Acoustical 78s for May, 2026: 1907-1922 dance sides

 

This weekend, I found myself sound-restoring seventeen acoustical 78s, and I ended up with sixteen usable tracks.  The first two unusable tracks were strictly a matter of improper "normalizing"--I ripped the Original Dixieland Jass Band's Indiana and Darktown Strutters' Ball in a single track, and this turned out badly.  Reason being, the dynamic balance differs considerably between the two numbers.  So, I had to re-rip them separately, which worked for normalizing.

And I've discovered, based on this batch, that VinylStudio's auto-normalizing feature works perfectly approx. 80 percent of the time.  Otherwise, I have to manually adjust same, which is typically a quick and easy task.  Three of today's sixteen tracks ended up either too loud or too soft, but again the fix is short and simple.  My logical conclusion: Acoustical 78s were recorded at different peak volume levels.  Thus, when balancing the dynamic ranges, some rips will balance out of kilter with the other tracks.

These are some of my favorite pre-electric 78s, and I assembled these from a larger row of maybe 30 discs pulled from overflow rows.  Kentucky Kut Ups, from 1907, is a recent addition to my collection, and against logic this ragtime march has a strong "ragtime to jazz" vibe, though I'm not sure why.  It might be due to the overlapping notes and beats necessarily created by ragtime rhythms, but there's a definite hint of call-and-response.  No doubt, jazz existed in 1907, and this Henry Frantzen march might very well have been influenced by early Dixieland (before Dixieland officially arrived in recording studios).  And we have the Original Dixieland Jass (!) Band on Columbia, with two sides recorded following the group's initial success at the Victor label, and not before, as was commonly believed at one time.  The amazing Fuzzy Wuzzy Rag by (W.C.) Handy's band is early-jazz gold, in my opinion, despite being categorized (by Gunther Schuller, I believe) as a ragtime-not-jazz side.

I think--or at least hope--that the attitude toward early jazz has evolved beyond "It's either King Oliver or it's not jazz," but I can't be sure.  And Der Rote Domino (The Red Domino, aka The Clarinet Polka) is a cool 1915 recording of this famous number, and in a style not unlike its modern presentation, albeit slower in tempo.  This side was recorded by the Columbia Orchestra and then marketed to different ethnic groups, including German-Americans (as with this issue).

Note the "fade" at the end of Barkin' Dog, as recorded by (Ross) Gorman's Syncopators.  I'm guessing that the player simply stepped back from the recording horn, unless there was some volume-dampening tech available in the studio.  Gorman, of course, originated the famous clarinet glissando at the start of Rhapsody in Blue.  This was Gorman's "iconic" contribution therefor.  "Iconic" gets on my nerves, since it's a word which can mean just about anything--or nothing.  It's even less useful than "authentic" as an adjective.  

Anyway, enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: Acoustical 78s May 2026.zip

Indiana--Original Dixieland Jass Band, 5/31/1917--Take 3

Darktown Strutters' Ball--Same, Take 3

Kentucky Kut Ups--Arthur Pryor's Band, 9/13/1907

Cold Turkey--Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orch., 6/1/1917

Slow and Easy--Louisiana Five Jazz Orchestra, 12/16/1919

Swanee--Columbia Dance Orch., Dir. Charles A. Prince, 1/27/1920

Dance It Again With Me--Art Hickman's Orchestra, 9/15/1919

The Red Lantern--Waldorf-Astoria Dance Orch., Dir. Joseph Knecht, 4/19/1919

Down Home Rag--Earl Fuller's Rector Novelty Orch., 3/19/1918

I Ain't Got Nobody Much--Same

I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise (Gershwin, A: Grofe)--Paul Whiteman and His Orch., 9/1/1922

Fuzzy Wuzzy Rag--(W.C.) Handy's Orchestra, 9/21/1917--Take 3

Barkin' Dog--Gorman's Novelty Syncopators, 9/2/1919

"Oh" (Oh!)--Ted Lewis Jazz Band, V: Jack Kaufman, 12/9/1919

Der Rote Domino--Polka Mazurka--Columbia Orchestra, 1/11/1915

So Long, Oo-Long (How Long You Gonna Be Gone)--Raderman's Novelty Orch, 1920

Lee

Bill St. Clair Swings Stephen Foster Favorites in a New Fresh Manner (Parade, SP 327)

Steven Foster classics in swing time: Bill St. Clair and the Eddie Maynard Orchestra beautifully manage this goal.  It helps when the songs are terrific, the vocalist is excellent, and the arrangements spot on.  This LP is a wonderful surprise--way above the norm for Parade.

However, as we congratulate Bill St. Clair and the Eddie Maynard Orch., I think it's fair to ask... do or did either of those persons exist?  Under those names, I mean?

Let's look at the evidence: This LP also showed up on Spinorama, Palace, Coronet, and Riviera.  Here, the orchestra is credited to Eddie Maynard, but elsewhere it's assigned to Fontanna, Mark Andrews, David Bruce, and... artist-unknown.  And, on Coronet, Bill becomes Dick Neilson.  The Fontanna version (on Palace), gives no vocal credit at all, though at least it's in stereo.  And had I known it was the same album, I'd have gone for it (because of the stereo), but the Parade monaural audio is nice enough--after I fixed it up, that is.

Bill, or Dick, or whomever, has a marvelous voice, and the Stephen-Foster-in-Swing-Time theme is beautifully managed, but we really have no reason to believe this singer is, in factual reality, named Bill St. Clair.  In fact, at my fake-hits YT channel, I have a Bill St. "Claire" on Big 4 Hits singing "Shake Rattle and Roll," and it doesn't sound like the same guy.  As for Eddie Maynard, he was a name-drop bandleader at SPC, Spinorama, and Parade.  A fill-in-the-credit bandleader.  

To be fair , Bill and Eddie ("Bill and Eddie"?) also put out an LP on Promenade called Let's Be Frank, on which Bill (or whoever he is) does a decent job imitating Frank Sinatra.  This might compel us to believe that Bill St. Clair was the singer's real name, but there's the problem of the many different credits for these Stephen Foster tracks.  And there's the problem that Bill seems to have done nothing outside of the rack-jobber realm.  Nobody said rack-jobber detective work was easy...

Anyway, according to the liner notes, "This is a great unique album and will provide many hours of listening enjoyment."  (If put it on repeat play, I guess...)  "Bill has a tremendously great voice," the notes continue, and Bill is a singer "from the Boston area who has his own TV and radio shows."  Except, I can find no online confirmation of same, and Google's AI can't, either.  No TV or radio shows on file for one Bill St. Clair.  Still, this is a superior budget-album experience--fine vocalist, spot-on arrangements, and great American tunes.  Hats off to Bill, Dick, Fontanna, Artist Unknown, and everyone else involved.

DOWNLOAD: Bill St. Clair Swings Stephen Foster Favorites in a New Fresh Manner.zip FLAC

Beautiful Dreamer

I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair

Nellie Bly

Old Dog Trey

Ring Ring de Banjo

Old Folks at Home

My Old Kentucky Home

Gentle Annie

Oh Susannah

Hard Times

Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming

Camptown Races

Lee

Repost: Society Favorites (That Are Our Favorites)--(Royale VLP 6042)

I'd featured this LP in 2017, and the Zippylink upload is long gone.  So, I've re-re-ripped this excellent but junkily-pressed LP in the best audio I can manage, and the sound is acceptable, save for a "wow"-filled Body and Soul and a "Twilight Three" track clearly remastered from a worn master.  I did a good deal of de-noising on the latter.

Royale, you'll recall, belonged to Elliott Everett "Eli" Oberstein, whose labels were probably the cheapest of the cheap, though I hesitate to make a claim that cheap--I mean, that large.  As is not infrequently the case with Eli, the music here is quite decent--much better than the second-rate vinyl it was pressed on.  Best of the bunch are the marvelous pre-RCA and Columbia Percy Faith sides, which date from the 1947 (orig. on the Majestic label).

Vintage easy listening which can't be beat, despite the Oberstein-quality reissue.  And can we assume that Society Favorites (That Are Our Favorites) was followed by Society Favorites (That Aren't Our Favorites)?


DOWNLOAD: Society Favorites Royale.zip mp3

                           Society Favorites (Royale) FLAC.zip

Body and Soul--Stevens Orchestra
Sweet and Lovely--Nat Brandwynne and Orchestra
Dancing in the Dark--Percy Faith and Orchestra
You and the Night and the Music--The Twilight Three
I Cover the Waterfront--Stevens Orchestra
I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plans--Chauncey Gray and Orchestra
That Old Black Magic--Percy Faith and Orchestra
The Continental--Jerry Wald and Orchestra

Society Favorites (That Are Our Favorites)--Royale VLP 6042 (10")

Lee

A Singing Science Record: Tom Glazer and Dottie Evans--Space Songs (1959)

 

How could I possibly have passed up a Singing Science Records "Ballads for the Age of Science" LP called Space Songs, with Tom (pre-On Top of Spaghetti) Glazer, Dottie Evans, and the Tony Mottola Orchestra directed by Hecky Krasnow, with lyrics by Hy (Unchained Melody) Zaret and music by Lou Singer?  I ask you.  I think Volunteers of America wanted $1.20 for it, and I thought, "This'll be different."  And it is.

Label: Motivation Records, a division of Argosy Music Corporation, and packed with clever, catchy songs for the classroom.  My favorite is probably Gravity, which Guy Mitchell and Mindy Carson would have had a ball (no pun intended) with: If the Earth is a ball, why don't we fall off, While it spins around; If the Earth is a ball, why don't we all go flying off the ground?  Yeah, why is that?  Well, the Earth has a force that pulls and draws all matter toward its core.  And the pull of the force called "gravity" is why we don't fall off.  Ahhhh... now I see.

Dottie Evans I know as a singer for Enoch Light on the Waldorf label, and she is excellent here.  Unusually clever lyrics and ingenious melodies (many P.D.-familiar) combine to make a highly entertaining offering.  And I had to promise myself to limit my manual click repairing to the loudest clicks--otherwise, I'd have been another week fixing this.  Well-recorded but not the best pressing.  Actually, when the label is "Motivation Records," the experienced collector isn't expecting background silence.

Other gems: What Is the Milky Way, Beep Beep (Here Comes the Satellite), and Why Does the Sun Shine?  And the second number had me curious as to how many satellites we had in orbit when this LP was made (in 1959).  Answer: Only 14.  Imagine when the space-junk count was that low, way back when I was two.

And What Is a Shooting Star? (A shooting star is not a star, Is not a star at all; A shooting star's a meteor that's heading for a fall) has confirmed my correct guess that a meteorite is a meteor after it has burned and/or broken up in our mesosphere.  Anyway, a surprisingly entertaining classroom album, or maybe not so surprising, given the talent involved.  Other LPs in this series include Energy and Motion Songs, Nature Songs, and Weather Songs.


DOWNLOAD: Space Songs--Tom Glazer, Dottie Evans.zip FLAC



Zoom a Little Zoom (Rocket Ship)

What Is the Milky Way

Constellation Jig

Beep Beep (Here Comes the Satellite)

Why Does the Sun Shine

What Is a Shooting Star?

Longitude and Latitude

It's a Scientific Fact

Ballad of Sir Isaac Newton

Friction

Why Are Stars of Different Colors

Why Do Stars Twinkle

What Is Gravity

Planet Minuet

Why Go Up There

Tom Glazer & Dottie Evans, Tony Mottola Orchestra, 1959

Lee

Ferdie Grofe: Grand Canyon Suite--original 1932 recording (from 12-inch 78 rpm album) by Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orch.

 

A 50/50 mix of original 1932 issues, plus two 1941 reissues--all the original 1932 recording, of course.  Working with sets from different eras meant using two response curves, but my VinylStudio software is more than up to that challenge.  Five movements across eight 12-inch 78 sides presented a bit of an editing challenge, but nothing major.  The movements are Sunrise, Painted Desert, On the Trail, Sunset, and the spectacular Cloudburst.  More than nine decades later, this suite remains magnificent.  Or, should I say, grand.

My album (the holder) pictured above is the 1941 album, and exactly when or where I came across the two original discs (Sunrise and Cloudburst), I don't remember, save that it was at a Goodwill.  The original price tag of $1.99 is still on the album's spine, meaning that I bought this set well before the recent sound-recording price hike at GW.  Maybe this album came with the mixed 1932 and 1941 pressings.  And someplace in my mess of 78s there's the 1941 reissue set I bought back in 1978 at a Cincinnati book store.  You know, if this room were about twice the size, I could get my collection in some kind of order...

The background on this famous suite is all over the internet, so I won't repeat those details here.  Recorded April 26-28, 1932, making this performance just shy of 94 years old.  Amazing fidelity for the period, and even more amazing: The wide dynamic range, all the way from ppp (pianississimo) to fff (triple forte).  And I can find no definite year for Grofe's expanded orchestration of the suite, though it may have been around the time of Andre Kostelanetz's superb 1941 recording, which I posted here.

Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD: Grand Canyon Suite 1932.zip

Sunrise

Painted Desert

On the Trail

Sunset

Cloudburst

Grand Canyon Suite (Ferdie Grofe)--Paul Whiteman and His Concert Orch., 1932

Lee