Almost-fake hits: Designed for Dancing--Tommy Tucker and Shep Fields (prob. 1952 and 1953)

 

Keeping with the subject of sublabels and hit parade covers, here are two 10" Lion Records LPs from (best guess) 1952 and 1953.  And you know you've always wanted to hear Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orchestra performing Your Cheating Heart.  You're just kidding yourself to pretend otherwise.

At first glance, these would seem to fit in with the fake hits of the budget/cheapie labels (Parade, Waldorf, Royale), especially with the "Tops in Pops" subtitle on the Fields LP.  And, to an extent, I think they do, despite the fact that these are big band covers vs. sound-alikes--after all, the aim, in both cases, is to exploit the hit parade.  The comparison seems reasonable to me, though maybe I've been doing this for too long.  One problem, though, with the big band hit-parade cover versions: Come about 1955, songs like Tutti Frutti, Don't Be Angry, Speedo, and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On were entering the charts (rock and roll, they called it), none of which would have sounded right with either Fields or Tommy Tucker--or even Frankie Carle and Ralph Flanagan, who were doing hit parade LPs at RCA Victor (or Sammy Kaye, who did at least one hit parade EP for Columbia).  Ralph Marterie or Buddy Morrow, maybe, but none of those guys.  Then again, Sammy Kaye did cover The Great Pretender on Columbia's Today's Top Pops (Columbia CL-2571; 1956).  But the rock and roll of 1957 and 1958?  Get a Job, At the Hop, Great Balls of Fire, Little Darlin', School Days, Short Fat Fannie?  The hit parade was becoming a place for teens.

Anyway, I'm getting a little off topic.  It's just that these two LPs got me to thinking about all the "adult" pop artists who covered hit songs in the 1950s and, especially, the 1960s and 1970s (Billy Vaughn, Ferrante and Teicher, Percy Faith, 101 Strings, David Rose, Roger Williams, etc., etc.)--and about how selective they tended to be, especially when it came to not doing Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, or the Who.  The entry of rock and roll/rock into the charts created interesting issues for the cover-version industry.  Except, of course, for the jobber-rack labels, all of which mimicked whatever happened to be in the charts, regardless of who put it there.

Anyway, despite the de-noising challenges presented by these LPs (a lot of stray clicks and bumps to remove, even after a pass though VinylStudio's filter), I found them highly enjoyable--at times, a real kick.  Besides the aforementioned Lawrence Welk-esque rendition of Your Cheatin' Heart, there's a particularly lively and interesting Jambalaya cover by Tommy Tucker.  And while Welk is the first bandleader I associate with Shep Fields,  I think it's fair to say that Fields engaged in an usual amount of style-hopping--he was like four or five bands in one.  Part Welk, part Carmen Cavallaro, part Freddy Martin, even part Tommy Dorsey.  The musicianship strikes my ears as very solid, and even the accordion-on-extra-caffeine player, whoever he was, seems to have had impressive licks, though he zips through his arpeggios and chromatic runs so swiftly, it's hard to be totally sure.  Fields' failure to settle on a single style makes what would otherwise be ultra-"sweet" band boredom quite an adventure.  Or whatever I just typed.  Anyway, the tracks on Fields' Tops in Pops appear to date from early 1953, so we'll go with that year.

Tommy Tucker's orchestra has much less of an all-over-the-place sound, and his solid covers of 1952 hits like Wish You Were Here, You Belong to Me, Maybe, and I Went to Your Wedding (though I can't get the Spike Jones parody out of my head) make for highly enjoyable background music.  On both collections, the arrangers put loving care into their charts.

The "Designed for Dancing" series was pretty extensive, with at least twenty titles in all, and though it mostly avoided early rock'n'roll, there was a version of Sh-Boom by Henry Jerome that I'd love to have. However, I'm not about to pay the current Discogs price.

To the fun almost-fake hits:

DOWNLOAD: Designed for Dancing--Tommy Tucker Orchestra, Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm Orch. (1952 and 1953?)

TOMMY TUCKER ORCHESTRA

Wish You Were Here

Walkin' My Baby Back Home

You Belong to Me

Jambalaya

Somewhere Along the Way

Maybe

I Went to Your Wedding

Meet Mister Callaghan

SHEP FIELDS AND HIS RIPPLING RHYTHM ORCHESTRA

Till I Waltz Again With You

Your Cheatin' Heart (Williams)

How Do You Speak to an Angel?

Pretend

Side by Side

Have Your Heard

You Win Again (Williams)

Congratulations to Someone

Designed for Dancing (Lion E70001/Lion E-70008; 1952 and 1953?)

Lee