More Buddy Clark Rarities from the 30s

Here is the final set of Buddy Clark recordings from the 1930s, which have comprised his commercial recordings, transcriptions and radio airchecks. This third installment is the most unusual in that it includes a number of obscurities among its 19 selections.

The present material is cleaned up from the Kevin Hubler collection on Internet Archive, which comes from his father, a Clark devotee.

Buddy sounds great as usual on these numbers. For some of the early items, he is under the spell of Bing, but soon comes into his own.

Clark has often appeared on this blog - here's a link to all those posts.

1935-36 Associated Transcriptions

First we have a fine series of transcriptions that Buddy made for Associated circa 1935-36, all of songs from current films. For these, he was credited as "Bob Clifford." Most of the songs are conducted by "Lon Gladstone," in reality Lud Gluskin.

The first is "The Piccolino," an Irving Berlin creation from the 1935 Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film Top Hat. Buddy is persuasive, but if you want to sample the commercial recordings from Fred and Ginger, head here.

Next is "Did I Remember (to Tell You I Adore You)?" from the Jean Harlow-Cary Grant film Suzy from 1936. Cary and Jean presented it in the film, with Harlow dubbed by Virginia Verrill.

Billy Hill wrote "Empty Saddles (in the Old Corral)," to a poem by J. Keirn Brennan. Bing Crosby sang it in 1936's Rhythm on the Range. Bing also introduced Johnny Mercer's "I'm an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande)" in this epic, but that's not included here.

Alice Faye sang the obscure "Love Will Tell" in the 1936 film Sing, Baby, Sing. It's by Lew Pollack and Jack Yellen. And finally, Leo Robin and Ralph Rainger penned "You Came to the Rescue" for Shirley Ross, Frank Forest and The Big Broadcast of 1937 (which actually came out the year before).

Your Buddy

The next items come from a 1935 radio show called Your Buddy. The set starts with the show's theme, a slightly remade "My Buddy," the lachrymose 1922 tune by Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn.

"Tender Is the Night" was a new song by Donaldson and Harold Adamson that Bing among others recorded. It picks up on the title of F. Scott Fitzgerald's final novel, published in 1934.

One song that has appeared on these blogs several times is "Bidin' My Time," the Gershwin tune written for 1930's Girl Crazy. Two different versions of the song by the Foursome can be found on my other blog. That quintet and their ocarinas introduced the number.

Buddy sings "Bidin' My Time" in medley with the Gershwins' "Liza," a wonderful song from 1929's Show Girl.

Melody Puzzles

We move ahead to 1937 for two airchecks from the show Melody Puzzles. First, Buddy avers that "I Still Love to Kiss You Goodnight," a song that came from the movie 52nd Street, where Kenny Baker warbled it.

Better remembered is "Thanks for the Memory," which Bob Hope and Shirley Ross memorably sang in The Big Broadcast of 1938. This Oscar-winning Robin-Rainger composition became Hope's theme song.

Rubinoff, His Violins and His Etchings

Next we have a song from a transcription disc of Rubinoff's Musical Moments Revue, a show that was sponsored by Chevrolet. Buddy intones Irving Berlin's "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm," written for the 1937 film On the Avenue. Dick Powell and Alice Faye were the first to sing the number.

Another set of transcriptions were for the Rexall drug chain, again with bandleader Rubinoff and his violin. Buddy presents "Deep Purple," which Peter De Rose wrote in 1933. Michell Parish's lyrics were added in 1938. The Rexall transcriptions are from the following year.

"Thanks for Ev'rything" is a popular song from 1938 written by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel. It comes from the film of the same name, where, IMDb tells us, it was sung by Detlef Lais. (No idea.) 

Arthur Johnston and Johnny Burke wrote "Between a Kiss and a Sigh." Artie Shaw and Helen Forrest recorded it - it was the flip side of their hit version of "Thanks for Ev'rything."

Hoagy Carmichael wrote the music for the superb "I Get Along without You Very Well," with lyrics based on an poem by Jane Brown Thompson.

A "Tijuana bible" version of the Rubinoff tale

This the end of the Rubinoff transcriptions, but not of the Rubinoff story. These recordings were made a few years after the bandleader had been famously sued for breach of promise. It seems that he had invited a woman to his apartment to see his collection of etchings, then seduced her, later refusing to marry her when she claimed to be pregnant. Thus the origin of the old catchphrase "Come up and see my etchings."

The Whole Town's Talking

The final set of songs is from a 1936 CBS program called The Whole Town's Talking about Rubinoff and His Etchings. The show was sponsored by the automaker Willys, which later became famous for Jeeps but at the time offered remarkably homely passenger cars.

Yeah, surprisingly ugly

For this show, Buddy appeared under the pseudonym Bob Craig. His offering was "Just a Quiet Evening," a lesser-known song from Richard Whiting and Johnny Mercer. This selection is a bit noisy (sorry!).

Also lesser known is a Western tune from Nick and Charles Kenny called "Leanin' on the Old Top Rail." It comes from a a circa 1939 Associated transcription; Buddy also recorded it  commercially for Varsity.

Last in this group is "Maybe," a song that used to be heard often, but that was long ago. The authors were Allan Flynn and Frank Madden. This performance comes from a test lacquer of an Associated transcription, and includes a breakdown take and the second retake. The other takes were too noisy to rescue.

LINK to Clark rarities from the 30s