Buster and Ernie at the Ol' Ball Yard

Winter has turned to spring in this part of the world, and that means the advent of yet another baseball season. To get you in the spirit, blogging buddy Ernie and I are offering an unusual collection of baseball songs. (In the photo above, Ernie seems skeptical of my ballplaying prowess.)

Ernie was the mastermind behind most of the playlist, and he has selected some of the most obscure selections you can imagine - from comic monologues to tribute songs, from country to classics, stretching from as long ago as 1903 to 1957. There are tunes celebrating the stars of old along with the obscurities - adding up to 22 selections in all.

As usual, we'll cover these in chronological order.

Cal Stewart - Uncle Josh Playing Base Ball

Cal Stewart as Uncle Josh

The earliest piece comes from Cal Stewart, who visits the ball park in "Uncle Josh Playing Base Ball" from 1903. Actually Josh first goes to a football game and then on to the baseball field, where he joins the action with predictable consequences. Josh was a yuk-yuk-yuk hayseed character, and his routine is very much in the vein of his previous appearances here, when he encountered the big city department store and a cafeteria, except this one involves an angry goat.

Concert Band - Cubs on Parade

Tinker, Evers, Chance, and all the Cubbies

The Chicago Cubs were the hottest thing in the major leagues from 1906-8, when they won two out of three World Series. They then hit a fallow period for the next 108 years. In 1908, a generically named Concert Band came out with a lively march called "Cubs on Parade," which we presume was in honor of the baseball team rather than denoting something zoological.

Weber and Fields - Base Ball

Joe Weber and Lew Fields were huge stars in vaudeville, but only worked together sporadically by the time Columbia recorded their "Base Ball" routine in 1916. Their "Mike and Meyer" characters spoke in German dialect, here with one explaining the game to the other. This routine features our first instance of "kill the umpire" and ends with a joke at the expense of the long-gone and not very successful St. Louis Browns.

"Babe" Himself - "Babe" Ruth's Home Run Story

The Babe

In 1920 the biggest star in baseball was the Great Bambino, Babe Ruth, who had just moved over to the Yankees from the Red Sox and was busy setting home run records in both 1919 and 1920. This recorded monologue - "'Babe' Ruth's Home Run Story" - is a remarkably contrived and uninformative three minutes with the slugger detailing his triumphs in a laconic manner. Still, it's fascinating to hear his voice in his prime.

Les Brown and His Orchestra - Joltin' Joe DiMaggio

Let's jump ahead to 1941, where we're in a different world with Les Brown's swing band hymning the praises of a later Yankee - "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio." Singer Betty Bonney tells the story of the Clipper's 56-game hitting streak, which is still the record. Betty died recently, and her New York Times obituary gives the background of the song. 

From this time forward, most records found it obligatory to bawl "strike one" etc., and "kill the umpire," along with the crack of hickory on horsehide (or is it horsehide on hickory?).

Ferko String Band - Babe (Dedicated to Babe Ruth)

Joe Ferko formed the Ferko String Band more than 100 years ago to perform in Philadelphia's Mummers Parade on New Year's Day. In the late 1940s, the Ferkos made a series of records for the local Palda label, including our next selection, which is my own favorite in this group. It is a loose and lusty reading of "Babe (Dedicated to Babe Ruth)" by Charles Tobias and Peter DeRose. I believe this was recorded in recognition of Ruth's 1948 death from cancer. It is a joyous sing-along celebration of his life, accompanied by a ensemble that sounds like it is part marching band and part stage band - which is what the Ferkos were.

Johnny Mercer - The First Baseball Game

Johnny Mercer

A preacher delivering a sermon using baseball as a simile sounds like something that Johnny Mercer the songwriter would come up with, but it actually is a 1948 song by Don Raye and Gene de Paul called "The First Baseball Game" that Johnny the singer recorded for Capitol. Among the lyrics: "Ol’ Saint Pete was checkin’ errors / Also had charge of the gate / Salome sacrific’d Big John the Baptist who wound up ahead on the plate." Not sure what the lesson was, but the lyrics are terrific.

Count Basie and His Orchestra - Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?

Jackie Robinson

One of the great events in baseball history was in 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the Major League's color line by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. There was more than one song written to mark the occasion, the best-known being Buddy Johnson's "Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit That Ball?", here in Count Basie's 1949 recording. Ernie also uncovered a "Baseball Boogie" recorded in Robinson's honor by Brownie McGhee, but that 78 was quite noisy, so we opted for the better-known song.

Gene Kelly and Betty Garrett - Take Me Out to the Ball Game

There have been any number of films with a baseball theme; one notable example from the musical realm is Take Me Out to the Ball Game, which, with a title like that, just had to utilize Albert von Tilzer and Jack Norworth's 1908 classic "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." In the 1949 film, the song is allotted to Gene Kelly and Betty Garrett. Neither had a great voice, but they both radiated personality, so this is a fine record of perhaps the most famous baseball song of them all.

Michel Rosenberg - Getzel at a Baseball Game

Michel Rosenberg

Baseball has appealed to all facets of society and is an example of sport bringing us together. In the late 1940s, Banner was a well-known Yiddish and Hebrew label whose best known artists were perhaps Molly Picon, Myron Cohen and the Barry (Bagelman) Sisters. On this side, Borscht Belt comedian Michel Rosenberg does his "Getzel at a Baseball Game" routine. It's in Yiddish, but he does throw in the occasional phrase in English, e.g., "Gimme blintzes!" and "It's gonna be some game!"

Fat Man Humphries - Doby at the Bat

The first player to break the color line in the American League, Cleveland's Larry Doby, also was honored in more than one song. An earlier post includes Freddie Mitchell's "Doby's Boogie." And today's collection features Fat Man Humphries' "Doby at the Bat," a rough-and-ready, small-label R&B toast to a great player. It dates from 1950.

Glenn Young Orchestra - Harry Caray Polka

Harry Caray in St. Louis

Radio announcers were (and still are to an extent) the portals to baseball for avid fans who could not attend in person. They themselves became popular personalities. One of the most famous - and longest lasting - of this breed was Harry Caray, whose most notable assignments were for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs. Harry was quite a promoter, so my guess is that the idea for this rollicking "Harry Caray Polka" from 1950 originated with the man himself. It features his catchphrases "It might be ... it could be ... it IS a home run!" and "Holy cow!"

Johnny Vadnal - The Baseball Polka

Johnny Vadnal

Let's move on to another polka from the same year, this one from Johnny Vadnal, one of the leading lights of the very active Slovenian polka scene in Cleveland, whose best-known exponent was Frankie Yankovic. These ensembles tended to have a smooth sounding female trio offsetting the pronounced polka beat and decidedly choppy male vocals. Vadnal is choppier than most, at least in this "Baseball Polka," also from 1950.

Sugar Chile Robinson - The Bases Were Loaded

Baseball songs and stories have often adopted the pitcher-batter duel as a drama in miniature, starting with "Casey at the Bat." Here, juvenile boogie woogie pianist/singer Sugar Chile Robinson has it tougher than most, being called on a strikes by a pitch that beaned him - and that with the bases full. This drama can be found in a 1950 Rudy Toombs creation called "The Bases Were Loaded," which Robinson recorded for Capitol.

Helen Traubel - Take Me Out to the Ball Game

"Yo-ho-te home run!"

Wagnerian soprano Helen Traubel was a wonderfully good sport who liked to sing popular songs, including this splendid 1950 record of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," with Arthur Fiedler and orchestra. The performance is notable for including the seldom-heard - and very good - verse by composer Albert von Tilzer and lyricist Jack Norworth. The latter actually wrote two verses for the song - one in 1908 and a replacement in 1927. Traubel sings the latter. Here is an explanation for the alternative versions.

LeRoy Holmes and His Orchestra - Little League

Baseball for the young ones was only loosely organized when I was a kid - largely via the Little League and then high school teams. Now my 10-year-old grandson is on an organized team that travels all over. A harbinger of this professionalization of a kiddie pastime was this recording of "Little League," the Official March of Little League Baseball, as recorded by LeRoy Holmes back in 1951. It may have had something to do with the Little League World Series, which had begun in 1947. 

Jane Morgan - Baseball, Baseball

Jane Morgan and the All-Stars

What if you are not all that interested in baseball and the object of your affection is more obsessed by the box score than by scoring points with you? Such was the dilemma faced by pop singer Jane Morgan in her entertaining 1954 record "Baseball, Baseball." She eventually gets her revenge but has to go to extreme measures to do so. Old reliable George Barnes provides the backing.

Phil Foster - A Brooklyn Dodgers Fan

In the mid-1950s, longtime comic and actor Phil Foster styled himself as "Brooklyn's Ambassador to the U.S.A." He even did a series of shorts called "Brooklyn Goes to ..." with the destinations being such glamorous locales as Paris and Cleveland. In his amusing 1954 record "A Brooklyn Baseball Fan" he gives some insight into Dodger fandom. Just a few years later (see sheet music above) he was praying to keep Dem Bums in Dat Ebbets Field. It didn't work - they were off to LA in 1957.

Tom Anderson - Love Goes on Like a Ball Game

Billboard review, February 20, 1954

We've already heard a preacher using baseball as a simile; now here's country singer Tom Anderson claiming that his "Love Goes on Like a Ball Game." Anderson only made a few records, but he was a good singer, and his lament here shows that off well. I believe that he and the Deep Valley Boys were from Virginia.

Willie Mays and the Treniers - Say Hey

Willie Mays

A baseball great who was both the subject and the purveyor of a song was centerfielder Willie Mays of the New York (soon to be San Francisco) Giants. Like Joe DiMaggio above, Mays appears at the beginning of the tune, then gives way to the kinetic Treniers. The song is named for Willie's catchphrase "Say Hey." Mays and the arranger of this record, Quincy Jones, both died within the past year. Twins Cliff and Claude Trenier passed away some time ago.

The Voices of Walter Schumann - Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo.

From a staging of Damn Yankees

In Douglas Wallop's 1954 novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, middle-aged Joe Boyd makes a pact with the Devil to be transformed into young baseball phenom Joe Hardy so that he can save the Washington Senators' season. Wallop's story became a Broadway musical and the subsequent film Damn Yankees. In the staging the Senators welcome the new hero in the number "Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo." here in a spirited version from the Voices of Walter Schumann.

The Voice of Mickey Mantle and Teresa Brewer - I Love Mickey

Teresa Brewer and Mickey Mantle

Teresa Brewer's singing was a strange combination of Kay Starr and Betty Boop. I don't care for her vocalizing, but here she extols my childhood hero, slugger Mickey Mantle of the Yankees, so we just had to include the record. For some reason, Coral billed the Mick as "The Voice of Mickey Mantle," so as to assure us we weren't getting his ear or elbow on the record. The conceit here is that Brewer squeaks "I Love Mickey" and The Voice of Mickey responds, "Mickey who?" It goes on like that for a couple minutes. I'll stick with the Treniers.

That's all for today. But Ernie and I enjoyed doing this so much that, to paraphrase Ernie Banks, "Let's post two!"

Until then, as they say at your local Field of Misbegotten Dreams, "Play ball!"

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Fritz Lehmann Conducts Romantic Overtures

Fritz Lehmann is a little-remembered conductor whose recording heyday was short, but who did manage to make dozens of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon before his early death at age 52 in 1956.

Lehmann has appeared here twice before - with his recording of The Nutcracker Suite and with Brahms and Schumann overtures, along with two of Dvořák's Slavonic Rhapsodies. This post will revisit the Brahms and Schumann works while adding overtures from the Romantic period by Mendelssohn, Weber and Schubert.

About Fritz Lehmann

To paraphrase myself from an earlier post: Lehmann (1904-56) was a busy conductor who died too young. An enthusiast of Baroque music and early advocate of period performance practices, much of his recorded legacy is from the classical and Romantic periods. DG kept him engaged, but he also recorded for other labels.

Although not reflected in this program, it's important to mention Lehmann's advocacy for Bach and Handel. He was conductor of the Göttingen International Handel Festival, from 1934-44, and then again from 1946-53, where he conducted modern revivals of two Handel operas. His death came while he was conducting a performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion. At the time he was in the midst of recording the Christmas Oratorio. The final sections were completed with Günther Arndt.

Two Mendelssohn Overtures

In 1951, Lehmann joined with the Berlin Philharmonic for recordings of two sea-going Mendelssohn concert overtures issued on the 10-inch LP above. The first and better known is The Hebrides (also called Fingal's Cave), a marvelous, dramatic work here in a performance that does it full justice.

Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage - written at about the same time as The Hebrides and inspired by Goethe - starts off (uh) calmly. There isn't enough wind to sail. But soon enough the voyage is on its way. The composer's music is never less than interesting, but the work suffers in comparison with its predecessor.

The recordings - like all here with the Berlin orchestra - were made in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche.

Brahms and Schumann Overtures

The second 10-inch LP is the one I have previously featured, but which has been thoroughly reworked for this post.

It combines Brahms' Tragic Overture, the portentous work that has remained familiar in the concert hall for nearly 150 years. Hugely dramatic and impressive, it is one of the composer's best and best-known works. 

Lehmann is a sure hand with this material, again with the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance from 1952.

From that same year we have Schumann's Manfred Overture, the most familiar part of the composer's set of incidental music inspired by the Lord Byron poem. From that music, the overture alone has maintained a footing on symphony programs.

For the Schumann, Lehmann leads the Bamberg Symphony, which is not as refined as the Berlin ensemble, but which still produces a worthy performance whose dramatic qualities make it a good disk mate for the Brahms.

Weber - Der Freischütz Overture

Late in 1952, Lehmann and the Berliners turned their attention to the overture from the first German Romantic opera - Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz, which also is well performed by the musicians from Berlin. The opera itself is far more often heard in Germany than here in the US, but the engaging overture is a welcome program addition.

This pressing appeared in American Decca's budget 10-inch line. Decca reprinted many of Lehmann's recordings and those of other DG conductors such as Paul van Kempen and Ferenc Fricsay. This collection does not include the second piece on the Decca LP - Gluck's Alceste Overture - because it is not from the romantic period.

Two Schubert Overtures from the Same Work

Our final selections are two Schubert overtures associated with the same work - the composer's incidental music to Rosamunde, a play by Helmina von Chézy.

When Schubert assembled his Rosamunde score, he opted to use the overture he had written for his opera Alfonso und Estrella. This is the overture that is now sometimes called the Rosamunde, as it is here.

In 1855, well after the composer's death, a publisher substituted Schubert's Die Zauberharfe overture in an edition of the Rosamunde score. Since then, conductors have generally used that piece when they program the Rosamunde music, at least in part because it's considered better music than the Alfonso und Estrella overture.

Here you can judge for yourself in these 1952-53 performances from Berlin, again from Decca's budget 4000 series.

DG's sound during this period was impressive, although with a tendency to bass heaviness, which I've clarified in these transfers.

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The Ray Charles Singers Proclaim 'Spring Is Here'

The Ray Charles Singers return to tell us that spring is here, just a bit before the calendar does so.

Spring Is Here is a follow-up to my recent post of the singers' 1957 Summertime LP, which was popular with those of you who like good singing or pine for better weather, or both.

In terms of recording dates, this is the second in Charles' traversal of the seasons. It appeared in 1955, following 1954's Autumn Nocturne. Winter Wonderland would arrive in 1956. All will be featured here eventually.

As before, the effect of the Charles group is markedly different from the vocal groups popular in the 1950s, ranging from the Hi-Lo's to the jazz styles of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. This is not jazz, certainly. The liner notes make the case that Charles was attempting to blend vocal and instrumental effects into a new kind of mood music. And yes, as with the Summertime album, the instrumentalists are not just accompanists: their lines are an active part of the scene setting.

Ray Charles frowns at someone's intonation

But my own view is still that the arrangements are influenced by Ray's appearances on Perry Como's television show, where songs would have had to set a scene or carry out a mini-story. The first song, "Spring Is Here," opens with Katie Wallace's acapella singing of "Maybe it's because nobody loves me." The ensemble then enters with the verse. Lorenz Hart's chorus only appears in the middle of the arrangement, with Katie Wallace again soloing.

Also as with the summer LP, the settings reflect the arranger's need to provide a basic scenario for the songs used on the Como show. "Paris in the Spring" starts off with a man and a woman intoning a few French words of love, for example. (It also has a few welcome solo lines for Charles.)

The liner notes do provide the background of the various songs, which frees me from the need to do so. (Let me mention, however, that the sleeve writer did not have the correct order of songs, so that may be a little confusing.) As before, the program includes familiar items interspersed with less-remembered numbers such as "Paris in the Spring," "A Young Man's Fancy," "Lovelier than Ever" (a wonderful song), "June Night" and "When It's Springtime in the Rockies."

Also as before, the singing is superb, the instrumentalists are excellent, and the recording is good. The Columbus Boychoir makes a few appearances. I suppose Ray wanted to use them on "A Young Man's Fancy," but they don't sing as well as Charles' superb professionals.

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Roy Harris' Folk-Song Symphony

This interesting LP was transferred as the result of a request. It is a 1975 recording of Roy Harris' Folk-Song Symphony (Symphony No. 4), in a very good performance by the Utah Symphony and Utah Chorale under Maurice Abravanel. 

The symphony - really more of a choral suite - consists of settings from American songs collected by John and Alan Lomax's Cowhoy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads and Carl Sandburg’s American Songbag. It is a very enjoyable, and little known, example of Americana, dating from 1940. The release was timed for the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.

Roy Harris

The work had been recorded once previously, by Vladimir Golschmann and Viennese forces in 1960 - but has not been revived for recording purposes, to my knowledge. I have the Golschmann LP if anyone is interested.

Like the Schubert one-act operas I have uploaded and a few other items, the Abravanel album is apparently SQ-encoded, but I haven't had quad equipment for a long time, so I can't confirm that.

Maurice Abravanel

Maurice Abravanel (1903-93), who led a fascinating life, was conductor of the Utah Symphony for 32 years, until 1979, when he retired. He made many recordings with the ensemble, whose profile he raised immeasurably.

Here's what Robert C. Marsh had to say about the Harris LP in High Fidelity: "British composers can write extended works for chorus and orchestra, call them symphonies, and get away with it, but I sense that this Roy Harris score has been needlessly put down over the years because of the presence of 'symphony' in its title. In the classical sense it is not a symphony at all. Folksongs do not invite thematic development and variation, and Harris is more interested in preserving the identity of his material than in treating it the way Beethoven treated that waltz by Diabelli. The idiom is the American nationalist style of the '30s and '40s. and you might mistake this for a Copland score of that period, since both men were working in this spirit.

"The songs are all familiar, and the settings are craftsmanlike, sensitive to the texts, tasteful, and well-scored ... This is not great music, but it is thoroughly respectable music in terms of its limited artistic goals, and in a performance and recording of this quality it should see you through '76 and beyond with some pleasant moments." Nearly 50 years hence - approaching the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding - this disc and the music hold up well.

If you are interested in such Americana, I recently posted an LP of music by Alec Wilder - his Names from the War and Carl Sandburg Suite, the latter also inspired by the poet's American Songbag. 

LINK to Roy Harris' Folk-Song Symphony

New Remasters of Roy Harris' Music

I've newly remastered three significant LPs of Harris' music, as follows:

Harris - Symphony No. 3, Hanson - Symphony No. 4

This 1953 LP features Howard Hanson and the Eastman-Rochester orchestra in convincing performances of Harris' third symphony - generally considered his best - and Hanson's own Symphony No. 4.

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Harris - Symphony 1933 and Symphony No. 7

Classic performances of the Symphony 1933, in the 1934 recording from Boston and Serge Koussevitzky, coupled with the Symphony No. 7 from Philadelphia and Eugene Ormandy, in a 1955 recording.

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Harris - Piano Fantasy, Abe Lincoln Walks at Midnight

Recordings from 1955 with Johana Harris in the Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, conducted by Izler Solomon, and Nell Tangeman in a setting of Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight.

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Si Zentner and Band Go 'Up a Lazy River'

I had a request from frequent commenter musicman1979 for music by Si Zentner's big band. That came after I mentioned that this LP - Big Band Plays the Big Hits - was a particular favorite of mine way back in 1961 when it was new and I was nearly new (12 years of age).

Zentner was a well-known studio trombonist, but was a very late arrival as a big band leader. He had started making records with "His Dance Band" for the small Bel Canto label in 1958, but had moved on to Liberty by 1960.

Zentner may have been late, but he certainly put together a spectacular band, presumably filled with his studio colleagues.

Big Band Plays the Big Hits is just what its name promises - a program of chart favorites of the time (1960-61) including the leader's own semi-hit, Bob Florence's rock 'n' roll version of "Up a Lazy River" (which, I will note for the finicky, Hoagy Carmichael and Sidney Ardoin called "Lazy River" when they wrote it back in 1931).

Billboard ad

The record swings (or rocks, as the case may be) from beginning to end, propelled by a terrific drummer whom I haven't been able to identify. Si himself is often heard solo or in section work.

The songs themselves are chosen from several sources: other bands still in business and putting out hits (Lawrence Welk, Johnny Dankworth, Bert Kaempfert); rock and R&B acts (Dee Clark, the Shirelles, the Drifters); and early guitar heroes (the Ventures, Duane Eddy, the Shadows). This heterogeny may seem disjointed, but in practice it works very well. It's an enjoyable album that I like just as much as I did 65 years ago.

Here's more information about the song sources, for those of you who haven't been around as long as I have.

"Asia Minor" was a hit for the mysterious Kokomo. He turned out to be jazz pianist Jimmy Wisner, who had decided to dress up the opening of Grieg's Piano Concerto in honky-tonk form, and name it for the Turkish peninsula for some reason. You can hear Wismer's version here. I think Zentner chose this because Grieg's main melody lends itself to legato trombone playing.

The first recording of "African Waltz" was by Johnny Dankworth in England (here), followed by Cannonball Adderley in the US (here). It was the first hit for songwriter Galt MacDermott, a Canadian who had studied music in South Africa and who was to have a huge success several years later with the musical Hair. Si takes the piece at a faster clip than either Dankworth or Adderley.

I don't think she could run in those heels

Jazz guitarist Johnny Smith wrote "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954 (here), but it didn't become a hit until the Ventures' kinetic rock version in 1960 (a huge favorite of mine back in the day). The Ventures actually were inspired by Chet Atkins' 1957 recording. Perhaps predictably, the guitar melody in the big-band version was handed over to Zentner.

Much different from the Ventures' proto-surf sound was Dee Clark's wistful "Raindrops" (here), the biggest success for the talented singer-songwriter. (Also of note is his excellent version of "Hey Little Girl.")

Zentner reached back to 1946 for Walter Gross' "Tenderly." Again, a good choice because it lends itself to a trombone lead. I don't think the song was on the charts in 1960-61, but there were versions by the Flamingos and Adam Wade back then (not to mention Ella Fitzgerald), so it's possible. (Here is Gross' version, which is impeded by his florid piano playing.)

"Calcutta" was a giant success in 1961 for Lawrence Welk (featuring Frank Scott on the harpsichord). German composer Heino Gaze had written the number as "Tivoli-Melodie" in 1958, recorded by Werner Müller, using the name Orchester Ricardo Santos. So how did it migrate from Copenhagen to Calcutta (Kolkata)? It's not clear, but the song did acquire lyrics and come out in Germany in 1960 as "Kalkutta liegt am Ganges" as sung by Vico Torriani. There also were English lyrics for "Calcutta," but Welk and Zentner didn't use them, so we'll ignore them. Welk's version is fairly close to Müller's; Zentner allots the harpsichord theme to (you guessed it) the trombone.

Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman's "Save the Last Dance for Me" is one of the most memorable songs of the day, as recorded by the Drifters with Ben E. King as the lead. It was a rhumba, but Si straightens out the rhythm in his brisk version.

"Wonderland by Night" was covered extensively on this blog several weeks ago - the entire Bert Kaempfert LP is available, along with his Christmas record. Si dispenses with Charly Tabor's virtuoso opening flourish as heard on the Kaempfert disc, then allocates the main trumpet melody to (you're right again) the trombone. It's a good version with some Milleresque wind voicings. The arrangement irons out the loping Kaempfert rhythm.

Jerry Lordon's composition "Apache" was inspired by the 1954 film of the same name. The first recording was by British guitarist Bert Weedon, but the UK hit was by the Shadows. Danish guitarist Jørgen Ingmann had the hit in the US. This is one of the best performances on Zentner's LP.

In which Duane Eddy plunks his magic twanger

Next, Si programmed a few tunes with a rock beat, presumably to get the young folks dancing. First is "Because They're Young," written by Aaron Schroeder, Don Costa, and Wally Gold for the film of the same name. James Darren warbled it on screen, but the hit was by guitarist Duane Eddy, who appeared in the movie, but (confusingly) did not perform the song therein. Eddy featured the song on his LP $1,000,000 Worth of Twang - one of the great album names, although not as good as the The Biggest Twang of Them All from a few years later.

The next item with a rock beat is "Up a Lazy River," as discussed above. It's worth noting that the song was so nice that Liberty released it twice on LP. The second appearance was on an album titled Up a Lazy River and subtitled Big Band Plays the Big Hits, Vol. 2. Hoagy Carmichael's original is much lazier than Si's.

The Zentner LP ends with "Will You Love Me Tomorrow," the heartfelt song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King in 1960 for the Shirelles' album Tonight's the Night (a song which would seem to have been the prequel to "Will You Love Me Tomorrow"). Si and band turn it into an up-tempo blazer led by their very impressive drummer. A winner for sure, even if Shirley Owens, Gerry Goffin and Carole King would not have recognized what happened to their great record.

Excellent sound on the Zentner LP. Later on, I'll also be posting a much different but equally fine record from him, featuring the music of film composer Jerry Goldsmith.

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