A Dragnet Christmas

Following up on Kukla, Fran and Ollie, here is a Christmas album from another well-remembered American television program, Jack Webb's Dragnet.

Like Kukla, Fran and Ollie - and many if not most TV shows of the time - Dragnet began as a radio drama. Starring Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday of the Los Angeles Police Department, the program went on the air in 1949. Webb's long-time sidekick Ben Alexander joined in 1951, remaining on the show for many years as Officer Frank Smith. The radio program lasted until 1957 - almost to the end of such programming on that medium.

Jack Webb and Ben Alexander show off their hat collections

The TV program, which began in 1951, was strongly influenced by the pseudo-documentary look of the 1948 film noir The Naked City, and more broadly by the noir genre and its conventions. Friday the character was the offspring of the noir detective - with the significant difference that he was a police figure rather than a private eye. Whereas the police in hard-boiled fiction were often brutal, incompetent and crooked, in Webb's world they are dedicated, selfless professionals. The series is credited with markedly improving the public image of the police.

I am not an expert on Dragnet, but in this episode Webb has no wife and seemingly no life outside of work, whereas Frank Smith does have a home life (and apparently views his wife as a combination cook, housekeeper and secretary). In this regard, Friday is something akin to the the standard hard-boiled detective's persona as a lonely crusader.

Today's post includes the Dragnet Christmas LP shown above (a 10-incher), the TV show itself, and four singles that played off on the popularity of the show.

Dragnet - The Christmas Story

Among the reasons for Dragnet's enduring popularity are the many memes it spawned. Although the program has a reputation for being "realistic," it actually was nearly as stylized as a kabuki drama. Webb is always the narrator, he always starts the program with the same introduction, he leads off each scene by giving its location and the time to the minute (he apparently had quite a memory), the conversations generally end with Friday one-upping the person he is interacting with (as happens in the first scene with both his partner and his boss), and so on.

Perhaps the most important of these stylistic trademarks was Walter Schumann's opening motto-theme: DUM - DE- DUM - DUM, etc. (Schumann apparently pinched this motif from Miklos Rosza's music for The Killers, which led to an eventual legal settlement.) The music was so catchy that it became the basis for a 1953 single by Ray Anthony and several other records, discussed in the next section.

Scene of the 'crime'

Following Anthony's success, Webb and RCA Victor decided that they should get in on the action, preparing this Christmas LP for the 1953 holiday season. "A Christmas Story" is taken from the soundtrack for Dragnet's 1952 Christmas program. The story works very well without any visual element, demonstrating that the series was essentially a filmed radio show, similar to most TV productions of the time.

"A Christmas Story" was a charming tale involving a statue of the infant Jesus stolen from a church's manger scene. Joe and Frank go to great pains to find the statue, only to have it conveniently reappear as they return to tell the good padre they hadn't been able to locate it.

Joe Carioca, Jr. as Paco Mendoza

For a big-city detective team, the two seemingly have little to do besides chasing after a plaster statue. When the program opens, Friday is in the office addressing Christmas cards and Smith is coming in from doing his Christmas shopping.

The performances are good, however, with Webb muttering in his usual monotone, familiar character actors like Herb Vigran turning up in bit roles, and the appealing non-professional Joe Carioca, Jr. as the juvenile "thief," Paco Mendoza.

The download includes both my transfer of the LP and a video of the program itself, courtesy of YouTube, plus the usual scans, photos, and Billboard articles. The bonus singles are detailed below.

Dragnet Singles and Parodies

Unsurprisingly, Webb liked records that promoted his show

The big Dragnet musical success was Ray Anthony's single, which hit number three on the charts in 1953 and sent musicians of all kinds to the studio in an attempt to replicate his success.

Two notable parodies came from the usual sources: Spike Jones and Stan Freberg.

Spike's Dragnet is the more literal, with Jones as Sgt. Jim Saturday parodying many of Dragnet's stylistic tics, while tossing off the usual one-liners and throwing in the usual sound effects. Silly, but enjoyable.

Freberg turns Dragnet into the legend of St. George and the Dragonet. Freberg introduces himself, "This is the countryside. My name is St. George. I am a knight." He interviews a maiden (June Foray) who somehow has acquired a thick Brooklyn accent. Then he talks to a knave (Daws Butler) who sounds like Arnold Stang. It's during this record that Freberg supposedly invented the famous line, "Just the facts, ma'am," even though he never says exactly that phrase - nor was it ever heard on Dragnet. Eventually Daws shows up as the dragon and is arrested for overacting.

Other musicians took up the Dragnet theme as the basis of novelty instrumentals. One such was Cleveland polka maestro Kenny Bass, who uses it as the basis of a lively number that sounds much like any other Slovenian polka you have ever heard, and none the worse for that. Bass intersperses siren-whistle effects and screams in an apparent homage to the TV show.

The 78s all are courtesy of Internet Archive, as remastered by me.

There's one mildly Dragnet-related item on my other blog: Jack Webb is said to have adopted the name Friday in honor of singer Pat Friday (originally Freiday), who had appeared with him on radio. You can find Pat's excellent records here.

Best holiday wishes to all from Jack, Ben, Ray, Spike, Stan, June, Daws, Kenny and Pat - and me, too!

Jack and Ben smoke the sponsor's cigarettes

Let's Sing a Quasi-Irish Song with Buster

And now, to mark the upcoming feast of St. Patrick, I present an Irish-themed compendium that has nothing to do with that good saint and very little to do with Ireland itself. While each selection is Irish-related in some way, it is usually the Irish or Irish music through the lens of American or English composers and performers - with the notable exception of the great Irish tenor John McCormack. Apropos of its varied ingredients, I am calling this collection "Buster's Irish Stew."

As usual, I'll present the 32 selections chronologically, reaching back to the early years of last century for the oldest specimens.

Peter Wyper

Our first number, an "Irish Jig," comes from 1909 and the Scottish accordionist Peter Wyper. He was supposedly the first accordionist to make records, so now you know who to blame.

The following year, two of the big stars of the early recording scene, the Americans Steve Porter and Billy Murray, combined for the vaudeville routine "Irish Wit," with a snappy tune sandwiching fast-paced ethnic repartee.

American banjo virtuoso Fred Van Eps is next with his 1911 record of "Irish Hearts." Van Eps was the father of jazz guitarist George Van Eps.

Fred Van Eps at the recording horn

Vaudevillian Ada Jones was last heard on this site in a German dialect number; on this 1911 record she has been transformed into an Irish lass, telling her "German dunce" boyfriend that "You Will Have to Sing an Irish Song" to have a chance with her. Albert Von Tilzer ("Take Me Out to the Ball Game") was the songwriter.

Billy Murray turns up again in 1912 with a tune called "If It Wasn't for the Irish and the Jews," reminding us that "without the Pats and Isidores you'd have no big department stores," among other benefits provided by these two ethnicities. Presumably the Victor company hoped to sell these platters in both Irish and Jewish neighborhoods, and the department stores run by Pat and Isidore.

Cigarette card from 1914

The great John McCormack makes the first of several appearances in this collection with the traditional song "Molly Brannigan." The recording dates from 1913, although this pressing comes from 1920.

Among his other accomplishments, the American songwriter and singer Chauncey Olcott wrote two enduring standards - "My Wild Irish Rose" and "When Irish Eyes are Smiling." In 1913, Olcott recorded the first named for Columbia.

Olcott was an polished vocalist but no John McCormack, who did his own version of "My Wild Irish Rose" for Victor in 1914. The song dates from 1899, when it was heard in the Broadway play A Romance of Athlone. Coincidentally, McCormack himself was from that Irish town.

One of Australian composer Percy Grainger's most famous compositions was his setting of the Irish reel "Molly on the Shore," dating from 1907. Originally for string quartet or string orchestra, Grainger later obligingly arranged it for orchestra, wind band, and violin and piano, missing an opportunity to capture the big kazoo-player market. In this 1916 recording, American violinist Maud Powell is heard with pianist Arthur Loesser, the half-brother of songwriter Frank Loesser.

Maud Powell in 1914

John McCormack returns with Chauncey Olcott's other big success, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," in a 1916 recording for Victrola. The orchestral accompaniment is led by the immensely prolific Victor staff conductor Rosario Bourdon.

Two years later, McCormack was in a New York studio with the less-familiar "My Irish Song of Songs," which name-checks all the familiar Irish tunes of the time. Josef Pasternack, another Victor music director, leads the band.

Arthur Pryor in 1920

We skip ahead to 1923 for a two-sided medley from Arthur Pryor's Band, "Reminiscences of Ireland." One of the tunes is "Irish Washerwoman," which will turn up twice more later in the playlist. The Pryor Band first became famous under the leadership of Arthur's father, Samuel. Arthur took over its leadership after his father's death. A trombone virtuoso, Arthur had been in Sousa's Band for 12 years, rising to become its assistant conductor.

Bartlett and Robertson

Ireland has been the source of inspiration for many composers, none more so than the English composer Sir Arnold Bax. Among his many works with an Irish theme is 1916's "Moy Mell (The Happy Plain)" for two pianos. Performing in this 1927 recording are the eminent wife and husband duo of Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robertson. The two were closely associated with Bax's music, although he did not compose this work for them - it was written for Myra Hess and Irene Scharrer.

One of the leading chamber ensembles of the day was the Flonzaley Quartet, who recorded an "Irish Reel" in 1927 for Victor. The arrangement is by second violinist Alfred Pochon. The other side of the record (not in the playlist) was Pochon's arrangement of the spiritual "Deep River" - much different from the Flonzaley's usual diet of Beethoven and Haydn.

The Flonzaley Quartet

Perhaps the best known (and most parodied) sentimental song in the repertory is "Mother Machree" by the well-known songwriters Chauncey Olcott, Ernest Ball and Rida Johnson Young. Again, this was an American song of theatrical origin, coming from the 1911 Broadway play Barry of Ballymore. John McCormack is heard in his second recording of the piece, dating from 1927.

Mother Machree song card, c1939

Albert Sammons by
Alexander Akerbladh

Grainger's "Molly on the Shore" was popular with violinists, but not all used his arrangement. In 1928, the superb English instrumentalist Albert Sammons recorded Fritz Kreisler's version, which Grainger reputedly hated. No accompanist is named on the label and I haven't able to discover who the pianist might be.

Also in 1928, John McCormack recorded the wrenching ballad "The Irish Emigrant," written in the mid-19th century by Lady Dufferin and George Barker. This is a remarkable record, surely the best of this group.

"The Irish Emigrant" cigarette card

Moving on to 1936, we have the lighter-hearted "Laughing Irish Eyes" from veteran American bandleader Johnny Johnson, with a pleasing vocal by Lee Johnson. The budget label Melotone records issued this disc.

English violist Watson Forbes recorded William Alwyn's "Two Folk Tunes" in 1940 with harpist Maria Korchinska. The composer contrasts a Norwegian tune with an Irish air. Forbes was a distinguished figure, but he is not note-perfect here.

Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears by Cecil Beaton

Last October I discussed John McCormack's recording of Yeats' "Down by the Salley Gardens" in the setting by Herbert Hughes. Benjamin Britten set the poem under the title "The Sally Gardens" in his first volume of Folk Song Arrangements. In this 1944 recording the composer accompanies Peter Pears.

Charlie Spivak

James Royce Shannon's "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral" was written for a 1914 Chauncey Olcott show, Shameen Dhu. It did well at the time in Olcott's recording, and its popularity was renewed when it was included in Bing Crosby's 1944 film Going My Way. The playlist has a relatively unfamiliar instrumental version from big-toned trumpeter Charlie Spivak and his band.

In 1945, Boyd Neel took his orchestra into Decca's West Hampstead Studios for our final version of "Molly on the Shore," in Grainger's arrangement for strings.

The next year, comic Morey Amsterdam (last discussed here for not having written "Rum and Coca-Cola") decided to revive an old vaudeville song, "With His Wonderful Irish Brogue," which dates back to at least 1918. This was for the small Crown label.

Fred Lowery

"My Wild Irish Rose" returns in a version from Fred Lowery, probably the most recorded and popular whistler of all time. A big-band veteran, Lowery would achieve his greatest hit with "The High and the Mighty" theme in 1954. This one has the same eerie quality that helped make "The High and the Mighty" a success.

It wouldn't be an Irish-themed collection without hearing from Bing Crosby. I've included one of his lesser-known songs, "My Girl's an Irish Girl," the flip side of "Galway Bay," a 1948 coupling. Victor Young leads the band.

John McCormack died in 1944, and in 1948 another Irish tenor, Michael O'Higgins, put out the tribute song "When McCormack Sang Mother Machree" on the small American Beauty Recordings label. O'Higgins was a music professor at the University of Dublin.

Glamorous Freddy Morgan

In 1949, Spike Jones wreaked his usual havoc with "MacNamara's Band," featuring a decidedly inebriated sounding "I. W. Harper and The Four Fifths" on vocals. (I. W. Harper was a then-popular bourbon.) I believe "Harper" is actually Freddy Morgan. The conceit here is that MacNamara heard Spike's records and decided to imitate his sound, at which point the Irish deported him.

At long last, we come to our first version of "The Irish Washerwoman," a traditional tune played throughout the British Isles. Here we have Leroy Anderson's arrangement from his Irish Suite, written for the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler. This recording dates from 1950. You can hear Anderson's own version of the Irish Suite via this post. I've newly remastered the sound both of that recording and its companion, a Fiedler collection of Leroy Anderson compositions.

The Pinetoppers

"The Irish Washerwoman" returns disguised as an "Irish Polka" in our next selection, dating from 1952. The artists were the country group The Pinetoppers, who were led by songwriter Vaughn Horton, the author of "Mule Skinner Blues," "Sugar Foot Rag" and "Mockin' Bird Hill," not to mention Louis Jordan's classic "Choo-Choo Ch'Boogie." The "Irish Polka" is attributed to "Paddy Hogan." My guess is Hogan was Horton under another name.

Perhaps fittingly, we close our collection with a song that has nothing whatsoever to do with Ireland or Irish music, but does lend its name to this collection. "English Muffins and Irish Stew" was a pop song by the well-known writers Moose Charlap and Bob Hilliard, here recorded by Brooklyn's Sylvia Syms. Unaccountably, it turns out to be a mock calypso!

The Cash Box, July 28, 1956

As usual with these collections, the raw material came from lossless needle drops found on Internet Archive and refurbished by me. The sound is quite good - even for the records that are now 100+ years old.

A pleasant St. Patrick's Day to all from your one-quarter Irish blogger!

Buster's New Year Selection

While Christmas music is rife, there aren't all that many tunes celebrating the holiday that comes along one week later, New Year's Day. If I asked you to name a New Year's song, you would probably reply "Auld Lang Syne" and then draw a blank.

But over the years there have been quite a few records marking the New Year, which I discovered by nosing around Internet Archive. I found several different "Happy New Year" songs along with an "Unhappy New Year," and many takes on "Auld Lang Syne," including a polka, a bluegrass version and an "Auld Lang Syne Boogie." In all, I was able to build a 22-song compilation of 78s dating from 1907 to 1956. A few notes about each follow.

Cal Stewart

The oldest platter is Cal Stewart's "Uncle Josh's New Year Pledge," a comic monologue that seems strangely without comedy 113 years later. Stewart was a vaudeville star who made many records in his "Uncle Josh" guise. Although we may find him unfunny, the character was influential - you can find traces of him in Will Rogers and Charley Weaver, among others.

From 1915, we have the Victor Light Opera Company presenting "Gems from Chin Chin," an "orientalist fantasy" by Ivan Caryll and Anne Caldwell that was on Broadway at the time. Such "orientalist" productions were popular at the time. The best known is probably Chu Chin Chow, which came along a few years later. "Gems from Chin Chin" begins with a "Happy New Year" number.

Don Redman

We leap ahead a few decades to Don Redman and his swing arrangement of "Auld Lang Syne" recorded in 1938. The band vocal consists entirely of counting to 20 and then reversing course. Novelty vocals were a feature of Redman's repertoire.

From 1942, we have Bing Crosby's commercial recording of "Let's Start the New Year Right," a song that Irving Berlin wrote for the Crosby-Astaire film Holiday Inn. Crosby's vocal in the film is much livelier.

Dinah Shore recorded an deeply felt wartime version of "Auld Lang Syne" in 1944, with backing by the Sportsmen and an orchestra conducted by the short-lived Albert Sack. This is surely one of the best records in this collection.

At about the same time, the Warsaw Dance Orchestra produced a polka called "New Year" for the small Harmonia label, which specialized in ethnic recordings.

Fred Waring, his choral group and the Pennsylvanians did a stirring version of the Brown and Henderson song "Let Us All Sing Auld Lang Syne" in 1945.

We return to the polka realm with Bill Gale and His Globetrotters, who recorded their "Auld Lang Syne Polka" for Columbia in 1946. Gale, who I believe was from Chicago, was born Bill Gula and had made records in earlier years with his Bee Gee Tavern Band, including a cover version of the "Beer Barrel Polka," a major hit in 1939 for Will Glahé.

One of the lesser-known romantic crooners of the era was the talented John Laurenz, who recorded for Mercury, including "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" in 1948. I also included this song in last year's Christmas compilation, noting at that time, "If there are any Bowery Boys fans out there, you may be interested to know that Laurenz dubbed Huntz Hall's vocals in the great Blues Busters, in which Satch becomes the world's most unlikely romantic crooner."

Also from 1948 we have "Happy New Year" from Jeffrey Clay, the Serenaders and Dana records honcho Gus Dana. This is a most peculiar children's record, with two youngsters saying goodbye to a depressed sounding "Mr. Old Year" and welcoming in the new. The boy character is played by a young boy, but the girl is a woman trying to sound like a child and mainly coming off as demented. After the baby New Year makes an appearance amidst some unconvincing sound effects, the record turns into a polka. The vocal is presumably by Jeffrey Clay.

Freddy Morgan, Sir Frederick Gas, Doodles Weaver, Spike Jones

Spike Jones and crew trot out their New Year's resolutions in "Happy New Year" from 1948, with contributions from the usual culprits - Sir Frederick Gas, Doodles Weaver, George Rock and Spike himself. Freddy Morgan and Eddie Brandt wrote this wildly politically incorrect nonsense.

Freddie Mitchell

Next comes the "Auld Lang Syne Boogie" from Freddie Mitchell, his honking saxophone and his orchestra. Freddie made this in 1949 for the Derby label, where he led the house band. I uploaded a Mitchell compilation about 10 years ago, and have newly remastered the sound for those who like this type of R&B.

The great vocal duo of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral chose "Auld Lang Syne" for one of their first solo records, which they made for Atlantic in 1949 as the "Roy Kral - Jackie Cain Sextet." This was at about the time that they departed from the Charlie Ventura band.

Also in 1949, the wonderful English singer Vera Lynn produced an emotional reading of "Auld Lang Syne" with the subtitle "The Good-night Waltz." The backing is by Robert Farnon's orchestra and the Mitchell Men.

Songwriters Carmen Lombardo and Johnny Marks came up with a number called "Happy New Year, Darling" in 1946. I haven't found a recording by the Lombardo clan, but veteran bandleader Ted Black did a smooth version in 1949 with a Dick Edwards vocal.

Composer-arranger Gordon Jenkins had a predilection for downbeat songs. You may be familiar with "Goodbye," which Benny Goodman used as his closing theme and which Frank Sinatra featured on his Only the Lonely LP. But Jenkins' "Happy New Year" is surely the most depressing of the group, here in a 1949 recording by the composer with Bob Senn as solo vocalist.

Eddie (Piano) Miller

More sprightly is the next number, a "New Year Medley" from Eddie (Piano) Miller, also from 1949. Miller was one of the first practitioners of the "old-timey" piano sound - a genre I generally avoid. These pianists with their corny effects, sleeve garters and bowler hats were inescapable in the 1950s.

More to my taste is "Haouli Maka Hiki Hou! (Happy New Year!)" from one of the most famous Hawaiian musicians, Genoa Keawe, here with her Polynesians. This record is on the 49th State Record Company label, and dates from 1950, nine years before Hawaii became the 50th state. The name was apparently invented in an excess of postwar optimism about statehood.

The Oklahoma Wranglers - Skeeter, Vic and Guy Willis
with Chuck Wright

The Oklahoma Wranglers were the first incarnation of the Willis Brothers, who later became known for truck-drivin' songs, notably "Give Me Forty Acres (To Turn This Rig Around)." The Wranglers (brothers Guy, Skeeter and Vic along with bassist Chuck Wright, who was billed as the “Silent Old Indian”) made a living backing Hank Williams and then Eddy Arnold while recording such fare as "Unhappy New Year" for RCA Victor in 1951.

Nicola Paone put out many ethnically-tinged records in the 1950s, mostly for his own label. His "New Year Song" was released by RCA Victor in 1952.

Billy Ward and His Dominoes were among the most popular R&B groups of the early 1950s, scoring with "Sixty Minute Man" among others. In 1953, Ward came up with "Ringing in a Brand New Year" for the King label. R&B expert Marv Goldberg isn't sure who sang lead, but says it was probably Billy. It certainly wasn't Jackie Wilson, who succeeded Clyde McPhatter as the group's lead vocalist around this time.

Bobby and Sonny Osborne, with Jimmy Martin

We close our collection with a superb bluegrass reading of "Auld Lang Syne" from Sonny Osborne with the Sunny Mountain Boys. The 18-year-old Sonny was already a veteran musician who had been recording for Gateway for several years. The fiddle solo here is probably the work of Sonny's brother Bobby. The siblings would later be billed as the Osborne Brothers, and would become famous for their incredible 1967 recording of "Rocky Top."

The sound on these is generally excellent - even the 113-year-old record sounds good. Best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year to all!

A Novelty Christmas

Here is a post mainly concerned with novelty songs of the season.

Slim and Fat Boy/Jelly Belly

We start, however, with a non-novelty, 1948's Christmastime Blues with Slim Seward and Fat Boy Hayes. My excuse here is that I thought it was a novelty when I picked it up. Slim Seward? Must be like Slam Stewart or Slim Galliard, I thought. Not so - it really is a blues record. Slim and Fat Boy otherwise recorded as the Back Porch Boys, or Slim Seward and Jelly Belly Hayes. They were based in New York, and apparently were a cabaret blues act similar to Josh White.

October 15, 1949

Let's move on to one of the most famous Christmas novelty records, Spike Jones' 1949 version of My Two Front Teeth, with a vocal by George Rock. This was a big ole hit, landing Spike (but not Georgie) on the front of Billboard with giant prop teeth. I can't imagine anyone listening to this more than once for each tooth, but my copy is kind of worn nonetheless. The other side, thankfully, is more fun and in better condition. It is called Happy New Year, and has new year's resolutions from Spike, George, Sir Frederick Gas and Doodles Weaver. The humor is quite conventional, but the record seems delightfully anarchic anyway, with its wonderfully choreographed sound effects. I've been a sucker for this sound all my life. This one is in response to a request by our friend David F.

Next up is another novelty that is highly evocative of the post-war era, 1950's I Want a Television Christmas, performed by Mindy Carson early in her career. This was not a commercial record - it was produced by the television manufacturers to stimulate sales and was given away in stores. Mindy rhapsodizes about all the things she would see on her new TV (and all before she's 17, she marvels) - plays, strange lands, etc. No mention of reality shows, wrestling or Jay Leno, who had not been invented. The song is presented in two very similar versions - one with bells and celeste added.

Fontane Sisters

We move on from a television Christmas to A Howdy Doody Christmas, as presented by the Fontane Sisters and Howdy himself. I have to admit I found Howdy a little "off" when I was a youthful Buster, and have not changed my opinion. Take a look at his troupe below and tell me they seem normal. The image comes from the cover of another Howdy Doody Christmas record, available here. This one is from 1951.

Country Washburne

The next item is on the Russell label, which made records for dance studios. Santa Has His Eye on You rather chillingly presents old Nick as a kind of parental spy in the cold war between adults and their offspring, perfectly apt for 1953. The performance by Country Washburne and a small band is quite good. Washburne was a vet of the Ted Weems and Spike Jones bands. Vocalist Marilyn King was the youngest of the King Sisters, but I don't believe she was a full-time member of the family ensemble. There are two versions of the song - vocal and instrumental.

Finally, Jose Ferrer presents the March of the Christmas Toys in his tuneless way. As sometimes happened, he was appearing on the flip side of a record by his wife, Rosemary Clooney. (That song, A Christmas Present to Santa Claus, has been widely anthologized.) Not sure why Mitch Miller kept parading Jose before the listening public as a vocalist. Ferrer was better suited to inpersonating Cyrano de Bergerac - which you can experience on this very blog, in fact.

Howdy Doody and ensemble (click to enlarge)