who also handles the number well. However, her singing is too sophisticated for the character and abstracted for the situation, poking fun at Berlin's lyrics, "As they say in the song / 'You done me wrong'."

The dancer above with Clooney is George Chakiris, who went on to a notable career as an actor, singer and dancer on the strength of his success as Bernardo in the London cast of West Side Story and in the 1962 film version, for which he won an Academy Award. [Correction - loyal reader Geoconno points out that Chakiris played Riff in the West End production.]

What Can You Do with a General?

The weakest song in the score is surely "What Can You Do with a General?", which somehow reconciles Rosemary to Bing, even though it does just what she was afraid of - it exposes the general as a failure when Crosby sings it on the Ed Harrison Show. The song contains such lyrics as, "It seems this country never has enjoyed / So many one- and two- and three- and four-star generals unemployed" and "They're delighted that he came / But they can't recall his name." Waverly of course isn't unemployed - he is the owner of an inn large enough to stage a major show. Also, this is taking place nine years after the end of the Second World War. The generals are still unemployed?

The explanation in part is that Berlin recycled the number from an unproduced show. Crosby does do a version of the song for the Decca album. Clooney wisely ignores it.

Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army

Crosby and company end up putting on a major show at the inn for the general's benefit. One of the numbers is "Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army." An article on the National WWII Museum site observes, "The song 'Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army' highlights the mixed feelings of many war veterans... many veterans struggled to transition back into civilian life." The latter thoughts are true, but this jocular song hardly conveys that.

But the song is clever and well staged, and appears on both LPs. Crosby and Kaye handle the vocals on the Decca LP, with Clooney soloing on her record. The Decca LP, as noted above, combines this number with "The Old Man."

White Christmas

The film concludes with another presentation of "White Christmas." It's the high point of the show at the inn, and has the backdrop of a timely snowfall. "White Christmas" is essentially a solo song, so this ensemble version doesn't provide much of an emotional punch, and the staging is overdone, with kiddie ballerinas and unbecoming costumes. (Bing looks disconsolate above.)

The Decca LP replicates the ensemble approach, but Crosby's earlier solo performances are far superior. Clooney's version is one of the best things on her excellent record.

The Clooney album has backing by Columbia stalwarts Percy Faith, Paul Weston and Buddy Cole. Vocal support is by the Mellomen, a group that included the renowned studio vocalists Thurl Ravenscroft and Bill Lee.

On the Crosby LP, the chorus and orchestra are led by Joseph J. Lilley, a Paramount orchestrator who had worked with Bing as far back as 1942's Holiday Inn (which introduced "White Christmas").

In addition to the two LPs, the download includes scans of both covers, stills and discographical information. The sound is excellent on both albums. I transferred the Decca from LP; the Columbia came from the two-EP version of the 10-inch LP.

Carol Bruce Special - Music from Film, Transcription and Radio

Over time, we have been examining the recordings of actor-vocalist Carol Bruce, from her debut on the Broadway stage to her solo recordings of the 50s. I've had the help of vocal connoisseur Bryan Cooper for this series - including today's three-part epic. 

For this post, we'll hear from Carol in songs from her second film musical, on the radio with Buddy Clark just after her great success as Julie in the 1946 revival of Show Boat, and on an Army-sponsored transcription from 1950.

Behind the Eight Ball

Bruce was one of the leads of 1942's Behind the Eight Ball, in quick succession to Keep 'Em Flying of 1941, meaning she went from the Scylla of Abbott and Costello to the Charybdis of the Ritz Brothers. Here's the IMDb precis of Eight Ball:

"The shooting and murder of two guest stars at the Shady Ridge Summer Theatre, operated by Joan Barry [that's Carol], threatens to close the musical 'Fun For All.' To bolster the show, Joan induces Bill Edwards [Dick Foran], who shares joint ownership with her, of the farm the theatre is located on, and Sheriff McKenzie, to hire the Jolly Jesters [aka Ritz Brothers]. They steal the show and, along the way, uncover a spy ring and a bullet-shooting clarinet." Actually, it sounds engagingly goofy.

Carol Bruce and Dick Foran

Besides Carol, Foran and the Ritzes, the movie featured trumpeter Sonny Dunham and his band in their only feature appearance. Dunham was an even-more blaring version of Harry James.

Thanks to Bryan's stellar collection - and his willingness to share its treasures - we already have had on the blog Bruce's studio promos from Keep 'Em Flying. In that set, Universal managed to issue a recording of the Gene de Paul - Don Raye masterwork "You Don't Know What Love Is," even though it was dropped from that film. The great song did then show up in this Ritz Brothers epic.

In today's post, Bryan has uncovered Carol's other recordings from the Eight Ball soundtrack, where she is accompanied by Dunham's band. These come from a rare Universal glass transcription disc (at right) that Bryan recently acquired.

The first of the two songs is "Golden Wedding Day," which had been a 1941 hit in a much different instrumental version by Woody Herman, with drum solo by Frankie Carlson. The song is thought to date back to 1887, when Jean Gabriel-Marie composed it as "La Cinquantaine." I suspect the clever English lyrics - which Bruce handles beautifully - are by Don Raye.

"Golden Wedding Day" leads directly into the Raye-De Paul "Wasn't It Wonderful?" which is very accomplished except for its strong resemblance to a famous movie duet of a few years before. It was as if the producer showed up at the door and instructed the songwriters, "Hey, give me something just like 'Thanks for the Memory'." Carol's fresh reading is perfect.

A 1947 Melody Hour with Buddy Clark

Our next rarity is a April 1947 Melody Hour radio program where Carol guested with the great Buddy Clark and bandleader Percy Faith.

Carol had just completed a year on Broadway as Julie in the highly successful revival of Show Boat. This show, appropriately, gives her the opportunity to perform one of her Show Boat specialties, the famous "Bill," and she is all that one could want in the song (and, I am sure, in the part).

Carol Bruce with Buddy Ebsen and Max Showalter in Show Boat

She also is given the chance to do a number then on the pop charts, the awful "Managua, Nicaragua," which should have been left to Freddy Martin and Guy Lombardo.

Al Gallodoro

For his part, Clark is his sunny and polished self in "I've Got a Pocketful of Dreams," "Old Devil Moon" (from the current Broadway hit Finian's Rainbow) and "There's a Small Hotel." Faith leads a few instrumental numbers, including the concluding showpiece for alto saxophone, Jimmy Dorsey's "Oodles of Noodles," with the remarkable virtuoso Al Gallodoro.

The sound on the broadcast is quite good, but the lossless Internet Archive transfer of the transcription did have several skips, which do not affect Bruce's numbers.

Songs by Carol Bruce (Voice of the Army Transcription)

The third part of our set comes from my own collection. It's one of a series of 16-inch transcription discs sent to radio stations by the U.S. Army to promote recruitment. This entry in the "Voice of the Army" series comes from early 1950, and gives Bruce a chance to perform her other feature from Show Boat - "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man."

The musical backing is by Johnny Guarnieri, who made his name a decade before with Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw and here is leading his own quintet. Its members probably included George Walter (trumpet), Charles Di Maggio (clarinet, sax), Leo Guarnieri (bass) and Frank Garisto (drums), who recorded with Johnny at about the same time.

Johnny Guarnieri

Guarnieri's many-noted style would not seem ideally suited to Bruce and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man," but they work together smoothly. Johnny's also good in his own numbers, including the peppy "Toot-Toot-Tootsie" and "El Relicario."

Carol's concluding numbers are "Somebody Loves Me" and "It Had to Be You," which show off her versality and which she handles beautifully. Both songs date from 1924, and Bruce's vocal shadings are appropriate to that era.

The sound from this transcription - a product of my new turntable - is very good indeed. The radio station KWIK - then in Burbank CA - apparently didn't care for the program, with the program director scrawling "NG" across the label in grease pencil. The station must have preferred the Peter Lind Hayes program on the other side (which I've not transferred).

Thanks again to Bryan for his contributions to this enterprise!

Carol Bruce appearing on an early television program performing one of her numbers from Show Boat

  

Music from Hollywood and Percy Faith

My friend David F. recently asked if I had anything against the arranger and conductor Percy Faith, given that I had never posted one of his many, many LPs.

Well, I do like Percy and have many of his multitudinous albums, including this one, the subject of David's inquiry. I've owned Faith records since I was a avid record collector of seven, when I acquired Vic Damone's record of "On the Street Where You Live," which has a Faith arrangement. I loved his sound then and still do.

Percy Faith

This present LP, dating from 1953, is a good choice because it contains four lovely melodies from the films of the period - Dimitri's Tiomkin's "Return to Paradise," Heinz Roemheld's "Ruby" (from Ruby Gentry), Georges Auric's "Song from Moulin Rouge" and David Raksin's "Theme from The Bad and the Beautiful." Three of the four are particular favorites of mine, and "Return to Paradise" is enjoyably kitschy proto-exotica. "Ruby" has appeared here before in the Les Baxter recording, and "The Song from Moulin Rouge" in Arthur Fiedler's version.

All these items are presented in extended, 6-7 minute versions, unusual for an easy listening LP. So much the better to appreciate Faith's orchestrations, which he took very seriously. There's a Columbia promotional film in which he explains his methods to label head Goddard Lieberson, in the process insisting that orchestrators are as much composers as songwriters are. That's debatable, but there is no question that the craft requires great skill and knowledge, and that Faith was a master.

That's not to say that he was sui generis. You can hear the influence of Ronald Binge's Mantovani-style cascading strings in his writing, for example, and I would find it hard to identify any stylistic fingerprints that are Faith's alone.

Percy Faith conducts, Mitch Miller solos

On this record, there is much to enjoy, of course. On "Ruby," Faith uses an English horn as solo voice, unlike the hit versions by Richard Hayman and Les Baxter, which employ a warbling harmonica. The English horn solo was probably played by Mitch Miller, who brought Faith to Columbia and who collaborated with him on two instrumental LPs.

"The Song from Moulin Rouge," also known as "Where Is You Heart," was a gigantic hit for Faith, but in a different, shorter version featuring the impassioned voice of Felicia Sanders singing the William Engvick lyrics. I've included the vocal rendition in the download as a bonus, along with its flip side, "Swedish Rhapsody (Midsummer Vigil)," which itself was a hit for Faith. (You can hear Hugo Alfvén's original version, "Midsommarvaka," here.)

To me, the high point of the LP is "The Theme from The Bad and the Beautiful," gorgeous and extraordinarily well suited to the glamour and decadence of this story of Hollywood. Composer Raksin, who composed hundreds of film and television scores, is remembered today primarily for this theme and for the theme for "Laura," which became a much-recorded standard with Johnny Mercer's apt lyrics - which Raksin reportedly hated. The composer also had a hit in 1962 with his theme to the Ben Casey television show.

The LP was recorded in April 1953, I believe in Columbia's 30th Street studios. The sound is excellent. Columbia later added a few other songs to this 10-inch original to fill out a 12-inch LP.

Billboard, February 28, 1953

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