Halloween 2026, Pt. 3--The Haunted Victrola! "Spooky Spooks," "Murder," "Mummy Mine," more!

 

The Haunted Victrola is wound and ready to roll.  These are Halloween 78s which I put up in 2020, only to have them lost to Workupload--I re-ripped all but five of these, and for those I revived rips from 2019.  Or whatever I just typed.  (This stuff gets complicated...)

Things start in 1904 with Come Take a Trip in My Airship, with a vocal by J.W. Myers, in spite of the fact that the singer, as written, is female.  Gender-blind vocals were a common practice in the early days of sound recording.  Sung to her airship "sailor":

Come take a trip in my airship, Come take a sail 'mong the stars, Come have a ride around Venus, Come have a spin around Mars.  No one to watch when we're kissing, No one to see while we spoon, Come take a trip in my airship, And we'll sit in the Man in the Moon.

Then, the medley Mystery! followed by a marvelous Ferde Grofe arrangement for Paul Whiteman--The Hoodoo Man, 1924.  Three more gems, then a Byron Gay number--Vamp Me (And I'll Vamp You)--with lovely, Whiteman-esque, contrasting-sections charts.  Dolly Connolly (Mrs. Percy Wenrich) is next with 1912's That Hypnotizing Man, and she's followed by another Byron Gay classic, The Vamp (1919), with a vocal duet by Jack and Irving Kaufman.  The Oriental Woodwind Orchestra, Prince's Band, and Ted Fio Rito follow, and then we meet up with Little Nell, a take-off on 19th-century stage melodramas, with its last line--"Tomorrow night, we'll play East Lynne"--referring to a popular 1861 novel and play.  

The jazzy, polymetric Delirium has the sound of Red Nichols' Five Pennies, and it's followed by the most recent entry in our slaylist: 1943's The Merry Ghost of Chatham Square.  Five more titles, with most chosen for their high weirdness: Animal Fair, Spooky Spooks, Murder (Byron Gay, again!), Eccentric Rag, and Which Hazel.  The Byron Gay number describes the ruinous effect of jazz on a "good old tune": 

With villainous glee, They go on a spree, Then they ruin with their bluin', One good melody.  Ohh-ohh, just hear that banjo, Ohh-ohh, And that piano, It's murder, it's murder, It's wrong, wrong, wrong, What they do to a wonderful song (with a hoot and a toot), etc.

DOWNLOAD: Halloween 2026--Pt. 3...Haunted Victrola.zip

Come Take a Trip in My Airship--J.W. Meyers, Orch. Accompaniment, 1904

Mystery!--Medley--Paul Biese and His Novelty Orch., 1919

The Hoodoo Man--Paul Whiteman and His Orch., 1924

Mummy Mine--Medley--Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orch., 1919

Jabberwocky--Joseph Samuels' Jazz Band, 1921

Greenwich Witch--Frank Westphal and His Orch., 1922

Witches' Dance (Hexentanz)--Leopold Godowsky, approx. December 1920

Vamp Me (And I'll Vamp You) (Byron Gay)--Rega Dance Orch., 1922

Dolly Connolly--That Hypnotizing Man, 1912

The Vamp (Byron Gay)--Waldorf-Astoria Singing Orch., 1919

Egyptian Dancer (The Ghawazel)--Oriental Woodwind Orch., 1921

The Ghost of the Violin--Prince's Band, 1913

Hypnotized--Ted Fio Rito and His Orch., V: Muzzy Marcellino, 1936

Little Nell--Eliot Everett and Orch. (Joe Haymes), 1932

Delirium--Carl Fenton's Orchestra, 1927

The Merry Ghost From Chatham Square--Henri Rene Musette Orchestra, w. Vocal, 1943

Animal Fair--Carl Fenton's Orch., w. Vocal Chorusm 1924

Spooky Spooks (Claypoole)--Prince's Band, 1916

Murder (Byron Gay)--Plantation Jazz Orch., 1920

Eccentric Rag--Oriole Orchestra, 1924

Greenwich Witch--Zez Confrey, Piano Solo, 1922

Which Hazel--Al Herman, 1921

Lee