More on Collegiate Sam

I found a basket on my doorstep tonight, and inside was a new version of Collegiate Sam! This one is the version issued on Columbia by (the real) Eddie Walters, who I suspect is the vocalist on my mystery version.

148982-3 Collegiate Sam Eddie Walters Columbia 1969-D
NYC, 6 September 1929: ? Mike Mosiello, trumpet; Andy Sannella. clarinet; ? Ben Selvin, violin; ? Rube Bloom, piano.

http://www.box.net/shared/ur3pce5y9s

Okay...here's where I stick my neck out (drum roll, please!)...I think they're the same singer. Sure, the Columbia is taken a lot slower, but the vocal quirks are very much the same...just a little more frantic on my record.

Here's an "a/b" comparison:

http://www.box.net/shared/ln2b6p46un

Aaaaaah! What do you think???

Oh, the experts at 78-L tell me the composers on our song are Davis and Coots...not Tom Stacks, who's listed in those highly unreliable song lyrics sites...the same sites that have someone spraying flies with cans of Blitz.

And now for something completely different...another excerpt from the Mirth Quakers radio show of 1930...vocalist is Jerry Macy again. But who's in the band? Adrian Rollini? I'll leave that question to the discographers out there.

XE-33603 (excerpt) - Bananas (from Mirth Quakers, Show C, part 3).

Jerry Macy, vocal; Studio orchestra.

http://www.box.net/shared/n1cx5yxjr4

More Addenda! And who is Emily Brown, anyway?

The last record I posted, Collegiate Sam, features an unknown vocalist that I said reminded me somewhat of Eddie Walters. Here's Walters, sitting in with the Charleston Chasers...a pickup band featuring (for this session, anyway) Phil Napoleon Tommy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman.

150537-3 Here Comes Emily Brown Charleston Chasers Columbia 2219-D
NYC, 28 May 1930: Phil Napoleon, trumpet; Tommy Dorsey, trombone; Benny Goodman, clarinet; Arthur Schutt, piano; Ward Lay, bass; Stan King, drums; Eddie Walters, vocal.
http://www.box.net/shared/aidrxe5gqq

I've compared the vocalists on both records...they could be the same, but the differences in miking the singers throw me off a bit.

So...Emily Brown got around a bit...she's the topic of the next record too!

B-17768-1 Miss Brown To You Teddy Wilson Orch Brunswick 7501

NYC, 2 July 1935: Roy Eldridge, trumpet; Benny Goodman, clarinet; Ben Webster, tenor sax; Teddy Wilson, piano; John Trueheart, guitar; John Kirby, bass; Cozy Cole, drums; Billie Holiday, vocal.
http://www.box.net/shared/u8ykq4xfq2

Hmmmmm...two songs about Emily Brown...recorded five years apart. Both feature clarinet by Benny Goodman. Just a weird coincidence, I suppose. (I'm tempted to insert a photo of Clara Blandick here...but I won't.)

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According to the lyrics of a song that keeps popping up at this site, you should never swat a fly. However, shooin' them is apparently permissable.

59925-2 Shooin' Flies Blue Steele Orch Victor 23014
Memphis 15 May 1930, small band (exact personnel uncertain) featuring Kay Austin, vocal.
http://www.box.net/shared/tv2cd9ut87

A terrific side...sadly the only recorded vocal by Ms. Austin.

Another mystery record! Whoopee!

Here's another mystery for y'all...who is this singer? It might remind one of Eddie Cantor, but I'm reminded more of Eddie Walters, a (more-or-less) forgotten ukulele-toting singer who pops up from time to time on dance band records of the early 1930s. I'll probably have to post a Walters side soon to show what he sounded like.

In any case, this record remains a mystery...it's a 12" one-sided piece, pressed by Columbia (mx ST 1416) for some client...a red logo for "Advance Trailers" is present, but is that the client's name? It'd be like getting a Model "A" with no mention of Ford on it...just something that said "Automobiles."

I can't find any film called Collegiate Sam either, so it's doubtful that this is an advance trailer (or at least its soundtrack) to a film of that title... Perhaps this was played between features in a theatre. It's anybody's guess.

In any case, it's fairly hot...with the xylophonist in hyper-drive throughout the record. An accordion is also prominent. Add the trumpet and alto sax...I wonder if this is by The Usual Suspects from the Grey Gull studios (Mike Mosiello, trumpet; Andy Sannella, reeds & steel guitar; Charles Magnante, accordion; George Hamilton Green, xylophone). It could be, but I'm not too sure...the "cordeen" sounds to me more like Cornell Smelser than Magnante. If this was recorded like a typical Grey Gull side (shrill and blasty), I'd have a better idea who it is. The bass sax gallumphing in the background is fun, but it's another fly in the ointment...its presence throws me off the Gull track completely.

ST 1416 Collegiate Sam Unknown singer and band http://www.box.net/shared/2l7e3ujbjm

And the singer (whoever he is) mentions a Whoopee Hat!!



Here's another Whoopee Hat song, from July 1929...featuring Tom Stacks singing with Harry Reser's Six Jumping Jacks.

E30359/0 The Whoopee Hat Brigade Six Jumping Jacks (Harry Reser) http://www.box.net/shared/2d7h79uf9j

So...what is a Whoopee Hat, anyway?

Sometimes known as a Whoopee Cap, it's a beanie with an attitude...usually made of multicolored bits of felt. Apparently they were the rage on campus back then...

They're pretty much forgotten now by everyone...except Mr. Jones:



And, getting back to Cantor, he made Whoopee in more ways than one. But I still don't think my record is of him. Who is it?

Another fiftieth!

Another friend turns fifty this weekend...I asked her what music she'd like me to post. She wanted good 1930s material by Ray Noble (with Al Bowlly, of course) and Benny Goodman.

Here are a few very noble Nobles, all by the famous New Mayfair Orchestra with Al Bowlly vocals:

Standing On The Corner (7 February 1933) http://www.box.net/shared/o9kb1xqcg0

Lying in the Hay (12 January 1933) http://www.box.net/shared/mla1dc5hqe

Wanderer (12 January 1933) http://www.box.net/shared/56h0upyi5o

Brighter Than The Sun (8 December 1932) http://www.box.net/shared/x9140dh06z

And the Goodman material is taken from a couple of broadcasts from the Madhattan Room in the last couple of months of 1937, just before they appeared at Carnegie Hall. The instrumentals pretty much speak (er, roar) for themselves.

Jam Session http://www.box.net/shared/jl16rbkx3o

Life Goes To A Party http://www.box.net/shared/elcn9ud6bg

Here's one that BG never put on record:

That Naughty Waltz http://www.box.net/shared/x34ui0k7y7

Martha Tilton's warbling on Pop-Corn Man is cute...this is the only recording of BG doing this pop song, not counting the ill-fated Victor 78 of the title:

Pop-Corn Man http://www.box.net/shared/23ayylpzdm

...for some reason (one that still remains unclear 70 years later), the record of this song was yanked by Victor before it was officially issued, although a box or two (25 copies each) apparently did sneak out.

For a little surprise, and an interesting contrast, I sign off with two versions of Oh Baby. The first is by the All Star Orchestra, a Nat Shilkret studio band, this time containing Jimmy McPartland, Glenn Miller, and a teenaged Goodman.

Oh Baby! All Star Orchestra http://www.box.net/shared/3vhs8elzdt

The other, from the 1946 BG band, features solos by Mel Powell, Lou McGarrity, and Goodman, who also, er, "sings." The arrangement, spread over two sides of a 12" 78, is interesting, pitting his sextet against the whole band for some nice call-and-response action. Enjoy.

Oh Baby! Benny Goodman Orch http://www.box.net/shared/5r55nhqgd8

Addenda! (Flies a-Muggin'!)

I just obtained a fair print of the 1930 comedy/musical/sci-fi picture, Just Imagine. Sure enough, around halfway through the movie, Frank Albertson and Marjorie White burst into a rousing version of Never Swat A Fly...and here it is (splices and all): http://www.box.net/shared/6a4ivde5ym


My friend Daniel from the She Sings Jazz And More blog kindly sent me the Andy Kirk version of I'se a-Muggin' that I was missing...it's a good jazz version, and it's missing that whole Musical Numbers Game that drove me buggy when I did the original Muggin' post.
http://www.box.net/shared/89ehczcy3r

I also found an English version of Muggin' as well, by Nat Gonella's New Georgians. This one is quite different...Nat ignores the verse completely, sings a quick chorus, then launches into the Musical Numbers Game without even explaining how to do it (One can assume that this version was recorded well after the American versions hit the UK, so the Brits knew how to play already). After another quick chorus, Nat goes into a weird almost tacit version of the Game, starting at One...and Woofing and Uh-ing only when appropriate. So you get two games for the price of one! http://www.box.net/shared/yhzojym9s3

Oh...I have a few interesting posts in the works...one on records connected somehow with Hitchcock movies, and one on (more or less) forgotten line dances. Stay tuned!

~z