Eleventh Batch of Reups

Another interesting group of reups for you today - all requests. In addition to these, I had a request for Oiltown U.S.A., which I couldn't find, so I'll have to re-record it some fine day.

As before, links to all the reups are in the comments to this item. The links below take you to the original posts, where you can delight in my views on the music at hand.

All of these, with the exception of the Warner Color Fashion Show and the Hershy Kay-Virgil Thomson record, have been remastered, are in lossless format and most should have much better sound than the original posts.

Abbe Lane - Where There's a Man

It's the sultry Cugat vocalist with a fine solo outing. Cugie makes an appearance on an awful novelty. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Carole Simpson - Singin' and Swingin'

Speaking of fine singing, here is the recently deceased Carole Simpson with a program of Steve Allen tunes. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Destination Moon

Leith Stevens' music for George Pal's 1949 fantasy of a moon landing. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

The Wild One

More Leith Stevens, in much different mode for this, the original 10-inch version of the soundtrack to Brando's biker tale. I'll have to record the 12-inch version of this some day. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Kay - Western Symphony; Thomson - Filling Station

Two ballet scores in the Americana style, well done by the New York City Ballet orchestra and Leon Barzin. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Ralph Marterie - Dancing on the Down Beat

1952 recordings from the popular post-war dance band. I enjoyed this so much, I posted a Vic Damone-Marterie EP on my other blog, and will have another LP here soon. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Warner's Color TV Fashion Show

A 1957 record that was sent to department stores to promote a TV show featuring lingerie fashions. And you thought the Victoria's Secret programs were a new idea. Music by Michael Brown. LINK TO ORIGINAL POST

Marc Blitzstein - Theater Songs

Marc Blitzstein is not a well-known name these days, but he did achieve some renown as a composer during his lifetime. His best known work is probably the labor musical The Cradle Will Rock, followed by the opera Regina. The latter has been recorded twice, as has his wartime Airborne symphony (conducted both times by Leonard Bernstein).

Blitzstein

This present record collects songs from his less well-known works, with the composer at the piano and the excellent Muriel Smith singing. The recordings were made in December 1947; this 10-inch LP dates from a few years later.

Smith first became known in the title role of Carmen Jones on Broadway in 1943. She was appearing in a revival of The Cradle Will Rock when this record was made. Smith later spent much time in London, and was a vocal double for several films, notably for Juanita Hall in South Pacific. I have at least one of her LPs, and may share more of her work here.

Smith as Carmen Jones

My copy of this album does not include any notes, although it is possible that they were included in the original issue, which came in an envelope rather than a cardboard cover. Here are a few notes on the songs that may be helpful. The information is mainly derived from Leonard Lehrman's bio-bibliography of the composer:

"Mamasha Goose" - comes from the unfinished 1945 American-Soviet friendship musical Goloopchik. The song is sung by a child in Russia attempting to entertain two American soldiers. Music is from folk sources; words by Blitzstein. I believe "goloopchik" is a term of endearment.

"In the Clear" - is from the 1941 leftist opera No for an Answer, which only achieved a few performances at the time. The words are by the composer.

"Orpheus" - is from the 1937 incidental music for Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Here the piano tone has been altered to give an antique sound to the accompaniment.

"Ode to Reason" - is a solo song from the incidental music from a 1938 production of Georg Büchner's Danton's Death. The piano tone has been altered here as well.

"Song of the D.P." also is from Goloopchik. It is sung by a displaced woman ("D.P." = displaced person) who has been repatriated to Russia by the Nazis. It was drawn from some of Blitzstein's experiences in the US Army.

So This Is Paris

Continuing our long-running series of obscure and semi-obscure musicals, here is the soundtrack from the 1955 sailors-on-leave epic So This Is Paris.

Musicals focusing on the antics of American military personnel at their leisure date back at least to the 1944 opening of On the Town on Broadway. I am not even sure this was the first musical that set sailors loose in Paris to pursue love and adventure. So there is nothing new here in that regard.

But we're concerned with the soundtrack and it is pleasant, if (like the story) hardly original. The songs are the handiwork of Phil Moody and Pony Sherrell.

A few words about this relatively unfamiliar team might be helpful. Phil Moody was a British-born composer and Doris (Pony) Sherrell was a lyricist and singer. They met when Moody became the music director for the act that Pony formed with her sister Grace. Phil and Grace married while Pony, who was then married to singer Gene ("My Blue Heaven") Austin, became Phil's musical partner.

In the mid-50s, Moody and Sherrell were assigned to a few low-powered musicals besides this one - including Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt and, in the 60s, The Second Greatest Sex. They also did songs for Paris Follies of 1956 and Fresh from Paris (I am detecting a theme here). Their two songs from those latter films were recorded by Margaret Whiting and can be found here on this blog. (Caveat: I called "All There Is and Then Some" an awful song when I posted that collection.)

Unusually, So This Is Paris starred Tony Curtis in a singing role. Of course I can't be sure that Curtis isn't dubbed; if so, the vocal double isn't that great a singer. Otherwise, we have Gloria De Haven, who can sing (she was a band vocalist), and Gene Nelson, who also can sing, although he was primarily known as a dancer.

The soundtrack was issued as a 10-inch LP and a double EP. The cover of my copy of the EP set is very worn but the records are in good shape, so the sound is pleasing.

Julius Baker in Works by Foote and Griffes

Flutist Julius Baker made any number of records in the 1950s. During much of the period he was a New York freelance musician, but when these recordings were made, in June 1952, he was the principal flute of the Chicago Symphony. He later was the principal of the New York Philharmonic for many years.

Julius Baker

The repertoire could not be more welcome, consisting of the Poem for flute and orchestra by the American Impressionist Charles Tomlinson Griffes and "A Night Piece" by the American Romantic Arthur Foote.

Assisting in the Griffes is a chamber orchestra led by Daniel Saidenberg, also a busy performer during the period. In "A Night Piece" Baker is joined by the then violins of the Stuyvesant Quartet (Sylvan Shulman and Bernard Roberts), violist Harold Coletta of the NBC Symphony, and cellist Bernard Greenhouse, later of the Beaux Arts Trio.

These are excellent performances that I recommend. The sound is good. They come from American Decca's spartan (no notes) 4000 series of 10-inch LPs, dating from the early 1950s. I have a few more from this series coming up.

LINK to 2026 remaster

Rose Marie

Rose Marie - still with us - was already a well known entertainer more than 80 years ago, when she was appearing on stage as "Baby Rose Marie". (You can see her young self here.)

Closer to the present day, she was a welcome presence on US television, first as a comedy writer on The Dick Van Dyke Show, later on other sitcoms and game shows.

Frankie and Rose Marie

Today we're concerned with her in-between career as a nightclub entertainer. Starting in the 1940s, she had a combination music and comedy act in some of the better locales.

This 10-inch LP documents that phase of her stage experience. It comes from circa 1952, when she was on Broadway in Top Banana with Phil Silvers, and it was probably issued in an attempt to cash in on that appearance. The recordings themselves, however, were made by Mercury as singles from 1946 to about 1948.

Rose Marie's first single was "Chen-A-Luna," a version of a song that goes back at least as far as the 1830s and Rossini's "La Danza".

Oh, you don't believe that Gioachino Rossini would have originated a song that implores lazy Mary to get up because we need the sheets for the table? Well, consider that "Chen-A-Luna" is a phonetic version of the first line of the song, "C'è la luna in mezzo al mare", and the first line of Rossini's song is "Già la luna è in mezzo al mare." (Rossini's version did not invoke lazy Mary, however.) You can hear Enrico Caruso in "La Danza" here.

I am digressing, but the song has a complicated history (including versions by Lou Monte, Louis Prima and an unlikely paisan, Rudy Vallee). I'll soon explore it in more depth in an upcoming post on Buster's Swinging Singles.

Rose Marie's repertoire at the time - at least as displayed here - was mainly novelty songs, but she nonetheless was quite a good vocalist, singing in a strong alto with excellent rhythm and considerable personality. At least some of the accompaniments here are by Dick (later Richard) Maltby. The sound is good, but the LP transfer was quite sharp, which I have adjusted here.

Kiss Me, Kate with Stafford and MacRae

Two blog favorites for you today - Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae - in songs from Kiss Me, Kate.

This album was issued in March 1949 (so was I, come to think of it), and was designed to provide a lower-cost alternative to the 12-inch original cast LP. It consists of four 45s (and was also issued in a 78 package, and later came out on a 10-inch LP).

Jo and Gordon

The original cast LP is superb, and while this version is not on that level, it is still pretty good, as you might expect with Stafford and MacRae participating along with Paul Weston.

The artists duet only on "Wunderbar", then split the other songs, except for "Too Darn Hot", which is given over to an anonymous vocal group.

My set of records were unplayed store stock, and are in much better shape than I am after nearly 64 years. The sound is quite good. The download includes front and back cover scans, a scan of a Capitol ad insert, and a label and sleeve scan as well. The front cover was designed by Saul Bass, several years before he began doing movie title design, and is distinctly more modern looking than the general run of album covers of the time.

Grace Williams and Gustav Holst

It's been some time since we have had a classical LP appear here. This one features two 20th century composers, one familiar, the other less so.

Boyd Neel

The popularity of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" almost eclipses his other works, but most of his music is of considerable interest. The St. Paul's Suite is a very attractive folk-derived work named for the girls' school where the composer taught. Here it is well performed by Boyd Neel and his orchestra, which made many records for English Decca at mid-century.

Grace Williams

To me, the real interest is in Grace Williams' lovely Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes, from 1940. This, the first recording of any music by the Welsh composer, is from October 1948. It was made for the Welsh Recorded Music Society and issued on 78 in 1949. It then was reissued with the Holst on 10-inch LP in 1951.

Mansel Thomas

Mansel Thomas, a notable figure in Welsh musical life, conducted the Fantasia. He was at this time the director of the BBC Welsh Orchestra, although here he leads the London Symphony.

The sound is adequate. The download includes contemporary reviews from The Gramophone.