Early and Rare Capitol Singles from Margaret Whiting

When the great vocalist Margaret Whiting died five years ago, I devoted two posts to Capitol singles that had not heretofore been re-released in any form. Those records were drawn from old store stock 45s dating from 1949-56, and I promised a follow-up post devoted to my collection of her earlier Capitol 78s.

But soon thereafter that stack of shellac suffered water damage, and I never got around to cleaning up the remnants and seeing if they were still viable as subjects for transfer.

There things stood until recently, when reader punkinblue9 wrote to ask if I had four Capitol singles featuring the young Whiting that have never been reissued – “When You Make Love to Me,” “What Am I Gonna Do About You?”, “What Did I Do?” and “Dreamer with a Penny.” It so happens that they all could be found in my pile of soggy 78s, so I took it upon myself to see if the subjects could be scrubbed clean enough to derive acceptable transfers.

I was surprised to find that the results are more than listenable, thus this post containing the four songs requested, along with 10 more early and less-often-heard sides from Maggie’s Capitol oeuvre.

Whiting was among the first artists signed to that label, beginning her tenure in 1942. She was not even 18 years old when she first went before the Capitol mics, but she sounds remarkably assured from the beginning.

The first several songs in this set show her in the subsidiary role of band singer, with the records attributed to bandleaders Billy Butterfield and Freddie Slack, and Whiting credited in small type. As with many such big band records, the songs are in a danceable tempo and, at least with the earlier Butterfield sides, Maggie only comes in after one or more band choruses.

The first item is from a 1942 session in which Butterfield reaches back to 1930 for the DeSylva, Brown and Henderson song “Without Love.” You can detect the influence of Mildred Bailey in the 17-year-old Whiting’s singing here, but from then on, she was her own person.

The next song is “Silver Wings in the Moonlight,” a 1943 effort made popular by the wonderful Anne Shelton, whom I must feature here some day. Whiting sings the contrived lyrics backed by an out-of-tune Freddie Slack band. Sorry about the peak distortion, which was present on both of my copies of the 78.

Slack was better with rhythm songs, and moves on to a sort-of boogie woogie with the Don Raye-Gene de Paul product, “Ain't That Just Like a Man.” Whiting is fine, but Slack did this kind of thing better with Ella Mae Morse.

We return to Butterfield for the Cahn-Styne “There Goes That Song Again,” in a lumpy two-beat rendition dating from 1944. Maggie’s solo has to fight for attention with Johnny Guarnieri’s busy piano figuration.

A good version of “Someone to Watch Over Me” comes from Butterfield's Gershwin album, which otherwise did not make use of Whiting’s talents.

The singer moves up to equal billing with arranger Paul Weston for his 1945 version of Berlin's “How Deep Is the Ocean,” rendered in the hybrid big-band-with-strings style that was becoming popular, particularly behind singers. Maggie is supremely confident singing over Weston's gorgeous arrangement.

“Along With Me” (a beautiful post-wartime song from Harold Rome's Call Me Mister, which you can find on this blog here) has an uncharacteristically lush backing by former Miller arranger Jerry Gray. “When You Make Love to Me” is also in the hyper-romantic vein of the day, with Maggie backed by swirling strings, woodwinds and muted brass.

The balance of the sides were arranged by Capitol staffer Frank De Vol, a former big band hand comfortable in many styles.

“Beware My Heart” is a good but formulaic song from Sam Coslow. “What Am I Gonna Do About You?” is a lesser-known Cahn-Styne movie song from 1947’s Ladies Man.

“What Did I Do?” is a minor-key semi-blues from Josef Myrow, of all people, which Whiting does well. It came from film When My Baby Smiles at Me, and the small span of the melody may have been suited to stars Betty Grable and Dan Dailey, neither of whom had much range. The flip is the standard “Heat Wave.” On this one, the Capitol censors changed the words in Irving Berlin's couplet "She started a heat wave / By letting her seat wave" to "letting her feet wave," which doesn't quite work with the subsequent exclamation that “She certainly can can-can!”

“Dreamer with a Penny” posits the questionable premise that it’s better to be a dreamer than be rich with a worried mind, a common Depression-era conceit that was presumably comforting to the destitute. Nonetheless, it's a fine song by Lester Lee and Allan Roberts introduced in the 1949 revue All for Love, and especially well handled by Whiting. On the flip, De Vol could have breathed more life into “Forever and Ever,” a lugubrious hymn-like waltz.

The sound on these 78 is very good, with minimal surface noise.

For a bonus Whiting selection, you are invited to visit my singles blog for the story behind her 1951 tribute to longtime cowboy star Hopalong Cassidy, including a cameo by Hoppy himself, together with the theme music from the silver-haired cowpoke’s television show.

Tchaikovsky and Schumann from Ania Dorfmann

Here is the latest in a series of posts devoted to the Russian-American pianist Ania Dorfmann (1899-1984). 

This 1955 RCA Victor LP contains music by Tchaikovsky and Schumann, with the major work a complete traversal of Tchaikovsky's Op. 39, the Album for the Young (Children's Album), a set of 24 pieces written for student musicians.

Dorfmann also includes seven excerpts from Schumann's Op. 68, the Album for the Young (Album für die Jugend), which inspired the Tchaikovsky collection.

1954 ad in Musical America

Completing the LP are five excerpts from Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons," including Troika (November) and Barcarolle (June), the most often heard.

Dorfmann performs with her usual effortless elegance, which is well suited to this repertoire. She recorded Tchaikovsky's Op. 39 on April 12, 1954 in New York's Town Hall, per Michael Gray's discography. Gray does not offer information on the other works, but presumably they were taped at about the same time. The sound is excellent. RCA originally issued the disc with the somewhat creepy cover at left. I believe the cover at top is a replacement.

Gordon MacRae - Capitol and M-G-M Singles

Gordon MacRae has appeared on this blog as often as almost anyone, but I've never focused on his singles output for Capitol, his longtime label. So today I have 12 single sides he produced for that imprint from 1949-1953, with a bonus of the only MacRae single issued on M-G-M.

MacRae joined the Capitol rolls in 1947, after leaving the foundering Musicraft label and following a brief stop-over on Apollo. (The majority of his Musicraft sides are available via this 2013 post.) The 26-year-old singer was still a year away from his first film role and his eventual popularity as a romantic foil for Doris Day and later as the leads in the movie adaptations of the Rodgers and Hammerstein mega-musicals Oklahoma! and Carousel.

The early efforts in this collection continue to betray MacRae's influences - Buddy Clark on "Down the Old Ox Road" and Tony Martin on "Stranger in Paradise." One of the first recordings here - "Twenty-Four Hours of Sunshine" - has what sounds like a half-hearted Jolson imitation. (Or is it supposed to be someone else?) That tune was covered by any number of artists in 1949, as was its flip side, "The Wedding of Lili Marlene" (which is dreary in every version I've encountered).

1953 ad

Among the other selections are contemporary Cole Porter efforts, a good country song (Pee Wee King's "Homin' Time"), a tune from the Day-MacRae musical On Moonlight Bay ("Cuddle Up a Little Closer"). The semi-standard "Never in a Million Years" was a hit for MacRae influence Bing Crosby in 1937. It's one of the better items here, featuring a uncredited obbligato by a trumpeter who is almost certainly Capitol artist Bobby Hackett. Also good is the coupling of "Congratulations to Someone" and "How Do You Speak to an Angel," the latter of which comes from the 1953 Jule Styne-Bob Hilliard show Hazel Flagg. Dean Martin reprised it the following year in the Martin-Lewis vehicle Living It Up, inscribing it for his own Capitol single.

As for the M-G-M single, I have a confession. It is actually an old Musicraft master that M-G-M licensed and later included in a 10-inch MacRae LP that I have never encountered.

The bandleaders here include Frank DeVol, Van Alexander, Carmen Dragon, Carlyle Hall, Paul Weston, Axel Stordahl and Walter Gross.

All transfers are from original 78s. The Capitols originated in a radio station collection. The sound is good.

Capitol royalty: (standing) Frank Sinatra, Danny Kaye, Gordon MacRae, Nat Cole; (seated) label co-founder Glenn Wallichs, Dean Martin, Stan Freberg

Bach Cantatas from Mack Harrell, Robert Shaw, Marc Lifschey and the Clevelanders

This post continues my survey of recordings by the Szell-era Cleveland Orchestra under other conductors and different names. Previously we have heard from long-time Szell associate Louis Lane. Today the maestro is the famed choral conductor Robert Shaw in performances taped early in his spell as associate conductor and chorus director in Cleveland (1956-1967).

Shaw, shortly before
his Cleveland appointment

Although Cleveland is not mentioned anywhere on the packaging, it is likely that this record of two Bach cantatas involves both members of the orchestra and its chorus. When it was recorded (May 1958), Shaw was an RCA Victor artist. The orchestra, however, was under contract to Epic Records and could not be identified as such for this RCA disc. In any case, Shaw uses a relatively small complement of instrumentalists, so the issue is not a major one, save for the presence of Cleveland Orchestra oboist Marc Lifschey, who is credited with the important obbligato solo in BWV 56 ("Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen"), and is certainly also the uncredited soloist in the opening aria of BWV 82 ("Ich habe genug").

Marc Lifschey

I make a point of this because as far as I can tell, this is the only credited solo on record by Lifschey, principal oboe from 1950-65 save for one year, and a musician who was revered by other orchestra members. [Correction: Lifschey is also credited on the Mozart Divertimento K131 recording of 1963 - thanks to Derek Katz for sending a note about this!]

The oboist is repeatedly cited in the recent book of anecdotes about the orchestra under Szell, Tales from the Locker Room, assembled by longtime principal bass Lawrence Angell, who himself remarked, "The sound that came from [Lifschey's] oboe was often a miracle; so miraculous it astounded his colleagues." Said violinist Michael Goldman, "He was the soul of the orchestra. I got chills up and down my spine when he played." And fellow oboist Eldon Gatwood said, "I have never heard such a musical line," a particularly appropriate observation considering Lifschey's playing here.

But I am neglecting the principals in this recording, Shaw and baritone Mack Harrell, who is front and center in these cantatas: BWV 56 has but one chorale, and BWV 82 is entirely solo. Harrell's singing is flawless. He is a baritone tackling these cantatas for bass voice, but there is no sense of strain, with the voice always beautifully produced.

Mack Harrell

This production came late in Harrell's career - he died at age 50 in 1960, shortly before this LP was issued. It marked his second recording of BWV 56; he had done it as early as 1939 under Edward van Beinum in Amsterdam. Harrell's son Lynn, the famed cellist, was principal in the Cleveland Orchestra for several years in the 60s and 70s.

Robert Shaw had joined the Cleveland conducting staff in 1956, and was already a star in the choral universe. He had founded the Robert Shaw Chorale in 1948 and had produced many LPs of both pop and classical music for RCA, while preparing choirs for Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. Following his Cleveland tenure, Shaw would go on to become the music director of the Atlanta Symphony for more than two decades.

Cover of original issue

Virtually all Shaw's Victor recordings are credited to the Shaw Chorale - but not this one. My supposition is that he used singers from the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus for this coupling of two mainly solo cantatas.

Michael Gray's discography has the recording taking place in St. Paul's Church, Cleveland; presumably this is St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights, site of many concerts by orchestra-related groups. The sound is quite good. My transfer is from the Victrola reissue.

Even More Dinah Shore on Columbia

I have much enjoyed presenting two previous compilations of Dinah Shore's 1946-50 recordings for Columbia (here and here) - hope you have, too. So here is another, comprising two additional Harmony LPs from the 1950s - Love Songs and Lavender Blue.

The selection of 20 songs gives a good sense of both the repertoire for a pop singer in the post war years and the lavish arrangements that were afforded them, as led by such conductors as Nathan Van Cleave, Harry Zimmerman, Sonny Burke Morris Stoloff and Larry Russell - movie and show tunes and other items from the best composers.

Shore was among the most popular singers during this era, so she did get to record many good songs as they came out. The title song of Lavender Blue, from Disney's So Dear to My Heart, was a particularly big hit. Apparently no one minded the repeated "dilly, dilly" refrain, which not even Dinah can make charming.

This 1945 ad suggests that the secret to
Dinah's abundant charm was her hosiery

Among the songs here are "I'll Always Love You" and "You'll Always Be the One I Love." Given that she also did a tune called "I'll Always Be in Love with You" for Columbia, Dinah thoroughly covered the topic of eternal love during this period.

I should note that the selections here contain a few repeated items from a previous post. The sound is good throughout.

Piatigorsky in Shostakovich and Russian Melodies, Plus a Barber-Hindemith Reup

This upload is in response to a request on another site. It consists of a Columbia Entré LP from the early 1950s that comprises two Columbia 78 sets from the previous decade, both featuring the great cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, one of the finest instrumentalists of the 20th century.

Side 1 includes Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 40, from 1934, when the composer was still in his 20s and before the first Soviet denunciation, centered on Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Piatigorsky’s reading, which dates from January 1942, may have been his third attempt at a recording. Per Michael Gray’s discography, there are unissued efforts from 1940 (with Ivor Newton) and 1941 (with Valentin Pavlovsky, who also is the accompanist on the issued masters). However, some questions have been raised about this dating, so it is not entirely clear when the issued recordings were made.

As noted by the person who requested the LP, this is a particularly fine rendition of the sonata, and may well have been the first recording - Gray does not list an earlier one.

The second side consists of lighter fare, arrangements for cello and piano of familiar Russian melodies. Some of these had achieved pop success, including Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Song of India,” via a 1937 Tommy Dorsey single, and Tchaikovsky’s “None But the Lonely Heart,” which had been used on the soundtrack of a 1944 film of the same name. The arrangements are uncredited, save for Rubinstein’s Melody in F, which is attributed to Popper, presumably cellist/composer David Popper.

Piatigorsky’s recordings come from October 1945, except for the Rachmaninoff Vocalise, which dates from a session one year later, per Gray. The accompanist is Ralph Berkowitz, who would continue to work with the cellist until Piatigosky’s death in 1976. Through the years, the pianist also served in leadership roles at Tanglewood, first as Koussevitzky’s assistant and then as head of the Berkshire Music Center.

Piatigorsky moved to the U.S. in the late 1930s, fleeing the Nazis as did so many musicians and others. He began recording for Columbia in 1940.

The recordings themselves are perfectly fine, except for the Rachmaninoff, which had a peculiar resonance that I have done my best to tame.

Reupload: Barber and Hindemith Sonatas

Several years ago, I transferred another Piatigorsky LP, a 1956 RCA Victor coupling of the Barber Cello Sonata, Op. 6, and the Hindemith Sonata, written for the cellist in 1948. I’ve now reuploaded this for anyone interested. Here's a link to the original post.

1944 Columbia Ad (click to enlarge)

Flutist Maurice Sharp with the Clevelanders and Louis Lane

This is another in a series of recordings by spin-offs of the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by longtime assistant/associate/resident conductor Louis Lane. Today the spotlight is on the orchestra's principal flute, Maurice Sharp, who performs with a chamber ensemble of principals and others from the band, here called the Cleveland Sinfonietta.

The repertoire encompasses four 20th century works, three by Americans (Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Arthur Foote and Howard Hanson) and one by the French/Swiss composer Arthur Honegger.

Harvey McGuire joins Sharp for Honegger's Concerto da Camera for Flute, English Horn and Strings. Alice Chalifoux is the harpist in Hanson's Serenade.

Sharp joined the orchestra right out of the Curtis Institute, where he studied with William Kincaid, and remained principal flute for 50 years. He joined the ensemble when founding music director Nikolai Sokoloff was still in charge, with his tenure lasting to the brink of the Christoph von Dohnányi era.

Julius Baker (left) and Maurice Sharp, circa 1975

It is instructive to contrast Sharp's approach to another Kincaid pupil who became a famed orchestra principal - Julius Baker, who was solo flute both in Chicago and then for many years in New York (and who earlier spent several years in the Cleveland flute section). A while back I posted a Decca release in which Baker assays two of the works on this Cleveland issue - Griffes's Poem and Foote's A Night Piece. (Baker presents the Foote with string quartet accompaniment; Sharp uses the score for a larger ensemble.)

To my ears, Baker is the warmer of the two, although both are immaculate in their presentation. Sharp's cooler approach is in keeping with the proclivities of the Cleveland forces in the records they made with Lane - and with Szell, for that matter.

The sound on both LPs is very good - Baker in mono, Sharp in stereo. Michael Gray's discography tells us that the Cleveland recordings were taped in Severance Hall in July 1960. The Baker sessions date from June 1952.

LINK to 2026 remastered version