Thrift store shellac scores: "Ghost Riders in the Sky," "Cheroubtoul Rah."

 

"Thrift store shellac scores"--say that ten times.  ("That, that, that, that...")  Yes, we find some of the least usual shellac in thrift stores.  Alongside the common-as-dust platters (Frankie Laine on Columbia, etc.).

I'll start with two "Arabic" 12-inch 78s which, after any number of listens, I find quite interesting.  However, no need to apologize if your response is closer to "Was the needle stuck in the groove?" or "Yikes!" or "Huh??"  It's the kind of ethnic music which radically departs from the ways of Western music--Western form, anyway.  And both sides are pre-electric (1909 for the first; the second, unknown).

Both artists--Abdel Hai Effendi Hilmy and Salim Douman--were popular Arab-American singers, with Abdel passing away in 1912--Douman, in 1955.  Now we know.

The Douman side, Lahar Anhy, is the livelier of the two, though it has the same stuck-on-the-tonic drone feel.  The side also sports a wide crack, the sound of which I painstakingly edited out of the file (my wrists have yet to un-numb).  The crack rendered the B side impossible to save, given the chipped-away areas, but A was (more or less) rescuable.  Abdel's 1909 effort--Cheroubtoul Rah, Pts. 1 and II--is slower but with relatively better fidelity, since I was able to use my 3.0 mil 78 stylus.  In the case of Douman, I opted for my 1.2 mil stylus, which 1) made for less than perfect groove compliance, but 2) less noise from the crack.  

And, honestly, I'm expecting most listeners to give each file, at most, a 30-second chance before moving on.

The Mac Gregor label square-dance sides by Rusty's Rides make for a night-and-day contrast with the Arabic tracks.  They're a fun reward for anyone with the stuff to endure twelve minutes of the Opera Disc Company and Macsoud sides.

And, according to a 78 expert who clearly knows his stuff (at the 78 rpm records & cylinders fan group Facebook page), the Discogs data on the Opera Disc Company is false--it was not a "bootleg" label.  To quote the expert, "The discs were pressed in Germany by Deutsche Gramophone which did not have a license to sell most of these outside Germany."  Now we know, Part 2.

My label shots are digital pics, since my new Epson scanner has a depth of focus of approximately half a hair-width.  My chief problem with my old Epson was far too much detail.  With my new one: Out of focus scans for anything not flush with the glass. 

DOWNLOAD: Arabic, Mac Gregor 78s

Lahar Anhy (Bagdady)--Salim Doumani (Macksoud 115)

Cheroubtoul Rah, Pts. I and II--Abdel Hai Effendi Hilmy (Opera Disc Company 200041; 1909)

Ghost Riders in the Sky--Rusty's Riders (Mac Gregor 681)

Smoke Smoke Smoke (Talkin; up the Square)--Same

                                                                                                                         Salim and Abdel

Lee

Happy Birthday, Merv: Let's Dance Tonight (1952)

 

Actually, Merv's birthday was the 6th, but I'm within a week.  And I've been wanting to feature this 1952 EP set (which also appeared as a 10-inch LP) for some time.  And the 1952 release year is contained in the matrix #: E2PW.  In case you were wondering.

Six excellent Merv-with-Freddy numbers which, along with some others, don't show up on Jasmine's Early in the Day – The Singles Collection CD.  So, I could call them blog exclusives.  I think I will.  (Ahem.)  These are blog exclusives.  There, I said it.

The two instrumental tracks are an odd pair: Wabash Blues and Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.  And, of course, while both are outstanding dance numbers, they don't swing: Martin's band was a "sweet" outfit.  Aka, MOR, "Mickey," or probably worse.  Myself, I regard Martin's fantastic group as the finest of the non-swing big bands, along with Kay Kyser.  The musicianship is never less than superb, and Freddy had quite a knack for finding first-rank band vocalists, Merv included.

Best number?  Probably Leroy Anderson's Serenata, with lyrics by Mitchell Parish.  If I had to choose, that is.  Fidelity is fabulous, and I noticed that the "RCA 1949-" curve in my VinylStudio program (the response curve I applied here) is quite close to the RIAA curve.  Close enough as to not matter, probably.

Merv's been gone 18 (not quite 19) years already, and that's another "What happened to the years?" moment for me.  As I believe I mentioned some years back, I had the pleasure, circa 2005, of ripping a CD for Merv (of his own sides) via his manager.  She shared his email response--all about the fun he had listening to "the old songs."  It felt terrific to give back to a singer who made my vinyl and shellac collecting that much more of a pleasure.  And to think that my Merv-collecting started circa 1982 as a joke.  That is to say, I thought it would be amusing to amass a collection of Merv's recordings, figuring that his discography couldn't be that large.  Wrong!

And, of course, along the way I came to like his work a great deal.  My favorite Merv holdings include some pre-Martin demo 78s and his 1946 Songs by Merv Griffin 78 set on his very own Panda label.  Complete with an autograph to his "dear friend Mrs. Hawkins."  But I fear we've entered the "Who was Merv Griffin?" phase of U.S. popular culture.  After all, even some classic rock bands are unknown to younger listeners come 2024, and so I'm sure that Merv's off the radar.  Indeed, there are members of my own generation who didn't know that the famous talk show host had made records (except, perhaps, for his MGM Christmas effort).  Oh, well...

Oh, and the Merv-showpiece of the group, At Your Command, was penned by Harry Tobias and two former Rhythm Boys members--Bing Crosby and Harry Barris.  The lovely Tell Me melody was based on a mazurka by Xaver Scharwenka.  The "tune" was familiar, but not Xaver.

DOWNLOAD: Let's Dance--Freddy Martin and His Orch., featuring Merv Griffin, 1952

Let's Dance Tonight--Merv with Freddy

Tell Me--Same

Wabash Blues

Serenta--Merv with Freddy

At Your Command--Same

Parade of the Wooden Soldiers

Echoes of Love--Merv and The Martin Men with Freddy

Heavenly Symphony--Merv and the Glee Club with Freddy

Lee

Fourth of July music: "Grand Canyon Suite" (Grofe)--Andre Kostelanetz and His Orch., from 1941

 

Imagine my excitement when I encountered--for the first time, ever--a MONAURAL copy of the 1966 Harmony reissue of the Andre Kostelanetz recording of the Grand Canyon Suite.  Andre's marvelous reading was first released in 1941 in a bulky 12" 78 rpm album, and it stayed in Columbia's catalog for an impressive 25 years.  And I've never quite understood Columbia's insistence on keeping its back catalog current in this fashion, since this meant--in the case of Kostelanetz, at least--the release of old material alongside the latest high-fidelity examples.  If the goal was to publicize the latest in sound reproduction, that was no way to do it.

Anyway, for a 1941 recording, the sound is nothing short of fabulous.  And why the Grand Canyon Suite for the Fourth?  Two reasons.  1) The work satisfies the trope of "uniquely American," if only because the Grand Canyon resides in Arizona, which is part of the United States.  2) My joy at finally encountering a mono copy of this issue makes it a must to post. ("Must to post"??)  3) I love this piece to death.  Oh, and I broke my vow not to pay $3.99 Goodwill vinyl prices by grabbing this.  I decided it was worth four bucks.  But I'm happy to report that the local GW vinyl doesn't seem to be moving, otherwise.

The history of the suite is available all over cyberspace, so I won't devote space to same.  Though, despite my undying love for this wonderful work, I can't recall if Grofe completed it in 1931 or 1932.  I think it was 1931, but I'm not sure.  Okay--"composed between 1929 and 1931."  I'll assume Wikipedia has its facts straight.  First performed on November 22, 1931.

And it's my guess that, if we stare at any photo of the canyon long enough, we'll eventually spot the likeness of Washington, Lincoln, or Thomas Jefferson.  Drink lots of coffee.

Ferde never wrote anything else to compare with Canyon, though my second-favorite Grofe suite has to be Niagara Falls.  Followed by Valley of the Sun.  And the Mississippi, Death Valley, and Hudson River suites are charming works. Avoid this man's piano concerto and the awful World's Fair and Aviation suites, though his 1938 Trylon and Perisphere (aka, Black Gold) deserves serious attention.  It has Grofe functioning in a Honegger-lite fashion, and superbly.

Oh, and if you come across a fake-stereo copy of this LP, put it back in the row.

Happy Fourth!

DOWNLOAD: Grand Canyon Suite--Andre Kostelanetz and His Orch. (Harmony HL 7395; 1966--orig. recorded in 1941)

Lee

Hit Records filler/B-sides: A fun (and, hopefully, enlightening) survey

 

Wow--Blogger has made things even more of a hassle.  It has added an utterly pointless extra step to uploading images from a PC.  There's some reverse-logic idea that increasing the number of necessary steps is somehow helpful to the user.  After all, the greater the number of options, the better.  In reality, no one wishes to be deluged with choices.  An intelligent scheme would consist of basic options, with advanced choices accessible upon demand.  Options are not options when they are forced upon us.  (Argggh...)

But, to the matter at hand... A visitor suggested a post devoted to the filler/B-side numbers released on Hit Records (a group which included Spar, Country & Western Hits, and Modern Sound), and this struck me as a great idea.  And this project proved to be unusually challenging (I have a MAGIX project printout for transferring the composer creds to mp3tag, along with ten pages of notes), and mostly because Hit Records typically failed to include writer credits on its LP releases (in addition to regularly omitting artist credits--even aliases).  And there was the occasional problem of title disagreement--e.g., "Up Town Down Town" vs. "Uptown, Downtown."  Yet, for all that, Spar/Hit Records operated in an infinitely less slapdash manner than most of the other rack-jobber budgets.  And, as we shall hear, it produced some of its own material (no doubt, for the benefit of direct-to-the-label royalties), and produced it well.  Its filler numbers were clearly rush jobs, but they were never less than professional and beautifully arranged and engineered.  My opinion of Hit Records "filler" has grown much kinder over the years, and my affection for the label's budget hit knockoffs has increased at the same time/rate.  Way back when, I regarded HR product as an amusing record-collecting sideline, with the occasional superb performance entering the picture--such as the "Boll Weevil"'s amazing My Bonnie.  But I've come to host high regard for HR's entire bag of offerings.

But enough intro.  Today's playlist features songs by HR personnel, most of whom were industry insiders.  Some of whom had "real" chart hits.  I decided to leave the composer tags as they appeared on HR/Spar/Country & Western Hits singles, save for shortening "J. Norris and K. Richards" to "Norris-Richards." N-R were actually Hit Records co-founder William Beasley and his wife Dorothy J.  And there was Connie Landers, who wrote and recorded as "Connie Dee" (and who was songwriter-credited at least once as "Connie Sanders"--a typo?).  Her Brill Building-esque Once a Cheater and her amusing heartbreaker ballad, Ring Telephone are first-rate filler.

Back to the Beasleys, their forte was in the area of country and western, and they wrote at least one successful number for Brenda Lee.  Their The Spirit of This Land was the very first HR single which had me wondering, "Was this an actual hit?"  No, it's a very skillful imitation of a type of conservative patriotic paean--expertly stilted, with a narrator who sounds ready to break into laughter.  Like the instrumental Tower Suite (also by JN and KR), which appeared in single form as the flip of Theme From Peyton Place, it was penned to function as a B-side complement to the hit number, and in that context, it's a gem.  Of the country numbers written on the spot by the Beasleys, I have to choose Broken Hearted, Sad and Blue as the winner, if only because of its bounce-the-stylus energy.  Their best number in this list, though, may be I'm So Lonely, an effort which channels British Invasion rock, Gene Pitney, and Neil Diamond.  

There are only (let's see) three Bobby Russell numbers--all good, with Big Windy City impressing me the most, despite the naïve and generic quality of its lyrics.  It certainly conveys the appropriate mood, and the Bacharach-esque hook is delightful and superbly ear-catching.  It hardly rises to the level of Goffin/King, but then there wasn't the necessary window of opportunity.

I have a special affection for Bergen White's efforts--in part, because of some ingenious turns of phrase.  For example, the payoff close to Another Year, the ultimate life-gone-wrong country saga.  And his hilarious, Roger Miller-esque Pay It No Mind takes Miller's sardonic-commentary style to the level of harsh mockery, with the singer/narrator delighting in the misfortunes of the protagonist, who can't so much as get out of bed without dooming his day.  Bergen's You're the Only Girl for Me is an interesting take on the Four Seasons/Jan and Dean sound, and You Make The Decisions is minimalist gold.  Back to Bobby Russell, the masterful Come On On may be the all-time best could-have-been-a-hit filler HR track.  It's astonishing that so much care was devoted to a "Let's sneak in one of our own" project.

Brilliance in context is nevertheless brilliance.  (And you may quote me.)  Coughing up acceptable filler material on short notice is an epic challenge, and the HR folks routinely met it with impressive prowess.  Here are twenty-five goodies.

DOWNLOAD: Hit Records Filler

I'm So Lonely (Norris-Richards)--Dee and Robert

You're the Only Girl for Me (Bergen White)--The Roamers

Come Back to Me (N-R)--William Randolph and His Orchestra

I'm on My Way (N-R)--Jack White

Come On On (Bobby Russell)--Dee and Robert

Broken Hearted, Sad and Blue (J. Norris)--Ed Hardin

Pardon My Living (B. White)--Bob Adams

You're Not the Same Now (B. White)--Fred Hess

Never Forget Me (B. White)--The Roamers

Another Year (B. White)--Bergen White

Once a Cheater, Always a Cheater (Connie Sanders)--Connie Dee
Pay It No Mind (Bergen White)--Fred York

A Broken Hearted Fool Like Me (N-R)--Fred York

Where You Been (Bobby Russell)--Charles Baker

Don't Come Too Late (N-R)--Bobby Russell

You Can't Trust a Friend (B. White)--Lisa French

Big Windy City (Bergen White & Bobby Russell)--Fred Hess

Hearts Are Funny Things (N-R)--Bobby Brooks

Ring Telephone (Connie Landers)--Connie Dee

That's All That's Important Now (N-R)--Ed Hardin

The Spirit of This Land (N-R)--Charlie Rogers

Uptown, Downtown (B. Russell)--Fred York

You Make the Decisions (Bergen White)--The Chellows

You Were Gone (B. Russell)--John Preston

Tower Suite (N-R)--William Randolph and the Music City Orch.

Lee

Who among us doesn't dig "That West Coast Sound"? (Modern Sound 561; 1966)

 

You have a choice: I Love that West Coast Sound, by The Jalopy Five or That West Coast Sound, by The Jalopy Five.  That is, you can go by the front jacket or the back.  And, of course, some of these are not by the Jalopy Five (a Hit Records alias, anyway), which means I'll have to track down the original artists and dates by referring to the Hit Records singles.  Easily accomplished with 45cat and Discogs.

And, good grief, Blogger must be on its last legs.  It took me several minutes to get those two images in their proper place AND properly enlarged.  Blogger simply doesn't want to cooperate.  Oh, and I'd initially inserted the cover and label images, in that order.  And Blogger displayed them in reverse order.  Of course.  And, in other news, I've taken to snapping "live" label shots, since my new Epson printer has, at best, a one-centimeter depth of field.  If I want in-focus images, I have to go the Canon route.  But I shall spare no effort to get these fake sounds to you.  For real.  That is my (more or less) sacred pledge.

The liner notes discuss "The British Sound," "The Detroit Sound," and "The Nashville Sound," noting in delightfully redundant fashion that "each is distinctive within itself."  That's like calling something "unique in its singular way."  Anyway, in case you weren't paying attention, this LP features "that" West Coast sound, and my first response was, "Cute blonde."  My second response was, "Hit Records never did a good job with the California sound."  And, as a rule, it did not--Its Beach Boys knockoffs are typically lacking.  But here we have some actually decent imitations of Jan and Dean, the B. Boys, and the Mama's and the Papa's, as the latter (for some reason) called themselves.

Did producer (and California Street cowriter) William Beasley say, "Let's assemble our more passable efforts in this area"?  Was that premeditated, or is the track selection just a lucky accident?  Whichever the case, Sloop John B is a totally acceptable copy of the Beach Boys hit, Surfer Girl (even though it changes the melody in spots!) features unusually tight Hit Records harmonies, and Ride the Wild Surf beautifully captures the Jan and Dean sound.  I'm impressed.  California Girl(s), on the other hand, falls in the middle range of okay.  It's hardly the worst budget Beach Boys copy, but the famously awful Pickwick effort, The Surfsiders Sing the Beach Boys Songbook (1965), set the budget-knockoff bar at a record low!  (An LP best experienced with a licensed therapist on hand.)

The filler tracks are fun--California Street in particular (cowritten by producer William Beasley as "Richards").  And Bergen White's She's Come of Age has more than a slight touch of Brian Wilson, meaning that Bergen, as usual, took his pen-a-flip-side-as-quickly-as-possible job seriously.  I really should devote a post sometime to Hit Records filler numbers.

And I took the liberty of correcting California Girl (maybe the cover model is that very girl), though I otherwise retained the credits as displayed.  At least Hit Records' errors were consistent from front to back, and label to cover.  There's a certain integrity, there.

Really, much better than we might expect from a dollar-bin special.  And the engineering, as ever, is gorgeous.  Below I've given the 45 rpm credits and dates, though all the mp3 tags read "The Jalopy Five," and the composer fields are blank--both in concurrence with Modern Sound's layout (or lack thereof).

DOWNLOAD: I Love That West Coast Sound (Modern Sound 561; 1966)

Sloop John B--Jalopy Five, 1966

Monday Monday--Jalopy Five, 1966

California Dreaming--Jalopy Five, 1966

California Girls--The Chellows, 1965

California Street (Dorothy Jean and William Beasley)--Johnny and the Jalopy Five, 1965

Ride the Wild Surf--The Roamers, 1964

Little Old Lady From Pasadena--The Roamers, 1964

Hey Little Cobra--The Roamers, 1964

Surfer Girl--Jalopy Five, 1963

She's Come of Age (B. White)--Bobby Brooks, 1965

Lee

Various Artists, Part 2, for May 2024--Red Prysock, The Regents, June Valli, Tony Bennett, and Samba Voodoo!

Today is my annual "No way I can be that old!" day (67, this time around), so I'm celebrating with more various artists.  That is to say, with another various-artists post.  "More various artists" is kind of awkward--it could suggest artists who are more various, whatever that might mean.  And, of course (and for what it's worth), variety can only exist within a group of things.  We had a manager who bragged that the company has "many diverse individuals," and I wondered if he meant people who exist simultaneously in multiple dimensions.

So... after I assembled this list, I searched for a common theme or two.  Or three.  As in, are there any?  And one theme is early rock and roll--The Dreamers' 535 (with that wonderful electric guitar distortion that graced so many blues and doo wop sides, and which Stan Freberg irreverently described as the "Howdy Doody button"); the Regents' Barbara Ann B-side, I'm So Lonely; and the honking-sax magic (always wanted to type that) of Red Prysock on the Mercury label, from the 1957 LP The Beat.  This is where rock and roll and R&B become the same thing--In fact, the honking-tenor-sax r&r of Hal Singer, Big Jay McNeely, Wild Bill Moore, and other 1940s rockers was enjoying a second wave in the wake of Elvis, or whatever I just typed.  If I'd had it handy, I would have snuck in Harry James' 1939 Back Beat Boogie, which would have fit like a glove with latter-'50s instrumental rock.  But my 45 rpm copy is stuck away someplace in my maze of 45 boxes.  In the closet.  Behind the row of records blocking the door.  In there somewhere.  Laughing at me.

And, speaking of rock and roll finding its way into the pop charts (we were?), we have some excellent examples of "pop" vocalists helping toward that objective, with both June Valli and Guy Mitchell touching on the style.  First, June (whom I've referred to at this blog as RCA's "pre-Elvis Elvis") with a rocking Strictly Sentimental and a habanera/tresillo (3-3-2 beat) Leiber-Stoller number, Will You Love Me Still, which anticipates Brill Building pop to come.  Very Under the Boardwalk-esque, even if Jerry and Mike had nothing to do with Boardwalk.  Then, Guy Mitchell plunging into rockabilly on Crazy With Love, the B-side of the magnificent 1956 Singing the Blues.  Didn't anyone notice, at the time, that Guy had taken that plunge?  Guy almost, but not quite, wandered into the same zone the next year with Hoot Owl, the flip of Rock-a-Billy.  Fourthly, Eileen Barton with a rock and roll remake of 1950's If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake.  (And that 3-3-2 beat, again.)

And there's the theme of Boomer Top 40 rendered in an EZ vein (yes, you can quote me), an area often covered here.  Namely, Paul Mauriat with a delightful beautiful-music rendition of Penny Lane (maybe the best EZ Beatles cover of all time), plus two selections which reveal the soul of Mauriat: In the Midnight Hour and I Heard It Through the Grapevine.  These can be regarded as skillfully rendered massed-strings soul, and therefore ingenious.  Or they can be regarded as skillfully rendered massed-strings soul, and therefore hilarious.  Same premise, two parametrically opposite conclusions.

In a category by itself, there's Jackie Lee's wonderful 1961 remake of Isle of Capri Boogie, with a Mysterioso organ to out-Mysterioso 96 Tears. A wonderful almost-rock-and-roll performance which ranks with the almost-rhythm-and-blues of Jimmy Dorsey's 1957 So Rare.  And I'll stand by whatever I just typed.

More mellow sounds with Engelbert Humperdinck delivering an excellent rendition of the Carole King-Gerry Goffin Yours Until Tomorrow (1967); the great Ray Charles Singers with their smash hit Al-Di-La, plus an interesting take on Do You Want to Know a Secret--one of the first adult-pop covers of the Fab Four; Freddy Martin and the terrific Artie Wayne presenting an ultra-smooth rendering of the Chopin-derived A Song to Remember (1945); and Martin's semi-mellow 1950 Misirlou, one of the very best big band/pre-surf interpretations of this Middle Eastern classic.

And three selections in a showtune vein: Don Cherry's I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine, Jo Stafford's If I Were a Bell (from Guys and Dolls), and a spectacular semi-Kostelanetz helping of Vincent Youman's Great Day by Russ Case and His Orchestra. Had Andre mixed swing with strings, he'd have sounded like this 1954 recording.

Carmen Cavallaro's 1951 Deep Night returns, and it's pure exotica, even if it's not from the islands.  It has that sound, nonetheless--the flute, female chorus, and the Afro-Latin rhythms do the trick.  Cavallaro, as always, is fabulous.  "Samba Voodoo With Female Sextette," explains the jacket.

Oh, and a 1959 Jean Goldkette recreation of My Pretty Girl, from the original charts (says the liner notes).  For once, a "'20s in hi-fi" attempt that sounds like the '20s in hi-fi.  To be fair, though, the Peep Hole 8 (!) deliver a not too anachronistic Diga Diga Doo from the 1958 Pickwick LP The 20's Roar Back.  So, the themes are: Retro 1920s, Samba Voodoo, showtunes, early r&r, "pop" which touches on r&r, and Jackie Lee's class-by-itself Isle of Capri Boogie.  Plus, Tony Bennett, Don Cherry, and a great 1956 rendition of Alfred Newman's 1931 Street Scene.

DOWNLOAD: Various Artists, Part 2--Red Prysock, June Valli, Guy Mitchell

I'm So Lonely--The Regents, 1961

How-Ja Do, How-Ja Do, How-Ja Do (If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake)--Eileen Barton, 1955

Strictly Sentimental--June Valli With Joe Reisman's Orch., 1957

Will You Love Me Still--Same

A Song to Remember--Freddy Martin Orch., V: Artie Wayne, 1945

Misirlou--Same, V: Stuart Wade, piano: Barclay Allen

Foot Stompin'--Red Prysock and His Orch., 1957

535--Dreamers, 1955

Crazy With Love--Guy Mitchell With Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1956

In the Midnight Hour--Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra, 1969

I Don't Care If the Sun Don't Shine--Don Cherry With Ray Conniff and His Orch., 1956

If I Were a Bell--Jo Stafford With Paul Weston and His Orch., 1953

Yours Until Tomorrow--Engelbert Humperdinck, 1967

Al-Di-La--The Ray Charles Singers, 1964

Great Day--Russ Case and His Orch. and Chorus, 1954

Street Scene--Joe Lipman and His Orchestra, 1956

Deep Night (Samba Voodoo With Female Sextette)--Carmen Cavallaro

My Pretty Girl--Jean Goldkette and His Orchestra, 1959

Penny Lane--Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra, 1967

I Heard It Through the Grapevine--Same, 1969

Isle of Capri Boogie--Jackie Lee, 1961

Happiness Street (Corner Sunshine Square)--Tony Bennett, 1956

He's a Real Gone Guy--Red Prysock and His Orch., 1957

Hoot Owl--Guy Mitchell With Jimmy Carroll, 1957

Diga Diga Doo--The Peephole 8, 1958

Lee

Continental Juke Box No. 1--Wally Stott, The Melody Sisters, Michel Legrand, Giampiero Boneschi!

 

This made-in-Holland ten-incher showed up during my latest Goodwill trip, and how could I pass up that fabulous cover?  And, it turns out, the music is terrific, too, especially if you're in the mood for a Sh-Boom cover by a popular Dutch singing duo (the Melody Sisters).  I'm giving some thought to posting Sh-Boom at Lee's Fake Hits (YouTube), except that it doesn't really qualify as such, since it's not a budget knockoff.  Still, I could stretch the rules--it's my channel, after all.  

And I just now realized I had misread "Wally Stott" as "Wally Scott," which explains why I couldn't find anything out about her, despite conducting what I thought was a thorough Google search.  Seems Stott was Angela Morley, born Walter Stott in England and working as an arranger and recording director for the Dutch Philips label.  She became a transgender woman in 1972.  Here, Stott's orchestra performs the Dave Cavanaugh number The Cat From Coos Bay.  As a composer, Stott/Morley was best known for The Goon Show, The Little Prince, and Watership Down.

And... an excellent mood music rendering of Charlie Chaplin's Smile by Orchestra Michel Legrand, as the credit reads.  Then, the internationally successful Dutch Swing College Band with Muskrat Ramble in excellent hi-fi mono.  Thus ends Side 1.

Side 2 opens with Trinidadian pianist Winifred Atwell's Let's Have a Party, featuring the 1920s hits If You Knew Susie..., The More We Are Together, and That's My Weakness Now, plus Knees up Mother Brown, a British music hall classic credited here as a folk (traditional) number.  Mother Brown was memorably recorded by Merv Griffin with Freddy Martin in 1950, most probably as a follow-up to Merv's smash hit, I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts.

Then, Danish violinist Sven Asmussen's orchestra and chorus with Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do It Again, covering (far as I can determine) The Four Tunes.  After which, harmonicist Jean Wetzel performs The Touch (from Touches pas au Grisbi) with Jean Wiener and His Trio.  Things conclude with Giampiero Boneschi directing the Melodicon Children Chorus in Aveva un bavero, with the Children sounding more like over-18s.  Come 1970, Boneschi became known for his electronic music.  At least one of his electronic pieces (The Latest Fashion) was utilized as soundtrack music for Space: 1999.

DOWNLOAD: Continental Juke Box No. 1, 1954 (?)

The Cat From Coos Bay--The Wally Stott Orchestra

Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)--The Melody Sisters and Black and White w. Orchestral Accompaniment

Smile (From the film "Modern Times")--Orchestra Michel Legrand

Muskrat Ramble--Dutch Swing College Band

Let's Have a Party: If You Knew Susie.../The More We Are Together/That's My Weakness Now/Knees up Mother Brown--Winifred Atwell and Her "Other Piano"

Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do It Again--Svend Asmussen and His Orch. and Chorus

The Touch--Jean Wetzel, Harmonica With Jean Wiener and His Trio

Aveva un bavero--The Melodicon Children Chorus, Dir. Giampiero Boneschi

(Philips B 10156 R)

Lee

Various Artists for May, 2024: Piano Red, Donna Lynn, The Checkers, Pat Boone, Leadbelly, Tony Bennett, more!

 

No particular theme to this VA playlist: From John D. Loudermilk to Piano Red (aka, Willie Lee Perryman, aka Dr. Feelgood), from Villa-Lobos to Julius Fucik to Carole King, and from Si Zentner to Leadbelly to Pat Boone, it's pretty much any LP track or single I've looked at recently and said, "This would make a nice post."  Or a portion thereof.  Any VA playlist featuring the Checkers, Larry Williams, and Tony Bennett is (in my utterly unbiased viewpoint) a playlist to be cherished.

In addition to Bud Shank's jazz take on I Am the Walrus, there are at least three other Beatles links: 1) Donna Lynn's version of I'd Much Rather Be With the Girls (originally Boys), a Keith Richard-Andrew Loog Oldham number slightly controversial for its day in sexual-orientation terms, with the Stones (along with the Dave Clark Five) having been maybe the Beatles' chief rivals, and with Donna Lynn's chief claim to fame her Top 100 novelty, My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut, and 2) Pat Boone's 1965 Say Goodbye, penned by Burt Bacharach and Hal David--the link being the Burt song included (along with Carole King's Chains) on the Beatle's first album and 3) Larry William's 1958 classic Dizzy, Miss Lizzy, which is usually associated with the Beatles' cover from Beatles VI (U.S.) and Help! (UK).  Then, 4) the Dr. Feelgood (Piano Red) recording of Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo, which the artist had recorded earlier (in 1950), and which dates back at least as far as 1929.  The Beatles connection?  Right String was recorded in 1958 by Carl Perkins, who played a huge role in the early sound of the Beatles.  Our four Fab Four connections.  Well, five, actually (including Shanks).  And a sixth, if we want to get technical: 6) Leadbelly's 1944 In New Orleans, a bordello ballad better known as House of the Rising Sun (often, with the female narrator switching gender). Sun, of course, was a huge hit for another major British Invasion act, The Animals.  Is there a seventh link?

Yes, a desperate one: The fact that Tony Bennett and The Beatles both abbreviate to T.B.  No, I won't go there.

The other gems: Susie's House, an excellent rockabilly number by John (Tobacco Road) Loudermilk on Columbia during Mitch Miller's reign (!), and the early (1953) doo-wop classics Without a Song and The White Cliffs of Dover (the versions, not the numbers)--a King single thrifted by me maybe 25 years ago, while the Tommy/Jimmy Dorsey Bell label Marie and Green Eyes single was originally thrifted by me about 50-plus years (!) ago.  That copy has since been replaced.  

I was a huge Tommy Dorsey fan as a kid, and I remember, when I finally thrifted an RCA Victor TD 78 set, deciding that these 1954 Bell remakes were far superior to the originals (even prior to hearing the 1941 J.D. Green Eyes).  Had I heard the originals first, maybe I'd be declaring the newer versions inferior.  We'll never know.  And my ATFV (Alternate Time Flow Viewer) is on the fritz.

The 1962 Dr. Feelgood (Piano Red) Right String... sounds very much like the same artist's 1950 rendition, the main difference being the louder dynamics here.  As for the flip--What's Up, Doc--we have some of the most blatantly suggestive lyrics since Howlin' Wolf's Mr. Highway Man.  Red's two 1957 RCA Victor sides, taken from a promo EP (with June Valli on the flip!) have Perryman's style tweaked to sound like the then-current r&r.  It didn't take much tweaking.

Don't expect an avant-garde jazz rendering of I Am the Walrus--It's nice, but more like the lite or smooth variety.  And from the Pickwick Happy Time label, and thrifted in the wrong jacket, there's Julius Fucik's classic circus march, Entry of the Gladiators (as Gladiators March) played at an amazing tempo and recorded without much treble--and I see that I ripped it under the proper title.  I'd correct this, but that would mean having to redo the mp3 tagging and image-inserting.  Ain't modern tech amazing?

Also, two cool TV spy classics, with (who else?) the Harmonicats giving us the Avengers theme and Si Zentner with a terrific rendering of Pete Rugolo's Fugitive title music.  Then, Bacharach and David in pop-folk mode with 1958's Ooooh, My Love, beautifully crooned by Vic Damone--and, for contrast, a rocking 1955 version of Bernice Petkere's 1933 Close Your Eyes by Tony Bennett.  Next, in the further service of disunity, Andre Kostelanetz with an excellent reading of Heitor Villa-Lobos's 1930 The Little Train of the Caipira, and Jan Garber's Orchestra in an outstanding 1961 rendition of the Dixieland classic, That's a Plenty, in plenty stereo from a Motorola/Decca demo LP (which hawks "the phantom third channel").  Plenty started life as a 1914 ragtime piano solo by Lew (Charmaine) Pollack.

DOWNLOAD: Various Artists for May 2024

Susie's House--John Loudermilk, 1958

Wild Fire--Piano Red, 1957

Rock, Baby--Same

Devil or Angel--The Clovers, 1965 (Lana Records remake)

Marie--Tommy Dorsey and His Orch., Feat. Jimmy Dorsey, V: Gordon Polk, 1954

Green Eyes--Same, V: Johnny Amoroso, Lynn Roberts, 1954

Ooooh, My Love--Vic Damone With Jimmy Carroll and His Orch., 1958

The Little Train of the Caipira--Andre Kostelanetz and His Orch.

Gladiators March--Unknown (Pickwick)

Say Goodbye--Pat Boone, 1965

Until Yesterday--Tony Bennett With Percy Faith and His Orch., 1953

The Fugitive Theme--Si Zentner and His Orch., 1964

Theme from The Avengers--Jerry Murad's Harmonicats, 1967

In New Orleans--Leadbelly, 1944

That's A Plenty--Jan Garber and His Orch., 1961

I'd Much Rather Be With the Girls--Donna Lynn, 1965

Without a Song--The Checkers, 1953

Dizzy, Miss Lizzy--Larry Williams, 1958

I Am the Walrus--Bud Shank, 1968

Randy--Earl-Jean, 1964

Close Your Eyes--Tony Bennett, 1955

Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo--Dr. Feelgood and the Interns, 1962

What's Up, Doc--Same

White Cliffs of Dover--The Checkers, 1953

Lee

Repost: The Dorsey Touch--Maury Laws' Chorus and Orch., 1957

NOTE: My April 18, 2018 text, with a new link.  Thanks for musicman1979 for reminding me to revive this:

So, why did I buy this Goodwill album?  Well, after going through eight or nine boxes, I'd picked a small group of LPs and 45s.  My brother-in-law was standing next to me.  I thought this jacket was kind of cool (it is--surprisingly so for a cheapo label), so I held it up and said, "Do I want this?"  "Yes, you want this," he replied.  So I bought it.

The label is Hollywood, and here Hollywood is pulling the standard budget-label read-the-smaller-print scam: a big (colorized?) picture of the famous artists being exploited, the artists' name in big letters ("Dorsey"), and no Tommy or Jimmy Dorsey present on the disc.  Surprise!!  Just Maury Laws' Orchestra and Chorus, which does a surprisingly decent job recreating the Tommy Dorsey sound (7 to 8 on a scale of 10).  (I don't think any of these were originally Jimmy Dorsey sides, but correct me if I'm wrong.)  Surprisingly decent, because the budget couldn't have been very sky-high.  In all, a fun LP with a few outstanding performances.  My only complaint: some truncated arrangements, including my two all-time favorite TD tracks: Marie and Sunny Side of the Street.  How could they?  But there's an excellent Opus No. 1, so maybe I can forgive this lapse in $1.98-LP wisdom.  This junk-label album far exceeded my low expectations, so I'll give it an A.  Besides, the cover rocks.

Biggest surprise: the very decent sound.  I combined left and right for fabulous results.  Not usually, but sometimes the poverty-row record companies get it right.  Well, except for putting the jacket's track listings in the correct order, but not doing so is a proud budget label tradition.  These folks have standards to uphold.

DOWNLOAD:  The Dorsey Touch--Maury Laws' Chorus and Orch., 1957

Getting Sentimental Over You

Royal Garden Blues
Boogie Woogie
Song of India
Swanee River
Marie
Will You Still Be Mine/Once in a While
Yes Indeed (Sy Oliver)
Sunny Side of the Street
I'll Never Smile Again
Opus No. 1 (Sy Oliver)
This Love of Mine/Embraceable You/There Are Such Things
Quiet Please (Sy Oliver)
Getting Sentimental Over You

Prepared and Directed by Maury Laws (Hollywood LPH-136, 1957)

Lee

Sunday evening gospel: The Conveyors Quartet--Lovest Thou Me... More Than These?) (Crusade LP 228-02)

 

Don't let the cover scare you: This is terrific country-gospel quartet singing, and this quartet has already seen time at this blog, though the earlier link is now kaput, thanks to Workupload.  But here are some group pics from the previous post (alliteration unintended), plus my explanation...

Quoting me: "We can assume we're seeing the four singers plus three musicians. (I've never understood why 'musicians' doesn't include singers. It should.) I don't think we have a family group this time, though (going by another Conveyors LP), it seems the group was headed by a husband and wife team--Ardeth and Kenny Dykhoff. I can't quite pick them out in the above photo, but here they are, from their Just a Little Talk With Jesus LP. Seated is pianist Marilyn Gallaway."

Life would be so much easier if gospel LPs simply listed the singers.  Oh, well.

Anyway, an excellent collection of fine Gaither numbers, with three genuinely old oldies: There's a Great Day Coming (1886), My Saviour's Love (1905), and How Great Thou Art, whose melody consists of a Swedish folk tune.  Hence, year unknown.  However, 1949 is the year that Stuart K. Hine wrote the hymn text, as inspired by Carl Gustav Boberg hymn O Store Gut, whose words became associated with this melody in the late 1800s.  

I think this is the first slow-tempo rendition of My Saviour's Love experienced by my ears, and it's quite effective.  Surprisingly so.  And the balance between ballads and "fast" songs is exactly right.  And the 1942 mega-classic Jesus Is Coming Soon is always wonderful to hear.  It's near-impossible to render badly.

The two chief virtues of this LP (seeing as how the bass and first tenor aren't the most effective soloists) is the superb group blend and the amazing stereo fidelity.  Honestly, this could be a digital effort.  (Apologies to analog-philes.  Of which I'm one, come to think of it!)  Actually, I'm a compromised analog-phile, since I prefer to save analog sources digitally, so that I can apply EQ, filtering, etc.  So, I'm a (let's see) semi-analog-phile.  Yeah, that sounds right.

A saxophone and harmonica make their appearances throughout the LP.  Both provide a nice, novel touch.

Excellent gospel, and I'm using Google Drive for the first time.  I hope it works out--As far as I know, I made the file available to everyone who has the link.  Let me know if there are any issues.


DOWNLOAD: Lovest Thou Me... More Than These?--The Conveyors Quartet (Crusade LP S 228-02)

Lovest Thou Me (Moe Than These)

Daddy Sang Bass

Something Worth Living For

A Beautiful Life

Redeeming Love

Now I Have Everything

Going Home

My Saviour's Love

Joy in the Camp

How Great Thou Art

Jesus Is Coming Soon

There's a Great Day Coming

Lee

A (more or less) Tribute to The Fabulous Dorseys (Palace M-707, 1957)

 

My guess is that (Jaques) Fontanna's A Tribute to the Fabulous Dorseys is the least of the budget cash-ins--er, salutes--to the late Jimmy and Tommy to appear in the latter half of 1957 (though Coronet's effort seems unusually tacky, even by dollar-bin, er, standards).  Jimmy had left us in June, 1957, and brother Tommy had died in November of 1956.  So, it was a race to the racks.  Other low-to-no-budget tribute LPs appeared on Broadway, Hollywood, Sutton, Omega, Pickwick, Tops, Crown, Somerset, and of course Promenade (SPC).  Not to mention the tribute packages on RCA (naturally), Mercury, and other "actual" labels.  Behold the bargain batch, in part:

In September, 1957, Jimmy Dorsey had a decent-sized (#39) posthumous hit with June Night, whose absence here leads me to guess that this rush job was sped onto the (tape) spindles circa August.  My reasoning: The early-1957 Jimmy Dorsey hit (a huge one) So Rare is included, but not June Night, the posthumous Top 40 hit (of September) for the same leader.  That would put this release date at circa August, 1957.  Otherwise, why wouldn't Palace/Masterseal/Remington have added a junk-job June Night, too?  Of course, I'm operating under the notion (delusion?) that the cheap operations engaged in any form of planning whatsoever.

Most of today's twelve tracks were associated with Tommy Dorsey: Boogie Woogie, Swing Low, Marie, Swanee River, Opus No. 1, I'll Never Smile Again, Song of India, and (of course) I'm Getting Sentimental Over You.  Jimmy: Breeze and I, So Rare, and Green Eyes.  As for the clunky Sy Oliver-esque Battle Hymn of the Republic, I can't establish a Dorsey connection, save that the number also appears on the Promenade and Broadway Tributes. Maybe its Dorsey association is a rack-jobber urban legend.

The unidentified vocalists aren't bad, despite a painful out-of-range moment in Breeze and I, and, on Green Eyes, a Helen O'Connell imitator whose headphones must have been on tape delay.  She needed to drop the inflections and do another take, but extra takes cost money, so...

The Palace label is related to Remington, Masterseal, and Paris, but discovering this factoid at Discogs is an exciting journey.  At Discogs, we learn that Palace's parent label was Buckingham Records, whose parent label was Masterseal, whose parent label was Remington, whose parent label was Remington Records, Inc.  The latter evidently being the end (or top) of the lineage.

So... Palace's parent-parent-parent label was Remington Records, Inc.  And there were a number of Remington Records, Inc. sublabels (and sub-sublabels), including the Remington sublabel Paris International, Inc. the parent label of Paris.  Whatever I just typed.

The album's chief--and most endearing--shortcomings include musicians either not ideally suited (or ideally rehearsed) to tackle the charts, a generally awkward feel, a few inept intros (Green Eyes, especially), and the total bombing of the Helen O'Connell slow-swing portion of Eyes.  At first, I thought the problem was with the ersatz Helen, but in fact she's fine--almost terrific--but the band, for some ungodly reason, is playing a Bolero-style rhythm which clashes with the singer's swing inflections.  In the Annals of Dumb Band Chart Choices, this moment should be graced with its own special display.

And I love So Rare, maybe because it's the essence of a cheap-label knockoff: "Well, we barely got through that one.  Great job!"  It has "cash-in" written all over it (luckily, my Spin Cleaner took care of that, though I had to change the water), and it's delightfully almost-there.  The best parts of the J. Dorsey original were probably the dramatic opening and closing sections--here, they're these moments are stripped of their inspiration via a lazy transcription.  Why I find a dumbed-down So Rare so cool is so puzzling to me.  I guess that, once bitten by the junk-label bug, there's no cure.

Oh, and there's the dreadful vocal chorus on Marie--no fault of the singer, but more the draggy backing of the percussionist, who sounds like he's 1) half-awake, 2) angry at the gig and thus determined to ruin any semblance of swing, 3) both, or 4) listening to the orchestra on delayed feed.  But had this album been competently carried out, it would be just another middling memorial of the dollar-bin kind, and not nearly as diverting (even as it diverts from the tone of the originals).  And, again, I'd have to pick the two-different-pages close to Green Eyes (a fitting sendoff) as the most genuinely hilarious moment here.  And, again, the tragedy is that the singer nails Helen O'Connell's classic vocal, only to be tripped up by the backing. The insertion of Ravel was clearly a choice made while rushed or drunk--or both.  At any rate, there's too much rubato in the O'Connell-esque vocal to allow for a strict triplet backing, but the mark is so memorably missed, it's one of the all-time best budget botches in my book.

The LP condition is pretty iffy, forcing me--for once--to bypass VinylStudio's declicker filter, since it was removing tiny portions of the audio.  First time ever, and I imagine it's because the mastering was marginal to start with--it may not sound that much better in a clean copy, but I'm too cheap to find out.  I manually removed the worst of the clicks and pops: What remains adds junky provenance to this labor of quick and cheap profit.  But I'll need to at least get my hands on the SPC and Pickwick tribute knockoffs (unless I already have them), if only to hear their versions of So Rare, though I imagine those are too close to competency to begin to compete.  Or, when is viability not a virtue?

DOWNLOAD: A Tribute to the Fabulous Dorseys--(Jacques) Fontanna and His Orch. (Palace M-707; 1957)

Boogie Woogie

Swing Low Sweet Chariot    

Breeze and I

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Marie

Swanee River

Opus No. 1

I'll Never Smile Again

Song of India

So Rare

I'm Getting Sentimental Over You

Green Eyes

Lee

More post-WII nostalgia: "Do You Remember?"--Morton Gould and His Orchestra, 1948

 

Internet sources give 1949 as the release year for this boxed set, despite the 1948 date on the cover.  And, in fact, the matrix numbers for the 78 rpm set reveal that these were recorded in 1947.  Anyway, I'll go with the release year, though I sometimes favor the recording date.  It's always a toss-up.

"Music has many powers, but scarcely any more potent than the ability to evoke in the listener dozens of personal memories, some of them romantic, some amusing, some poignant, and many of them half-forgotten until brought to vivid life by some melody."  In the realm of liner notes, this is a literary device called "filling space with words."  And, yes, half-forgotten memories: After all, On the Sunny Side of the Street was a whole 17 years old come 1947.  Ancient history!

In older times, ironically, people had a greater sense of "old."  "Old" was older.  Nowadays, everything is kept in rotation, and audio recording copyrights go back to 1924, ludicrously.  But, prior to the abolishment of "old," mass-culture products enjoyed a much shorter shelf life.

So, instead of a sing-along or Lawrence Welk/Sammy Kaye/Paul Whiteman rehashing of older material (and, to an extent, older styles), we have the floating-on-air character of mood music, a genre which filled the airwaves of the 1930s and 1940s but which was, for some unknown reason, greeted as a new style by pop music critics when Mantovani's Charmaine made the 1951 charts.  Short-term memory issues?  The critics never listened to the radio during childhood?  

And I suspect, minus any hard evidence, that the classic mood style didn't gel well with the "old songs" format.  And here, the majority of the tracks (much as I like Gould's arrangements) lack much of a beat.  Exceptions: Twelfth Street Rag, practically a send-up of the 1914 Euday Bowman classic, which of course was a monster 1948 hit for Pee Wee Hunt.  Plus, The Sheik of Araby, though the rhythm is hardly pronounced, save in the clever, Grofe-esque opening.

I can find no evidence that this Gould album made the transition a from ML- (Masterworks) status to a CL- (popular) release, which suggests less than excellent sales.  It apparently first appeared as a 78 set, then a 10-incher, and then as the EP set featured today.  But no CL- release in sight.  Just in case it had known life in the CL- series, albeit with a different title, I checked out each track at Discogs.  And zero indication of a popular release.

Oh, and there was this catchy edition of the 10-incher (image swiped from Discogs):

By contrast, nearly all of Ander Kostelanetz's Masterworks material made it into the CL- series.  My guess is that the languid, seamless, just-sit-back-and-take-a-nap approach to the "old songs" didn't fly with the public.  In the realm of faux-1890s-1920s, people wanted a glee-club approach--preferably with a banjo or three--or anything else with a beat.  Even if it meant the "Mickey" (Mickey Mouse) styles of Sammy Kaye, Art Mooney, or Guy Lombardo.  Maybe, especially if.

But I'm very fond of this set, and I like the novelty of the "midnight strings" approach as applied to Whispering, Nola, and The Sheik of Araby (the arrangement of which has more than a hint of exotica). 

DOWNLOAD: Do You Remember?--Morton Gould and His Orchestra, 1948

My Blue Heaven

Nola

Dardanella

On the Sunny Side of the Street

Poor Butterfly

The Sheik of Araby

Whispering

Twelfth Street Rag

(All arrangements by Morton Gould)

Lee

No bummed-out banjos here: "Those Happy Banjos"--Art Mooney and His Orch. (Lion L-70062; 1958)

So, what do we call phrases like "happy banjos"?  Are they an example of anthropomorphizing or personifying?  (Clock ticking; buzzer.)  Right!  Personifying!  In this case, we're talking the happy sound of banjos, which is a human perception/experience.  As personified in the form of "happy banjos."

Aren't you glad I cleared that up?  And this was a problem LP.  Namely, with some bad engineering on Side 1, plus all-over-the-place Googling required to determine the probable recording dates.  I had to do some comparison listening, at least for one track, to determine the precise version.  But the banjos were smiling all the while!

Seven of these tracks were carried over from a 1953 ten-incher called Banjo Bonanza.  The carried-over tracks consist of the entirety of Side 1, plus 1949's Paddlin' Madelin' Home.  For some reason, 1948's Baby Face was not retained. 

So, the four unique-to-this-LP tracks--Barefoot Days, Pal-ing Around With You, In the Twi-Twi-Twilight, and Joshu-ah--were either recorded in 1958, specifically for his LP, or... they're earlier, unreleased tracks.  And there's 1953's "O" (Oh!), which was not on Banjo Bonanza, but was released as a single (45 and 78 rpm).  There'll be a quiz.

The sloppy. slapped-together quality of this enterprise suggests a quick release--namely, a cash-in on Sing Along With Mitch.  The tracks have the same general vibe, obviously, though Miller's choruses were all-male, while only three of these are men-only (Row, Row, Row; "O," and Barefoot Days).  Had all four of the unique-to-this-LP tracks been men-only, we'd have positive proof of a cash-in attempt.  But I'm nevertheless pretty sure.  

It's tempting to classify Mooney's 1947-1949 glee-style releases--Four-Leaf Clover, in particular --as part of a postwar trend of reviving the "old songs" of the 1890s-1920s, but said songs and styles were in a constant state of revival (and re-revival) prior to the late 1940s.  Beatrice Kay's Naughty 90's dates back to 1940, and Frankie Carle recorded versions of Stumbling and Twelfth Street Rag in 1942.  And there's the 1941 John Scott Trotter recording of Kitten on the Keys which I posted back in 2019.  In short, the neo-Dixieland/-Twenties/-ragtime period didn't start with Del Wood or Pee Wee Hunt.  As far as that goes, the novelty numbers of Zez Confrey were the neo-ragtime of their time, and we're talking back to 1920.  And people were assessing Dixieland as old hat as early as 1924!  ("Old hat as early..."?  Hm.)

Maybe the sing-along genre is simply a reflection/acknowledgement of an ongoing style of community singing, which would include glee and close-harmony vocalizing (Barbershop).  From the 1800s to the present, glees, church choirs, and Barbershop choruses have been happening behind the scenes of mainstream popular music, but because it rarely show up on recordings, outside of the private type (one notable exception: 1955's Alabama Jubilee), such music seems hopelessly dated.  And I think I've set the world's record for overthinking the sing-along genre!  But it has me puzzled.

Note: Heartbreaker is a 1948 number inspired by the Ferko String Band (!) and cowritten by Max (Rock Around the Clock) Freedman.  And could that group have inspired Mooney?  (The FSB did a 1948 version of Four-Leaf Clover which could almost pass for the 1947 hit.  Hm.) And Pal-ing Around With You appears to be from 1949.

DOWNLOAD: Those Happy Banjos--Art Mooney and His Orch. (Lion L-70062; 1958)

I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover, 1947

Toot, Toot, Tootsie! (Goodbye), 1949

Somebody Stole My Rose Colored Glasses, 1949

Row, Row, Row, 1949

Heartbreaker, 1952

Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl), 1949

"O" (Oh1), 1953

(Oh Boy!  What a Joy We Had In) Barefoot Days

Pal-ling Around With You

In the Twi-Twi-Twilight

Joshu-ah

Paddlin' Madelin' Home, 1949

Lee