Dinah Shore Sings the Blues

Dinah Shore was not born to sing the blues. A middle-class girl from Tennessee, she became famous on radio, via records and in the movies in her 20s, and spent virtually all of her adult life as a glamorous American television presence.

But sing the blues she did, and very well, even if they were not the "real blues" and she was not a "real blues singer."

Shore's first brush with celebrity was on something called "The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street," an early-40s radio program that traded in Dixieland cliches and commercial blues songs. Dinah recorded some of the songs in this set for the first time while she was on that show, but the present collection dates from much later.

This RCA 10-inch LP came out in 1953, during one of Shore's less successful periods as a recording artist. As was the case with many singers of the time, she was a singles artist who was struggling to find material that would sell. Among her bigger records of the time were "Sweet Violets" (a tame version of the risque song) and "Salomee (With Her Seven Veils)." Not exactly the Great American Songbook.

"Sings the Blues," in contrast, was an attempt to appeal to a different audience. It was at a coherent album of commercial blues and torch songs - not a new or unique premise, but one that was nicely done, with charts by Frank DeVol, and with Dinah in excellent voice. Well-recorded, too.

In the 50s and thereafter, Shore's fame increasingly rested on her considerable charm and her powers of persuasion as a commercial spokeswoman for Chevrolet automobiles, but we shouldn't forget that she was a singer of great talent as well, one who went on to make any number of excellent LPs after the hits dried up.

Check my other blog for a new post of a 1953 EP from Dinah.

Dinah helps to introduce the new Corvette, circa 1953

Joe Mooney

Joe Mooney never became a great popular success, but the vocalist-accordionist-organist was, and still is, well regarded by the cognoscenti.

These recordings come from his greatest period: early in his career, when he was leading the tight-knit quartet that made his reputation.

After World War II, the group had become increasingly acclaimed by appearing in small clubs - so much so that the record companies apparently waged a bidding war for them. Decca won, and even ran an ad in Billboard (below) proclaiming its victory.

Mooney and his troupe (Andy Fitzgerald, clarinet, Jack Hotop, guitar, Gaetan (Gate) Frega, bass) first entered the recording studio in November 1946. They would set down a total of 18 numbers for Decca by the end of the following year.

The success was short-lived. By mid-1949, the group had disbanded, and Andy Fitzgerald was working in a Paterson textile plant. Contemporary sources say that Gate Frega left to enter the ministry.

Mooney continued, with a single on Carousel and then a few excellent sides with the Sauter-Finegan band in 1952, notably "Nina Never Knew." By 1956, Mooney was running and performing at a restaurant in Miami. Atlantic cut an LP with him that year that was released in 1957.

Finally, Mooney recorded two albums for Columbia in the early 60s. He still had something of a reputation - one LP was called "The Greatness of Joe Mooney."

Frega, Mooney and Fitzgerald in 1946

The Decca recordings first came out on 78, then collected for a 10-inch LP titled "You Go To My Head." Seven of the eight songs on that LP ended up on this 12-inch album, "On the Rocks" (a title chosen, one supposes, to enable the art department to plunk Joe and his accordion down in an old-fashioned glass with a bunch of ice cubes).

In addition to the 12 songs from "On the Rocks," I've added the orphaned item from "You Go to My Head," and two songs from 78 - in all, 15 of the 18 records the Mooney Quartet made for Decca.

One word about the "orphan" - it is one of the group's best set-pieces, "Shaky Breaks the Ice," with a fantastic double-talk intro from Gate Frega. All these records are good, in fact. The group was able to put its stamp even on material that wasn't written for them, such as "Meet Me at No Special Place," which was recorded by several artists in 1947.

I just love Mooney and hope you enjoy this set, which was suggested by our friend David F.

Martinon Conducts Prokofiev

The lurid, Daliesque cover promotes "The Love for Three Oranges," but to me the real attraction here is the other Prokofiev work on the program - his Classical Symphony.

This is an exceptional performance of a composition I love. Jean Martinon conducts the Lamoureux Orchestra, which he then led, in this June 1953 recording.

Jean Martinon

I had not heard any of Martinon's early records before acquiring this disc, although I have several of his much later Chicago Symphony albums. I was very impressed by the highly detailed, beautifully balanced performances on this 10-inch LP.

There is a small offensive image on the cover - my apologies. (Addendum - See a note below from billinrio for an explanation of the image's meaning.)

This recording has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK

Sixteenth Batch of Reups

What, so soon?

Yes, I decided to fill a few new requests that came in, finish off the ones I forgot to post in the last batch, and add a few others for good measure - transfers that I wanted to revisit for my own pleasure.

As always, the new links are in the comments to this post and the original posts. I have remastered the files when I had lossless originals, and the sound for these is much improved. I can provide no guarantee about the sound on the items that are in mp3 format.

Ethel Merman and Mary Martin - Ford 50th Anniversary Show (Apple lossless; remastered)

Friedrich Gulda - At Birdland (Apple lossless; remastered)

Leroy Anderson - Irish Suite (Apple lossless; remastered)

Leroy Anderson (Boston Pops - Fielder) (Apple lossless; remastered) [Note: this now includes a transfer of "The Syncopated Clock" taken from a Fiedler EP that otherwise duplicates the contents of the LP]

Martha Raye - The Voice of Martha Raye (mp3)

Mary Martin - Sings for You (Apple lossless; remastered)

Two Weeks with Love (Jane Powell) (mp3)

Fifteenth Batch of Reups

Back when I started this blog, I intended to keep all the links active, and for some time was able to do that. However, the service provider I used had its problems and keeping all the files on line proved to be impractical. These days I respond on an occasional basis to reup requests, today being one of the occasions.

For my new posts, I upload to two and sometimes three hosting services, but that's way too much work for a dozen or more reups. So there is just one link for each.

My friend David F. inquired if I would reup some of the files in lossless format; and in fact I do so when I have the original lossless transfers. However, in the early days of this blog I had exactly zero followers, and I wasn't envisioning a day in which people would want lossless files. I didn't keep them, and in some cases didn't even archive the mp3 files. Therefore today's reuploads are a combination of lossless files (remastered if needed) and mp3s. I make no representations about the quality of the lossy files from the early days. As you might expect, after doing this for several years, I am much better now at transfers and processing.

I recognize that it has been a long time between reup posts; sorry if (for example) a requested Christmas record comes a little late for the season. Also, I am not that organized, so if I missed any requests, feel free to remind me in the comment section.

Here are the items I have reupped - the links are in the comments.

Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 1 (Serkin - Pittsburgh/Reiner) - Apple lossless

Brahms - Symphony No. 3 (Vienna/Böhm) - Apple lossless

Danny Kaye (DLP 5033) - mp3

Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark - S'Wonderful - mp3

Dohnanyi - Suite in F-Sharp Minor (LSO/Sargent) - mp3

Lord Buckley - Hipsters, Flipsters and Finger-Poppin' Daddies - mp3

Merry Christmas 1952 (Coral) - mp3

Raymond Scott's Drawing Room - mp3

Hal McIntyre - Your Dance Date - Apple lossless (remastered)

Irene Dunne - In Songs by Jerome Kern - Apple lossless (remastered)

Rich, Young and Pretty (Jane Powell) - Apple lossless (remastered)

Down in the Valley (Alfred Drake) - Apple lossless (remastered; new scans)

More Early Vic Damone

This post is a companion to one from last September in that it is a 10-inch Mercury LP from 1950 containing early Vic Damone material.

It presents some of Damone's early single successes, such as "I have But One Heart". As before, the singer is in excellent voice and the sound is reasonably good considering the cheap vinyl that Mercury used. "Come Back to Sorrento" was almost certainly pitched too high; I have lowered it one semitone, and the result is more natural.

As before, on most but not all these recordings, the vocalist was backed by Glenn Osser. Here is the lineup of songs, conductors and recording dates, as best as I have been able to glean from a number of sources:

I Have But One Heart (Jerry Gray) April 23, 1947

God's Country (Glenn Osser) early 1950

Again (Glenn Osser) February 1949

Why Was I Born? (Glenn Osser) June 1949

Come Back to Sorrento (Tutti Camarata) October 1947

My Bolero (Glenn Osser) June 1949

You're Breaking My Heart (Glenn Osser) February 1949

Don't Say Goodbye (Glenn Osser) early 1950

Virgil Fox - Organ Reveries

I enjoyed the Virgil Fox Christmas LP so much that I pulled out another of his early albums for transfer. This one, on Columbia, dates from 1951.

1952 concert poster

For the program, Fox chose a collection of familiar and mellifluous pieces, which the label issued under the title Organ Reveries. (I might note that the "War March of the Priests," included here, hardly qualifies as a "reverie".) A contemporary review in Billboard called the set "a frank bid for the general, unsophisticated market for those buyers who would take fright at a fugue," while acknowledging that Fox plays the pieces "with respect, admiration and fine technical ability."

As with the Christmas album, Fox is at the organ of Riverside Church in New York, where he was music director. However, the organ here had not yet been replaced by the Aeolian-Skinner Fox played for his holiday program. Here the instrument is the original 1930 organ installed by Hook & Hastings of Boston, although by that time it had already acquired the Aeolian-Skinner console seen on the cover.

The Hook & Hastings was never considered a great organ, but it does make a splendid sound. The album must have been popular; Columbia later reissued it with a different cover featuring the large pink blob shown at right.

Like the unsophisticated folks who enjoyed these chestnuts in the 50s, I delight in Fox's musicianship and will be offering some of his other LPs as time goes by.