Mixed Bag No. 2--Harry Harden, Eddie Albert, Country Washburne, Unknown

Work was delayed on today's offering by a wonderful after-summer summer trip to the amazing Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.  Didn't get to see much of the Village, but did visit Edison's lab and witness a demonstration of tinfoil recording, which utilized an original gramophone--either one of two that survived, or one of one (can't remember).  I was in audio Heaven.  Edison was part genius, part idiot.  For instance, he despised the idea of music on recordings.  Well... no one's perfect, I guess.  Amazing trip.  Pure, amazing history--nothing entertainment-themed.  And we visited my old Toledo neighborhood, and I saw the vacant spot where my huge high school once stood.  And a bunch of other things my brain has been falsely remembering for years.

But we're here for novel sounds, and there's Frankie (above), hauling our latest mixed bag.  He forgot the bag part, but who's going to scold him?  Not me.  We see him passing a dollar-store haunted house under the light of the full moon.  I try not to get political here, but Frank's not a fan of our president.  He bolts at any mention of the man.  (Cha-dunk, crash!)  He'd like to see him tossed out.  "Fire!  Bad!" Frankie says whenever Trump is mentioned.

Get it?  "Fire! Bad!"?  Okay....

I draw our attention to the last selection--Jimmy Carroll and His Orch., from 1936, playing two parts of a four-part Old Time Waltz Medley.  I'm betting that this is THE Jimmy Carroll--i.e., the Juilliard grad and Mitch Miller arranger behind the Sing Along with... LPs.  Everything lines up, date-wise.  Carroll was born in 1912, and was playing session clarinet in 1938.  Of course, this could have been another Jimmy Carroll--that's always possible.  But I'm betting it's Mitch's super-talented man.  Those of us Boomers raised on rock can be forgiven for underestimating the musical chops required to arrange the stuff our parents liked, but the players and chart writers were top-drawer musicians.  If this is THE Jimmy Carroll, it means that, 22 years prior to arranging old-time music for Mitch, Jimmy was arranging old-time waltzes for the Vocalion label.  His path was charted when he started.

Higher up in the list (just how it worked out) is 1928's  It Goes Like This (That Funny Melody), which, while a pleasant novelty, was included primarily because it sounds exactly like the polka-style novelties Lawrence Welk was waxing in the 1950s.  And here's that same sound, from more than 20 years earlier.  I love those discoveries that rearrange my understanding of pop music history.

In earlier featurings, I included the story behind 1950's Supercalafajalisticespeealadogjus, which of course predates Disney's Mary Poppins.  But I don't recall the exact details, except that there was a lawsuit.  And--you won't believe it--DISNEY WON!  Who could have seen that coming?  I think Disney claimed that the fourteen-syllable word in question was common slang and therefore not subject to copyright.  Disney failed to mention on which planet this is true.  Fourteen-syllable slang words??  At least Disney didn't claim coincidence.

Harry Harden's wonderful polka orchestra--never heard of him before, but he did a lot--treats us to the Flight of the Bumblebee in polka form, sort of.  I say "sort of," because the famous air only occupies a small portion of the selection.  But the music is perfect Halloween stuff, beautifully performed, and very nicely remastered on a Vocalion LP from a 1941 Decca 78, on which he was credited as Happy Harry Harden and His Musette Orchestra.  Our two other selections in this style are the Hey! Bobareebop and I Walk the Line polkas.  You know you needed these.

From the famous Memories of My Caribbean Cruise LP (# .00003 on the pop charts), we have Lee Neeren crooning, logically enough, A Caribbean Cruise.  It's weird, it's bad, and it's here for you.  Rock and Roll Rag, co-written by Enoch Light, is a surprisingly fun and rocking number by the (I assume) fake Ink Spots.  Or a fake Ink Spots.  The ones who recorded for Enoch Light, to be specific.  Then, back to 1929 (remember 1929?) for A Hunting Scene, one of those descriptive-with-sound-effects pieces that fond their way into "Pops" concerts, to use the modern term.  Composer Ernest Bucalossi is best known for Grasshopper's Dance.  Which everyone has heard of, except those very many who haven't.  Hunting is proof that, ages before Spike Jones, there were men on concert stages barking like dogs.  True.  The flip, Patrol Comique, is an 1886 ragtime number, penned before that term was coined, though it's as ragtime as ragtime gets, down to the racist sheet music art (examples easily found on line).  Fascinating stuff.  More ragtime with 1913's Spoontime, played on orchestra bells, which I discovered is a term for the xylophone.  This would explain why orchestra bells sound like a xylophone.  I'm My Own Grandpaw is provided for us by Tony Pastor and the Clooney Sisters (Betty and Rosemary) from a muddy-sounding 1947 Columbia radio station only 78 copy, and say that fifteen times in a row.  I don't try to keep track of these lyrics--they're ingenious, but far too complicated.  And I'm always afraid I'll come out feeling like my own step-uncle's nephew on my third cousin's side.  That's two years of therapy right there.

Magnificent 1930 Barbershop singing by the American Singers, whom I've done no Googling on/of, but they're right there at the start of modern Barbershop.  Or, what we know as Barbershop.  Or, what the heck am I talking about.  I've studied a lot about the history of close-harmony singing, and, the more I read, the less I know.  Not to offend anyone, but I personally feel that the wonderful close-harmony singing of the late 1800s-1920s evolved into something quite fake and pointlessly virtuosic.  (Send all hate mail to my email link.)  In the old days, quartets just sang.  I've come across a number of definitions of "close harmony" (my favorite is, no wider than an octave, excluding the bass), but simple common sense tells us that same-sex harmony is limited in range (or, ahem, tessitura), and so the lines (voices) overlap.  That's about it.  That's what gives close harmony its fascinating sound.  The melody can be in the "lead" (second tenor) or the tenor, which is the first tenor.  Got that?  Which brings us to the marvelous female close-harmony version of The Varsity Rag, which is an example of the melody accompanied by the remaining three voices, which sing chords, essentially.  It's like bass-lead singing in male quartets.

The group is called the Song Spinners, and nothing on the label or mostly blank jacket tells me who they are.  Or where the concert was, or why.  Recorded in Cleveland, Ohio in the early 1970s (using one of the selections as a clue).  They are preceded by George Olsen's orchestra performing the tune on a moderately worn 1928 78.  From, I mean.  On, from.  Whatever.

At one time, flying to Hawaii must have been a big deal--in 1926, certainly.  And that's the year of I'll Fly to Hawaii, which the terrible vocal-break singers pronounce "Hawaii-ah."  Not sure why-ah.  Which singers, you ask?  Why, the ones performing for Cole Mc Elroy's Spanish Ball Room Band.  Right--that band.  For Diane.  In other news, Irving Berlin's Play a Simple Melody is played not so simply by Joe "Fingers" Carr and "Big" Tiny Little, and they use a Beatles beat, only just right before the Beatles reached our shore.  If that weren't enough, Cathy Johnson rocks and yodels on 1955's Rockin' and Yodelin', and, while unconventional (dig the writers!), the number is definitely rock and roll, despite the rock/yodeling trend starting and ending with this side, far as I know.  The weird piano medley (Mysterious, etc.) is actually three selections spliced together (and doubled) from a dance studio 78 on the Bowmar label.  And what on earth did I just type?  Anyway, to my surprise, my stitched-together result makes great Halloween background.  Ev'ry Show Must Have a Finale is also a dance-class 78 rpm selection, and I somehow didn't think to make it the last number.  Anyway, it earns a spot because it's played by Country Washburne and His Orchestra.  Washburne was the musical genius behind many of the best Spike Jones sides, having had his start in the Ted Weems band.  I don't know how often great arrangers ended up on dance-class records, though I'm guessing it wasn't every day.  Anyway, I offer the side in honor of this amazing talent.  And because it's pretty fun.

Oh, and there's Eddie Albert with A Smile Is Just a Frown (Turned Upside Down).  (In a bad mood?  Just stand on your head!)

The Albert side is one of my all-time guilty pleasures.  Use it as a pumpkin-carving guide.

Frankie's sorry he transported these in a loose stack.  I'd left a note, hoping it would jolt his memory, but....









DOWNLOAD: Mixed Bag No. 2







Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus (The Super Song)--Alan Holmes and His New Tones, 1950
Flight of the Bumble Bee (Polka)--Harry Harden Orchestra, 1941
Rock and Roll Rag (Light-Davies)--The Ink Spots, 1956
A Hunting Scene (P. Bucalossi)--Victor Concert Band, Dir. Rosario Bourdon, 1929
A Caribbean Cruise--Lee Neeren, with Orch.
Patrol Comique (Hindley-Lake, composed 1886)--Victor Concert band, Dir. Rosario Bourdon, 1929
I'm My Own Grandpaw--Tony Pastor Orch., v: Pastor and the Clooney Sisters, 1947
A Smile Is Just a Frown (Turned Upside Down)--Eddie Albert, 1966
I Walk the Line Polka--Ed Podolak and His Orch.
Spoontime--Two-Step (A. Von Tilzer)--William H. Reitz, Orchestra Bells and Orch., 1913
Doin' the Raccoon--George Olsen and His Music w. vocal chorus, 1928
Doin' the Raccoon--Song Spinners, c. 1973
Dear Old Girl--The American Singers, 1930
It Goes Like This (That Funny Melody)--Johnny Johnson and His Statler Pennsylvanians, v: Bob Treaster, 1928
Salt Your Sugar--Joe Raymond and His Orch., 1923
Tabby the Cat--Pied Pipers w. Paul Weston and His Orch., 1945
Rockin' and Yodelin' (Sigman-Faith)--Cathy Johnson and Friends, 1955
Hey! Bobareebop Polka--Ray Galla and His Polka Gems
I'll Fly to Hawaii--Cole Mc Elroy's Spanish Ball Room Band, w. vocal chorus, 1926
Varsity Drag--Song Spinners, c. 1973
Play a Simple Melody (Berlin)--Joe "Fingers" Carr and "Big" Tiny Little, 1963
In the Sing-Song Sycamore Tree--The Virginians (Dir. Nat Shilkret), v: Lewis James, 1927
Mysterious; Repetition; Swing High, Swing Low--"Rhythm Is Fun" (Bowmar 1505; 78 rpm; 1953)
Ev'ry Show Must Have a Finale--Country Washburne and His Orch. (Russell Records 109)
Old Time Waltz Medley--Jimmy Carroll and His Orch., v: Chick Bullock, 1936


Lee