Sunday morning gospel--Jerome Hines: Great Moments of Sacred Music

Metropolitan Opera bass Jerome Albert Link Heinz (Hines; 1921-2003) recorded sacred music for RCA, Word, and London, and recorded it beautifully. This 1965 playlist includes three of the most distinguished hymns of all time--How Great Thou Art, Blessed Assurance, and Eternal Father, Strong to Save--and a host of other superior gospel concert numbers, including The Lost Chord by Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and...) .

The music for The Lord's Prayer was composed by Hines, and he supplied the words for Handel's Largo. Someone once tried to convince me that Word is an "outsider" label, and if he meant that, in its heyday, the label routinely featured music outside the norm (in the sense of far above), I have to agree.

Click here to hear: ZIP FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

PLAYLIST

HOW GREAT THOU ART
LET US BREAK BREAD TOGETHER
LARGO (Handel; Words: Jerome Hines; Arranger: Kurt Kaiser)
THE LORD'S PRAYER (J. Hines)
I'D RATHER HAVE JESUS (Shea-Miller)
HE'S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS
THE OLD RUGGED CROSS
ETERNAL FATHER, STRONG TO SAVE
BLESSED ASSURANCE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD (Peterson)
THE DAY THAT I MET JESUS (Wyrtzen)
THE LOST CHORD (Sullivan)

Arranged and Conducted by Kurt Kaiser. (Word W-3337; 1965)


Lee

Soothing Sounds for Saturday

A lot of terrific, and terrifically soothing, stuff today. The great theme music from Ben Casey was written by David Raksin, who also gave us the theme to Wagon Train and the beautiful and sophisticated 1940s standard, Laura. I see (at the link provided) that he studied with Arnold Schoenberg. Cool. I also see that I misspelled his name on the mp3 file. Oops.

An African's Prayer (Guy Warren) later became the Bert Kaempfert hit That Happy Feeling (in case it sounds familiar). Tony Sheridan recorded it as Der Kiss Me Song. Now you know. Last year, I featured Guy Warren's own excellent recording.

The three Roger Williams selections are from his Mr. Piano LP, and they include Beatles producer George Martin's Niagara Theme. Psycho screenwriter and Outer Limits producer Joseph Stefano (1922-2006) is responsible for two of the light instrumentals in this playlist, both from 1957--the better-than-average Day Dream and the superb Serenade in Soft Shoe.

The two terrific Norman Greene sides from 1951 feature voiceless choirs--a device that wasn't new even then. And it's Greene with an e, despite my misspelling on the mp3 file. (A pattern is emerging here.)

Speaking of, most of the mp3s contain label and year information, or should. Please let me know if, for some reason, the data isn't displaying. And enjoy! Be soothed.

Click here to hear: Soothing Sounds for Saturday

TRACKLIST

STRINGS AFIRE--Clebanoff and His Orch., 1962.
THEME FROM BEN CASEY (Raksin)--Valjean, 1962.
BRAHM'S HUNGARIAN DANCE NO. 5--Roger Williams, 1962.
THE LORELEI--Same.
NIAGARA THEME (George Martin)--Same.
FRONT ROW CENTER (J. Reisman)--Joe Reisman and His Orch., 1957.
CHERYL'S DREAM (J. Reisman)--Same.
AN AFRICAN'S PRAYER (EYI WALA DONG)--Dick Jacobs and His Skiffle Group, 1957.
DAY DREAM (Joseph Stefano)--Joe Reisman and His Orch., 1957.
SERENADE IN SOFT SHOE (Joseph Stefano)--Jack Pleis and His Orch., 1957.
CHARMAINE--The Hal Loman Orch. (Orch. and Choir); Tops label 78.
THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY--Lew Raymond Orch.; Tops label 45.
BLACK MAGIC--The Norman Greene Orch., 1951 (Rexford 103).
LITTLE WHITE LIES--Same.
LET IT BE ME--Jill Corey w. Ray Conniff Orch., Chorus, 1957. (Columbia 40878)



























Lee

Yet more 45s

As before, these were ripped from my new Stanton T.92 turntable. (Did I say that last time?)

Read about the Jodimars here. Especially if you're wondering why they sound so much like Bill Haley and the Comets. When I first listened to this 45, years ago, I concluded they were a rip-off of same. That'll teach me to conclude.

The two titles by the Silhouettes (famous for their r&r masterpiece Get a Job) are terrific--I've read that this single is uncommon. Cool.

When it hit in 1971, Chase's Get It On was played about once every ten minutes on Toledo, Ohio's WTTO (AM)--that's what my memory tells me, anyway. I remember Sammy Davis, Jr. doing his own version on The Tonight Show. I enjoyed it, but my jazz-fan Mom commented that there wasn't much to the song. Heck, it's rock and roll, even if Kentonesque, so there doesn't have to be a lot to it. And I've always wanted to type "even if Kentonesque."

The Rivieras are not the California Sun guys.

Billy Williams was a member of the Charioteers, starting in 1937. His quartet's version of Sh-Boom has the feel of the Chords' hit, but (not surprisingly) is much more polished. It more than works for me.

The fairly pricey Without a Song and White Cliffs of Dover by the Checkers is doo-wop to die for. I've had this for a while--it was either a thrift or flea market find. Nice to have something that (for a change) "books" fairly high.

MacArthur Park? I love it, and always have. This is your chance to hear it in mono. There's an industry built around making fun of this record, but it seemed very innovative when it came out, and the lyrics aren't any dumber than the norm for the time--but it's the fabulous music (and arrangement) that counts.

I read that Jimmy Webb tried to get Harris to stop putting 's at the end of "MacArthur" but finally gave up.

To Lee's jukebox offerings for this rainy Wednesday late night:

Click here to hear: ZIP FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE



PLAYLIST

ROCK-A BOOGIE--Googie Rene and His Band, 1957. BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND (J. Vikki)--Same. BULL FROG--The Silhouettes w. "King Twigg" and His Orch., 1961. NEVER--Same. BUDDY'S BOOGIE--Buddy Johnson Orch., 1956. I'LL DEARLY LOVE YOU--Same, with vocal by Floyd Ryland. GREAT BIG EYES--The Rivieras (1960) OOP-POPPA-DOO--Lily Ann Carol and the Jan Raye Q., 1956. MACARTHUR PARK (J. Webb)--Richard Harris, 1968. LET'S ALL ROCK TOGETHER--The Jodimars, 1955. PROMISE HER ANYTHING (Bacharach-David)--Tom Jones, 1966. GET IT ON (B. Chase-T. Richards)--Chase, 1971. WITHOUT A SONG--The Checkers, 1953. WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER--Same. SH-BOOM (LIFE COULD BE A DREAM)--Billy Williams Q., w. Jack Pleis Orch., 1954.



Lee

Coming up....

Sunday morning gospel--Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper

This thrift store find had enjoyed a lot of plays before it found its way into my pile--but MAGIX took most of the bad sounds away, leaving only the excellent bluegrass gospel of Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper. And there's nothing like finding a mono edition on the Columbia budget label Harmony, since they usually show up in fake (re-channeled, whatever) "stereo." Not this time.

The ten tracks date from 1949 to 1952, and--as the carefully chosen title suggests--are all sacred songs. If I have any complaint about the cliched cover photo, it would be the lack of dust on the Bible (Mother's Bible, I'm guessing). On the other hand, it looks worn enough. Can't have every last shred of authenticity, I guess.

To the music: ZIP FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE

TRACKLIST

ARE YOU WALKING AND A-TALKING FOR THE LORD (Hank Williams), 1953.
HE WILL SAVE YOUR SOUL, 1949.
WILL THE LORD LET YOU IN, 1952.
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THIS WORLD, 1949.
THE LEGEND OF THE DOGWOOD TREE, 1950.
MY LORD'S GONNA SHAKE MY HAND, 1952.
MOTHER'S PRAYER, 1950. THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER, 1949.
I'M TAKING MY AUDITION, 1951.
WALKING MY LORD UP CALVARY HILL, 1951.


Lee