Franck from Vienna and Rodzinski

"Overloaded orchestration, plodding bass, unimaginative wind and brass doubling, weak thematic contrast, lack of organic growth, cloying sweetness, dull passages, senseless repetition, overactive chromaticism, and pointless modulation" - the list of complaints about Cesar Franck's Symphony is long, and there is some truth to them. But I love it still, and wish it were not seen as so disreputable in some quarters.

Detail from a 1943 ad

Perhaps the issue is sincerity - in Franck there is no doubt, and that goes a long way with me. With Liszt's somewhat similar music - well, the word meretricious comes to mind. (These are my completely subjective reactions, of course.)

This particular performance is one in which a very skilled conductor and a good orchestra do their best to present the music as symphonic argument and structure rather than mystical vision, with notable success. The conductor is Artur Rodzinski, whose art has been celebrated several times before on this blog. Here he is working with Vienna forces in June 1954. The LP also includes Franck's symphonic poem Le Chasseur Maudit, here in a splendid performance recorded on the same day. The sound from the Mozartsaal is quite good.

The cover has a terrific caricature of the conductor by Sam Norkin, then of the New York Herald Tribune, later of the Daily News.

This post was inspired by my friend Fred, who recently posted a recording of Franck's Psyche on his fine blog, Random Classics. I also want to draw attention to Peter Gutmann's excellent article on Franck's Symphony, from which I drew the opening quote.

Rodzinski listening to a playback at a 1951 recording session

Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane

The death of composer Hugh Martin the other day started me thinking about what I could post as a tribute. Records of the shows and movies he did with Ralph Blane are now on CD – including Athena. Even the vocal LP they did in 1956 – once rare – is on CD.

Well, I decided to go ahead with the latter anyway, because a have a nice vinyl copy and because it is one of my favorite vocal LPs of the era. And if this turns out to be as much or more a tribute to Ralph Blane than Hugh Martin, that’s OK, too, because Blane was a remarkably good singer.

Martin and Blane had an unusual working relationship in that they both wrote words and music, and evidently worked separately on songs, bringing them together to produce the full score. In later years, Martin would claim to have written "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by himself, even though both men’s names were on it.

Whatever the working relationship, they were a very talented pair, being responsible for, among other works, Best Foot Forward, Look Ma, I’m Dancin’, Make a Wish, and Meet Me in St. Louis.

The strength of their songwriting shows in this collection, which includes songs from several of these scores. Most songs are presented by Blane, an exceptional vocalist who is particularly good on the great song "Ev’ry Time." His rendition includes the rarely-heard verse. Martin also is a good singer who is highly effective here as well.

Unsurprisingly, they started out as singers, and Martin appeared with Kay Thompson’s Rhythm Singers in the 30s. You will hear the Thompson influence on their vocal arrangements right from the first song of this LP. They had their own vocal group, the Martins, in the 40s, and there is an unidentified group by that name assisting on this record.

Kay Thompson Singers, 1936 - from left, Ken Lane,
Hugh Martin, Al Rinker, John Smedburgh

When the LP was announced, it was to come out on a label called Elf. Producer Bob Bach and Richard Kollmar must have thought better of that name – it was eventually issued on Harlequin. The Billboard article on the record says that the composers were working on a musical called Three Tigers for Tessie – a title so unlikely that I thought they were pulling the reporter’s leg. But I have since seen other references to that project, although as far as I can tell, it wasn’t ever produced.

The unusual cover has the pink-shirted Blane (left) and Martin surrounded by well-known 50s personalities. Too bad I don’t know all of them! From left we have “The Man in the Hathaway Shirt” (I believe he was Baron George Wrangell), Sammy Davis Jr., model Suzy Parker (I think), unknown man, Blane, columnist and TV personality Dorothy Kilgallen (Bach was the producer of her TV show, What’s My Line), Martin, Steve Allen, unknown woman, another unknown woman (Lena Horne? she introduced "Love," one of the songs on this LP), Bert Lahr.

The sound on this LP is quite good, and so are the Ralph Burns orchestral arrangements.

UPDATE: Thanks to swift responses from Dave Weiner and Progress Hornsby (two of the better informed people I know), we know have complete IDs for the cover personalities: from left they are “The Man in the Hathaway Shirt” (I believe he was Baron George Wrangell), Sammy Davis Jr., model Suzy Parker, producer Richard Kollmar, Blane, columnist and TV personality Dorothy Kilgallen (Bach was the producer of her TV show, What’s My Line, and Kollmar her husband), Martin, Steve Allen, Rosalind Russell, singer Sallie Blair, Bert Lahr.

Note (June 2024): this LP has now been remastered in ambient stereo.

LINK

More from RCA's "Show Time" Series

Helena Bliss

In this, the second installment in my protracted exploration of RCA Victor's 1953 "Show Time" Series of potted musicals, we hear from two favorites from my first post (Lisa Kirk and Jack Cassidy), one less-favored hold-over (George Britton) and two other performers who were prominent on Broadway at the time (Helena Bliss and Helen Gallagher).

In the "Show Time" Series, RCA devoted one side of a 10-inch LP to the high points of a notable musical. Each was also offered as an EP. This LP combines Kiss Me Kate of 1948 with Anything Goes from 1934.

Lisa Kirk - from the original cast - is top billed in Kiss Me Kate, but performs only one number - "Always True to You in My Fashion," which she introduced. The other songs are presented by George Britton, who had succeeded Ezio Pinza in South Pacific, and Helena Bliss, who herself had recently been in a London revival of Kiss Me Kate. Bliss' most famous role was in the Wright-Forrest Grieg farrago, Song of Norway. She soon was to appear in a Broadway revival of Show Boat.

Helen Gallagher

The other side of the record, devoted to Anything Goes, is dominated by Helen Gallagher, who had the daunting task of presenting songs that had been introduced by the force of theatre named Ethel Merman. Gallagher, herself no little personality, was appearing on Broadway in Hazel Flagg, the musical version of the screwball comedy Nothing Sacred. When Hazel Flagg was made into a movie, under the title Living It Up, Hazel somehow turned into Jerry Lewis. (Lady!!)

Gallagher acquits herself beautifully here. Although she was on Broadway for many years, she is perhaps best known today for her many years in American soap operas. Jack Cassidy duets with her on "You're the Top."

The sound here is quite good. More to come.

1949-51 Margaret Whiting Singles

My post of Margaret Whiting's first album was very popular, so I am preparing some follow-up posts of her unreissued singles. This is the first of three such entries - maybe more, if I can find my stash of her 78s. These 12 songs all are from 45s, most of them unplayed store stock.

From 1949, we have a coupling of two Josef Myrow-Mack Gordon songs - It Happens Every Spring, from the film of the same name, and Every Time I Meet You, from The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend. Two excellent songs, nicely done.

From the same year, we have two Irving Berlin songs from the Miss Liberty score - Let's Take an Old Fashioned Walk and Paris Wakes Up and Smiles.

Moving to 1950, Capitol issued an odd coupling of It's a Most Unusual Day, from the two-year-old movie A Date with Judy, with the St. Louis Blues. Later that year, Whiting recorded (We've Got a) Sure Thing from the Bing Crosby film Ridin' High, backed with the awful Solid as a Rock, a synthetic r&b number also recorded by Ella Fitzgerald and the Deep River Boys.

Also from 1950 is a terrific rendition of Come Rain or Come Shine, with a flip side of Dream Peddler's Serenade. The latter had music by Johnny Mercer and lyrics by one of the winners of Capitol's Songs without Words contest, John Rufus Sharpe III. For that contest, Capitol asked entrants to write the words for new music by Mercer, Jimmy McHugh, Livingston and Evans, Isham Jones, Ray Noble and Paul Weston. Sharpe's work was apparently heavily influenced by Kim Gannon's lyrics for A Dreamer's Holiday, which had been a hit the previous year.

Our final 45 is from 1951, and has the hymn-like Faithful by French composer Alex Alstone with words by Jimmy Kennedy, and Lonesome Gal, a worthwhile song by Walter Schumann and Jack Brooks.

Whiting is backed by Frank DeVol on all recordings except Come Rain or Come Shine, which has a Paul Weston arrangement. The sound is excellent.

Hope you enjoy these relatively rare items by one of the finest vocalists of the time.

Betty Garrett in Call Me Mister

Betty Garrett died last week, and I am honoring her by presenting the cast album from Call Me Mister, a 1946 revue that was a big break for her - and is a favorite show of mine.

Betty Garrett asks South
America to take it away

Now why would Betty Garrett star in something named Call Me Mister? It's because the review pertains to soldiers who were being discharged into the postwar world, and who now could be called "Mister" rather than by their rank. Most of the cast was composed of ex-military personnel - Garrett and some others excepted.

Garrett takes on the role of a worker in a military canteen - in one scene teaching the soldiers to do the then-popular Latin American dances ("South America, Take It Away" - her show stopper); in another lamenting the fact that with the end of war came the end of her clientele ("Little Surplus Me"). She also presents an ode to conspicuous holiday consumption ("Yuletide, Park Avenue").

Lawrence Winters

The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent - the other main vocal star is Lawrence Winters, who later had a distinguished career as an operatic baritone. His numbers include "Going Home Train" (quite similar to "This Train Is Bound for Glory"); a mawkish ode to the late US President Franklin Roosevelt ("The Man on the Dime"); and "The Red Ball Express," which is about the supply-chain convoy in the European theater of war.

The music and lyrics are by Harold Rome, and with few exceptions, the songs are very strong. "South America, Take It Away" was the only hit, in a bowdlerized version by Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters. The original is not especially risque, but in 1946, lyrics concerning "my pan-American can" were not heard on the radio. Despite the lack of hits and the topical nature of the lyrics, the score is quite effective and affecting. It strongly conveys the joy, relief and pride of the ex-soldiers. My own favorite is the ballad "Along with Me."

Harold Rome

Call Me Mister was Rome's second notable revue, following Pins and Needles. His first book musical was Wish You Were Here, in 1952. Other scores include Fanny, Destry Rides Again, and I Can Get It for You Wholesale.

Betty Garrett went from this review to Hollywood, appearing in several notable musicals, including On the Town with Jules Munshin, who also was in Call Me Mister and is heard in one number here. She later was often on US television shows.

The cast album, conduced by the show's musical director, Lehman Engel, was first issued on 78s in 1946. This transfer is from the 10-inch LP issue of 1949. The sound is quite good.

Margie Anderson

Margie Anderson is a somewhat mysterious vocalist who made just this one LP - and I don't even think this began life as an album, rather a bunch of singles.

What we have here is a collection of 10 songs on the low-end budget label Spinorama. These materials also appeared in whole or part on other such supermarket collections from the early 60s. These labels generally operated by acquiring old material on the cheap, and then repackaging it. My suspicion is that this particular package began as singles cut for a small label from about 1953 to 1957 - although there is no hard evidence that this is the case.

Why do I choose those dates? Because By Myself, one of the songs here, was featured in the 1953 movie The Bandwagon, and because Ca, C'Est L'Amour was written for the 1957 film Les Girls.

It doesn't help that there is very limited information available on the singer. The first information I have is that she recorded two singles for Columbia in 1950. She then turns up singing with Louis Jordan in 1953. Finally, she recorded a single for ABC-Paramount in 1960. There also are scattered references to her appearing in night spots.

So, in short, I haven't been able to find out when these records were made or who plays on them - although they clearly are highly proficient musicians. Anderson herself is a very good singer - although she does have a tendency to mangle lyrics a little - and is particularly effective on The Thrill is Gone.

The production values are what you might expect from a low-end label. The sound was shrill, which I have adjusted, and the pressing is cheap. Added reverb is plentiful. Fortunately I have a mint copy of the record, so there is no need to endure any noise induced by mishandling over the years. Any noise here was built in by the issuing entity.

The pitching of some of these items is suspect, and I am sure that London Blues was about a half-tone flat, so I have adjusted it. (The original is also included in the download, in case you want to judge for yourself.)

This is presented (and in flac format) by request.

George Shearing

George Shearing has been a favorite of mine for a long time, so I wanted to provide a brief tribute to him by presenting one of his earliest LPs.

I've had this particular album in mind for presentation here for quite some time - mainly because I love the unusual cover - but I've never been able to coax decent sound from the execrable early-50s Savoy pressing. Well, I tried again today, with some minor success, and the results are at least listenable.

Note (March 2025): This LP is now available in a new transfer with greatly improved sound.

What we have here is Shearing's first US recordings, made for Savoy in 1947. The artist had recorded in London previously, and after nine sides for Savoy (eight of them here), would move on to Discovery briefly, then fame with M-G-M and Capitol.

The Savoy recordings present Shearing before he adopted the "Shearing sound" - the highly influential combination of his piano in unison with guitar and vibes. Here, it's Shearing with drums and bass only - and in a bop mood, only bringing out his locked-hands approach for his take on "So Rare." Also notable is the way he suggests the genesis of "'Round Midnight" in the opening bars of "Sweet and Lovely."

Savoy's sound may have been crude, but its artwork was avant-garde for the time, a minimalist approach with Burt Goldblatt's photo, the artist's name and not even a mention of the label.

I enjoy all eras of Shearing's long career - even (heck, especially) the cocktail music he produced for Capitol. These early recordings show a side that was overshadowed by his later, more popular efforts.

LINK to new transfer (March 2025)