Requests from the Providence Record Show 9/30/07

I was at the Providence record show/swap meet last Sunday and ran into a couple of people I had met once before. It seems that on that first meeting I had noticed they were looking at records by baritone saxists and I recommended Serge Chaloff, my personal favorite.

Well, shaw 'nuff, they became Chaloff fans too. But they only know his solo work, primarily those last two albums for Capitol (Boston Blow Up and Blue Serge, both of which are readily available...and have the Zorch Seal of Approval)...and they hadn't really heard any of his work with the Woody Herman band. Not surprising, really...this band flourished during the 1948 Musicians Union recording ban, and didn't leave a lot of issued records (a handful of sides for Columbia and an album or so's worth on Capitol). Thank goodness there are a lot of recorded broadcasts, though.

So, as promised, I'm posting a couple of great broadcast performances of the 1948-9 Woody Herman "Second Herd," aka the Four Brothers Band.

Woody Herman, clarinet, alto sax, and leader; Stan Fishelson, Bernie Glow, Red Rodney, Shorty Rogers, Ernie Royal, trumpets; Bill Harris, Earl Swope, Ollie Wilson, trombones; Bob Swift, bass trombone; Sam Marowitz, alto sax; Al Cohn, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, tenor saxes; Serge Chaloff, baritone sax; Lou Levy, piano; Chubby Jackson, bass; Don Lamond, drums; Terry Gibbs, vibes.

from WMCA Broadcast 20 November 1948: Boomsie (solos, Gibbs, Sims, Chaloff, Levy, Swope, Royal, Rodney and the solo order goes backward in order) A roaring chart by Shorty Rogers, hampered a bit by boxy recording. And the title was also the name of Chubby Jackson's wire-haired terrier. (The Joyce discography calls the song Boomsie, but the LP I got it from calls it Boompsie. Whatever...) http://www.box.net/shared/jtvr0uk7k3

from AFRS "Just Jazz" Broadcast, probably August 1949: Man, Don't Be Ridiculous: a later incarnation of the band (with a few personnel changes), but this was Serge's feature. http://www.box.net/shared/kmck1bqxbq

And from the "ridiculous" to the sublime...I also promised (to someone else I met at the show) to post a couple of sides by one of my favorite vocal groups, Mitchell's Christian Singers. I love how these guys incorporate a lot of dissonant passing tones and slide into "proper" pitch at just the right moment.

23197-1 I Got A Letter From Jesus Mitchell's Christian Singers Vocalion 04418 http://www.box.net/shared/dv5a56vtec

23204-1 Judgment Is Coming Mitchell's Christian Singers Vocalion 04273 http://www.box.net/shared/6mkegshp5x

NYC, 6-7 July 1938: Unaccompanied vocal quartet: William Brown, lead tenor; Julian Davis, tenor; Louis "Panella" Davis, baritone; Sam Bryant, bass.

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

Variations on a >hic!< Theme

We're less than a week away from the Labor Day weekend, a time of year infamous for fender-benders (and far worse), often caused by a driver's overindulgence in spiritus frumenti. There's nothing funny about that, of course...but I'm not here to stand on a soapbox either. There are dozens of anti-alcohol sites and forums that handle the serious side of alcohol abuse quite nicely.

I'm lucky...I've never felt the need to drink to excess (except on rare occasions, when I know I won't be anywhere near large machinery for quite a while). But I have several friends (5 or 6) who did at one time. They're all sober now, having taken the pledge anywhere from ten to twenty years ago.

This post is dedicated to them...

A while back I was listening to an ancient comedy 78, and was surprised to find that it reminded me of a cut I have by comedian Henry Morgan...and there was a Charlie Weaver cut that was related as well...

Mrs. Dugan's Discovery, a story in Irish dialect (in 1908, all minorities were fair game), was written by Ellis Parker Butler, and was published in the August, 1908 issue of Good Housekeeping. There's a reprint of it here: http://www.ellisparkerbutler.info/epb/reading.asp?id=3734 . It's about a lady who finds twelve bottles of champagne in her cellar and decides to dump them, one by one...but as she goes, she drinks one tumblerful from each bottle, with predictable results.

A slightly modified version of the monologue was recorded late in 1916, by Steve Porter:

46199 Steve Porter: Mrs Dugan's Discovery Columbia A-1940
late 1916: Porter, comic monologue.
http://www.box.net/shared/e8cm18li2x

I was quite amazed...this little record seems to have inspired a few comics.

Mrs. Dugan has to sneak up on the bottles and can only catch one by pretending to ignore it. That reminds me of one of my favorite Robert Benchley stories (The Real Public Enemies)...where inanimate objects take on minds of their own. (In order to open a newspaper to a particular page on the open top deck of a bus, he has to exclaim aloud that he really wants to go to another page entirely, then wrestle with the paper to go to the page he intended to go to in the first place.)

Nearly 35 years later, there's this Henry Morgan cut, recorded sometime in the early 1950s on a 10" Riverside LP, and reissued a few years later on a Judson 45:

Henry Morgan: Twelve Bottles
http://www.box.net/shared/2ys5ut0gtp

The similarities astonished me (gosh!).

Finally, a slightly different take on the story...Charlie Weaver (Cliff Arquette) is getting progressively drunker (and sillier) as he waits for his friends to arrive at his New Years Eve party.


Charlie Weaver: Happy New Year, Happy New Year from the 1959 LP Charlie Weaver Sings For His People - Columbia CL 1345
Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 52 times

There...that should holdja for a while. Stay safe and (somewhat) sober, and I'll see you after the holiday.

Hei and Aloha!

Here's a recently-found curiosity...a pleasant-sounding Hawaiian side, found in Columbia's Finnish series. According to http://www.yle.fi/aanilevysto/firs/C16000.htm , a rather comprehensive page dealing with Finnish-American recordings, it dates from 1928. I wonder if the composer, Leo S. Roberts, is the same person who wrote Ching Chong in the 1910s.

109995-1 Hawaijan Yö, Valssi Stein-Ostman Orketeri Columbia 3099-F
NYC, 22 or 23 November 1928: Unknown personnel.
http://www.box.net/shared/jfb7sseb41

I found it particularly interesting that there were little accents played on a vibraphone...fairly early use for that instrument.

The flip side is also rather pleasant, written by Arthur A. Penn (composer of Smilin' Through). To me it sounds like a cross between one of Leroy Shields's melodies for the Hal Roach comedies and maybe a Puccini aria, but translated into Finnish. The vocalist is uncredited.

109997-1 Stein-Ostman Orketeri Ja Laulaja: Aamuinen Koi! Columbia 3099-F
Same as before. http://www.box.net/shared/lkekjqmkn1

According to the same website, they also recorded these at the same session:

109994-2 Merenneito-sottiisi
109996-2 Honolulun kuutamo, valssi (Fred Lawrence)

...so there's another Finnish-Hawaiian hybid 78 out there.

Flogging, Blogging...

As I mentioned in my previous entry, I'm very familiar with the McKinney's Cotton Pickers' version of Never Swat a Fly, which features Bill Coty singing the first verse (and some great solos, but we know that!). The two other versions I posted (both from syndicated radio shows of the period) both had an extra verse I was unfamiliar with.

I wondered just how many verses to this song there really were, so I checked some of the song lyric sites on the Web. I noticed that all of the sites that mentioned the second verse (apparently there's a version by the Abe Lyman band that has the second verse, but I don't have it) all have these lines:

Never spray a nit
With a great big can of Blitz

Blitz? What's that? Lightning in a can? I know Blatz Beer, but not Blitz (although I heard there was a Blitz beer in Washington State at one time). I'm sure the lyric in question is really about a can of Flit, a permethrin-based insecticide made by Standard Oil. It makes far more sense to me. And 1930 (the year of the song) is about two years into a long-running advertising campaign for Flit, featuring the artwork of Theodore Geisel, alias Dr. Seuss. You can see more Flitwork here: http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dsads/flit/index.shtml .

Anyway, I wondered how someone might confuse the "F" and "B" sounds...to these ears there's quite a bit of difference. And then I remembered the controversy over Eddy Duchin's 1938 Ol' Man Mose...the record was banned in the UK for the supposed use of a naughty word. The granddaddy of all naughty words, actually. The Dreaded Effenheimer.

Patricia Norman sings that Mose is dead and has kicked the buck, buck bucket. But there are indeed moments in the record that it sounds like she's singing...er...something else. Does she? I'll leave the verdict up to you.
http://www.box.net/shared/daen43it38

For what it's worth, the author of the Wikipedia entry on Duchin thinks she does. He also says that's the earliest use of the word on record...he's obviously never heard Lucille Bogan's 1935 record of Shave 'Em Dry. If you haven't heard it, it's something else indeed...absolutely filthy lyrics backed by some great blues piano (played by Walter Roland) You can find that cut here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/03/smut_mp3s.html .

{Now there's a recently issued CD by Archeophone, Actionable Offenses, containing cylinder recordings from the 1890s that are guaranteed to raise eyebrows. That can be found here http://www.archeophone.com/product_info.php?products_id=90 . Oh yes...two good friends of mine worked on that project...they know who they are. Glad to see the album selling as well as it is, guys!}

I guess that if you were recording at 78 rpm, in addition to watching your p's and q's, you had to really watch your b's and f's.

It occurred to me that Ol' Man Mose is considerably hotter than the usual pleasant, if somewhat bland, style of society dance music that Duchin usually performed. The flip side, Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, is pretty hot too. http://www.box.net/shared/4at2crqhnm

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Now for some unfinished business: That weird-sounding short audio excerpt at the end of my last post was recorded in Bucharest in 1930. It was part of that Brunswick Radio stash I mentioned before. Did anybody hear the cymbalom in the background? That was a little clue for the recording's location...if someone mentioned Hungary or Vienna (cymbaloms are sometimes found there too) I'd have given him an Honorable Mention (and a Komodo Dragon). Those sandwiches will have to age a little longer...until someone answers one of my quiz questions correctly. I hope the winner is another fan of Bob & Ray.

Here's the recording again, but with the spoken intro by Vincent Sheehan, host of the Plymouth World Tour show. http://www.box.net/shared/juru3xpdc1

Sultans of Swatting (and a quiz!)

Well...I've been rather busy with the Great Brunswick Radio Project...transferring around 140 12-inch transcription 78s of early (1929-31) "canned radio" shows recorded for the National Radio Advertising Co. by Brunswick. Each record contains around five minutes of a show...a fifteen-minute show used three sides, a half-hour, six.

Most of the shows in this stash are incomplete...a stray part here and there...and there's a lot of rather dated staples of early radio, light classical music, forgettable string ensembles, and the like. However, there were a handful of decent jazz-influenced pop sides and some interesting ethnic material recorded in Europe.

Some of the material therein was quite interesting, as we shall see.

For a number of years, I've been fond of a silly ditty (from the 1930 musical comedy/sci-fi movie Just Imagine)...best remembered from the old Victor record by McKinney's Cotton Pickers:

64608-2 Never Swat A Fly McKinney's Cotton Pickers Vi 23020

Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 99 times
NYC, 4 November 1930: Don Redman, conductor; Joe Smith, Rex Stewart, Langston Curl, trumpets; Ed Cuffee, trombone; Don Redman, Benny Carter, Edward Inge, Prince Robinson, reeds; Todd Rhodes, piano; Dave Wilborn, banjo; Billy Taylor, tuba; Cuba Austin, drums; Bill Coty, vocal. The clarinet soloist is a young Benny Carter.

Catchy little tune, no? Apparently Maria (d'Amato) Muldaur liked it too...she recorded it twice, with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and a solo version on her children's album around 20 years later.

Anyway...I noticed there were two new (new to me, anyway) versions of this song lurking in the radio discs I was transferring. I couldn't resist sharing them, if only to share the extra verses! Here they are:

XE-35018 (excerpt) Never Swat A Fly The Mirth Quakers from Mirth Quakers, show P, part 4

Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 55 times
NYC ca. 4 November 1930: Jerry Macy, Norman Brokenshire, vocal; perhaps Murray Kelner, violin and others.

Notice how they changed the lyrics from "with you" to "with Sue!" not that anything's wrong with that!

XE-35335 (excerpt) Never Swat A Fly Irving Kaufman from Novelty Special, show J, part 2 Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 54 times

NYC 7 November 1930: Irving Kaufman, vocal, personnel uncertain, but my guess is that the band contains Mike Mosiello, trumpet; Andy Sannella, alto sax; and Joe Venuti, violin. Kaufman muffs the words "Here is the motto," somehow getting it "Here is the mos' moto." Interesting that Brunswick didn't do a retake. They probably figured that the record would be played once over the air, and that would be it...the records were supposed to be returned or destroyed.

*********************************************

Here's another little treat from another of these shows...

Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 44 times

Can you guess what it is? It's not a fly, nor a mosquito. Or, perhaps, where it was recorded? A tiny clue can be heard in the background.

Again, hats off to all correct answerers...and a lifetime supply of Uncle Eugene's Special Aged Peanut Butter Sandwiches to the first correct one.

*********************************************

Oh....nobody has identified the mystery pianist from the last post...apparently it's not in the Lord Jazz Discography. It's an interesting record, even if one of the sides seems to be a set piece, without any real improvisation in it. Sure wish I knew who it really is.

Mystery Record!

A while ago, I bought a nice parcel of 78s, many on obscure West Coast labels (mostly Melodisc). Included were three 78s, all with plain white labels. When I got around to playing them, I was pleasantly surprised…one of them had a maddeningly familiar voice singing Someday, Sweetheart, backed by a couple of saxes and rhythm section. The flip side was a slow, pretty instrumental. The (very tiny) matrix numbers were in an “EXC-“ series. That got me thinking…Exc-lusive! Sure enough, the record was indeed by that label’s star performer, Joe Liggins…and the flip side was Yvette.

So far, so good, Sherlock.

The other two records…well, it turned out they were actually two copies of the same record…a solo pianist (who reminds me a bit of Erroll Garner, but I don’t think it’s him…not enough “Garnishes.”) playing Stormy Weather and I Surrender, Dear. These had matrixes R-17 and R-25 respectively. I’ve searched the Abrams database…and looked around on the web for a comprehensive Garner discography (it could be recorded before Erroll’s style had completely formed), but to no avail.

So I ask you, Dear Reader...might you recognize the mystery pianist?

R-17 Stormy Weather Mystery Pianist Unknown label test pressing
Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 40 times

R-25 I Surrender, Dear Mystery Pianist Unknown label test pressing
Link killed 2 March 2010 - downloaded 38 times

Another movie post~!

I posted a few songs from the movies the other night...okay, so Forbidden Planet wasn't actually used in the movie, but it was "inspired" by it.

Here's another movie-related song, by the original Kaleidoscope (David Lindlay and friends) from around 1970...inspired by Richard Widmark's character in Kiss of Death (1947), Tommy Udo. Gotta love a psychotic gunsel who ties a stool pigeon's mom into her wheelchair, then throws her down the stairs! And his laugh...it has to be the inspiration for Frank Gorshin's laugh as The Riddler.
http://www.box.net/shared/0jlraxkl9m

Enjoy it, or I'll have Tommy shoot you in the belly! ("You know what I do to squealers? I let 'em have it in the belly, so they can roll around for a long time thinkin' it over")

This is for the squirts and big men I know who'd appreciate this.......

Some 45s....

I was playing some 45s the other day and some were just so cool...at least the pic sleeves were (and still are, in my not-so-humble opinion. Just ignore the ancient creases)...

Forbidden Planet David Rose Orch M-G-M K12343

Link killed 2 June 2009, downloaded 33 times
A great one-sided record...the flip, The Swan, is pleasant, but undistinguished. This record was sampled for a Lucia Pamela record...and served for several years as the theme song to WMUR-TV's yuletide Santa Claus show, featuring a thinly-disguised Uncle Gus Bernier.

In the immortal words of Scotty, the next one..."it's green!"A great sleeve...and one of the coolest sides ever on a 45...imagine this coming out of a Seeburg wall unit at your soda fountain...
There are no credits on this record...just a plug for the movie and the composer credits (Ervin Drake and Paul Durand).

Intrigue (Unidentified) Orchestra M-G-M K12281

Link killed 2 June 2009, downloaded 55 times
There's a June Christy vocal version of this song out there...I like how the spooky bits from the Concerto are incorporated in this arrangement...

Intrigue June Christy Downloaded

Link killed 2 June 2009, downloaded 31 times

The flip, Foreign Intrigue Concerto (by Charlie Norman...the composer gets credit, but the orchestra and pianist don't) the finale, with spooky French horns restating the theme against an even spookier string chord, used to creep me out as a young child (five or six years old).

Foreign Intrigue Concerto (Unidentified) Orch M-G-M K12343
Link killed 2 June 2009, downloaded 33 times


MGM K13107

Debbie Burton sings a tearjerker...

I've Written A Letter To Daddy Debbie Burton M-G-M K13107

Link killed 2 June 2009, downloaded 52 times

And Bette Davis joins her (in character!!!)http://www.box.net/shared/87ef3vosv1 .

Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Debbie Burton and Bette Davis M-G-M K13107

Link killed 2 June 2009, downloaded 57 times

And yes, this catchy ditty does show up in the movie...as an instrumental played on a transistor radio in the final scene at the beach.

Whew...that'll do it. I've got to go for popcorn.

Anatomy of a Forgotten Fad

When I was transferring those four NYC country novelties a couple of weeks ago, I noticed one of the characters on the Manning record counting up...but with a twist...he substitutes the syllable "uh" for the number seven.

Well, that tickled me, for I knew what the joke was.

This reminded me that there was a Warner Brothers cartoon from 1936 or so that also contained an "uh" for the number seven...and a "woof woof" for ten. It's an early Tex Avery WB cartoon, Porky the Wrestler, from early 1937: http://video.aol.com/video/porky-the-wrestler/1789305 and the sequence is in the final minute. The wrestler actually says "uh-uh" which throws 8 and 9 off by half a beat. But the audience "woofs" twice and that joke ends.

Anyway, I've never seen anybody else pick up on the joke...and I've checked the standard Warner Brothers cartoon books and websites. The "uh-uh, woof-woof" fad seems to be completely forgotten among the general public, although there are several record collectors who'd notice the cartoon reference, if they were reminded of the records that I've cited below:

It all started in February of 1936, when Hezekiah Leroy "Stuff" Smith and his Onyx Club Boys recorded their I'se A-Muggin' routine (I can assume the song and musical counting game were quite popular at the Onyx and the Brunswick/Vocalion brass smelled a hit record).

18654-1 I’se A-Muggin’ Stuff Smith and his Onyx Club Boys Vocalion 3169 (link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 45 times)
18655-1 I'se a Muggin' Musical Numbers Game Stuff Smith and his Onyx Club Boys Vocalion 3169 (link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 49 times)

NYC, 11 February 1936: Jonah Jones, trumpet; Stuff Smith, violin & vocal; Raymond Smith, piano; Bobby Bennett, guitar; Mack Walker, bass; John Washington, drums.

Apparently this sold well...for the next month there were no fewer than five more versions recorded within a few days of each other (and two of those are two-sided recordings)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting note: Bud Freeman plays on both Victor/Bluebird versions...recorded 2 days apart.

99447-2 I’se A-Muggin’ – Part 1 The Three T's Victor 25273
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 29 times)
99448-1 I’se A-Muggin’ – Part 2 The Three T's Victor 25273
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 28 times)
(for the record, the full credit on the record reads THE THREE T’S (Paul Whiteman Presents the Teagarden Boys & Trumbauer Swing Band)
NYC, 10 March 1936: Charlie Teagarden, trumpet; Jack Teagarden, trombone & vocal; Jack Cordaro, clarinet; Frank Trumbauer, c-melody sax; Bud Freeman, tenor sax; Roy Bargy, piano; Carl Kress, guitar; Art Miller, bass; Bob White, drums.

In my opinion, this was the best of the copy versions of Muggin'. Then again, any band that had both Jack and Charlie Teagarden, Tram, and Bud Freeman couldn't be too bad. One wishes there had been more recordings by this Whiteman-sponsored group, but there weren't...although some broadcast material has recently surfaced.

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99776-1 I’se A-Muggin’ – Part 1 Mezz Mezzrow and his Swing Band Bluebird B-6321 (link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 18 times)
99777-1 I’se A-Muggin’ – Part 2 Mezz Mezzrow and his Swing Band Bluebird B-6321
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 21 times)

NYC, 12 March 1936: Frank Newton, trumpet; Mezz Mezzrow, clarinet; Bud Freeman, tenor sax; Willie "The Lion" Smith, piano; Al Casey, guitar; Wellman Braud, bass; George Stafford, drums.

Recorded at the RCA studios two days later for RCA's 35-cent Bluebird label. When the musicians are playing, all is great, but during the numbers game on side two, the musicians seem a trifle bored. Maybe it's because they waxed four other titles at this session. Bud Freeman returns after the less-than-inspired counting to rescue the record.

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On 11 March 1936, Decca got into the act by recording Andy Kirk's version (with his Clouds of Joy, of course)...but I don't have that recording yet.

The RedHotJazz website aparently has a copy at http://redhotjazz.com/cloudsofjoy.html , but the link seems to be dead at the moment.

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Also on the 11th, ARC waxed a cover version of Muggin' for their dime-store labels...my copy is on Melotone:

18806-1 I’se A-Muggin’ Joe Haymes and his Orchestra Melotone 6-05-09
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 28 times)
NYC, 11 March 1936: Cliff Weston, trumpet & vocal; Gordon (Chris) Griffin, Zeke Zarchy, trumpets; Mike Michaels, Frank Llewellyn, trombones; Leo White, Edgar Sarrason, Freddy Fallensby, Ben Harrod, reeds; Bill Miller, piano; Brick Fleagle, guitar; Jack Fay, bass; Charlie Bush, drums.

A rather hot version, with a more-or-less rhymed list of instructions...and they trim around 30 numbers out of the counting game.
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B-18809-1 I’se A-Muggin’ Hal Kemp and his Orchestra Brunswick 7636
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 28 times)
NYC, 12 March 1936: Hal Kemp, clarinet and alto sax, leader; Earl Geiger, Russ Case, trumpets; Wendell "Gus" Mayhew, Eddie Kusby (Kuczborski), trombones; Harold Dankers, Ben Williams, Saxie Dowell, reeds; Dowell, vocal; John Scott Trotter, piano; Phil Fent, guitar; Jack Shires, bass; Skinny Ennis , Maxine Grey, speaking roles only .

Recorded the next day (and only three matrixes later), ARC's more expensive label, Brunswick, gets a version too. This was first version of the tune I ever had...I've had this copy for around 35 years. This was the only version that did a takeoff on "oh no, sir" bit that Stuff did on his record...and they got a full chorus of the song and a whirlwind count too. It's also a lot hotter than most of Kemp's post-1934 sides...his records usually were safely catalogued in the sweet/Mickey Mouse section.

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OLA-1057-1 I’se A-Muggin’ Quintet of the Hot Club de France HMV K-7704, Vi JA-874 (link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 24 times)
Paris, 4 May 1936: Stephane Grappelli, violin; Django Reinhardt, Pierre Ferret, Joseph Reinhardt, guitars; Lucien Simoens, bass; Freddy Taylor, vocal.

The Muggin' fad finally had hit Europe, and Freddy Taylor (black tap-dancer and vocalist) does a fair vocal, even if he does mangle the names of his supporting musicians..."Dango" and "Steven" must have loved that. Mercifully, they don't count on this version..
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I think there might have been other versions recorded in Europe at around the same time...but will I look for them?

UH-UH!!!!
(Image borrowed from the WB Cartoon Filmography website)

DisConundrum update

Well…not many guesses to why the number 7 was replaced by the syllable “uh” in the Manners record…Ron L came closest (he’d have to…he was the only one who guessed anything)…and he was almost on the money: “To answer the Uh question, is there not a tune where the singer tells us to count and put the Uh sound in instead of a seven? There are more sound substituions for other numbers and combinations.”

Ron’s right, of course, but he didn’t produce he title. He gets the First Runner-Up prize, a Komodo Dragon (and he now knows the song title I’m looking for). Uncle Eugene's Special Aged Peanut Butter Sandwiches will have to age a little longer.

And the song (several versions!) will be posted by Saturday night.

A DisConundrum!

I have a question for all y'all:

On one of the Zeke Manners records I posted (Organ Grinders Swing, at 1:20), when somebody starts counting up (they're going to the toy shop on the eighth floor), he says "five...six...uh...eight."

Why?

Hats off to all correct answerers...and a lifetime supply of Uncle Eugene's Special Aged Peanut Butter Sandwiches to the first correct one.

I'll have the correct answer up someday soon...I'll give y'all a couple of days to think about it.

Keep 'Em Singin'! (Grind 'em up!)

Have you ever wondered why many 1930-1935 blues and country records have attained a mythically rare status? Why some of these exist either in single copies, if they’ve been found at all? (And, yes, there are a few records that are still being searched for…no copies of them have surfaced. Yet.)

While abysmally small pressing runs (sometimes as few as 15-20 copies) certainly helped, and the state of finances was just as low (in 1932, would a sharecropper shell out 75 cents for the latest hit record, or would he rather eat?) the wartime shellac regrind program ensured that much of the unsold stock in warehouses (and used records in patriotic Americans’ attics and cellars) would be ground up and used as scrap material (to serve as the wretched material that postwar independent labels used to press their records. Even new copies have pimply surfaces and were far more prone to wear than virgin shellac 78s)

--- Five O’Clock Drag Duke Ellington Orchestra
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 15 times)
Broadcast 28 June 1942: Duke Ellington, piano & leader; Wallace Jones, Ray Nance, Rex Stewart, trumpets; Tricky Sam Nanton, Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol, trombones; Chauncey Haughton, Johnny Hodges, Otto Hardwicke, Ben Webster, Harry Carney, reeds; Fred Guy, guitar; Junior Raglin, bass; Sonny Greer, drums.

An interesting curiosity: During a broadcast of the Ellington band, an unnamed announcer interrupts Ben Webster’s solo with a PSA for the American Legion’s record recycling program (Our normal source for shellac had just been taken by the Japanese). When the announcer finally shuts up that's Rex Stewart you hear on cornet, squeezing out freak notes with his half-valve trick.

Johnson Wax Ad
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 12 times)
Broadcast 2 February 1943: From the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show, an integrated commercial for Johnson’s Wax. In this show, Fibber and Molly (Jim and Marion Jordan) had just opened their famous closet. This time, in the wreckage, they find a box of old phonograph records. Harlow Wilcox steps in for a quick plug for Johnson’s Wax. The regrind program is mentioned in passing, but it’s the records that they pull out of the box that may interest the 78-collecting community out there…there’s somebody's version of Tell Me, Pretty Maiden (from 1902), an Uncle Josh record (http://ia311515.us.archive.org/0/items/CalStewart_part2/CalStewart-UncleJoshInaChineseLaundry.mp3 originally recorded in 1901, but available for many years), and Cohen on the Telephone (http://www.raeproductions.com/music/cohen.html from 1913) .

It occurred to me that the records in the closet go back to around 1913 or so...or around thirty years before this commercial. That'd be like me finding a stash of disco and heavy metal LPs in my closet. However, I wouldn't feel too nostalgic about finding that dreck...it'd go to the nearest thrift shop and donate them.

You can find the virtually complete Cal Stewart (Uncle Josh) catalog at the Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator:%22Cal%20Stewart%22 .

Grayson & Whitter cuts (for another friend)

Recently, I had mentioned to another friend that one of my favorite country records was being sold on eBay...and he had (more or less) forgotten what the record sounded like. So I thought I'd post it for him (and for you, dear readers).

The record in question is Grayson & Whitter's He Is Coming To Us Dead. It's about an older gentleman who comes to a telegraph office, looking for his son who is due to arrive shortly. When reminded by the clerk that passengers arrive at the station across the way, he softly replies that his son will arrive at the express office...he's in a coffin. And as a kicker, he adds that Mama had predicted that their darling Jack would come home that way when he went off to join the Boys in Blue. It's a bouncy tune that camouflages fairly morbid lyrics. (http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiCOMEDEAD;ttCOMEDEAD.html and http://www.playingbyear.com/songs/he-is-coming-to-us-dead give slightly different versions of the lyrics, and both sites offer quick audio samples as well.)

40303-1 He is Coming To Us Dead Grayson & Whitter Victor 21139
Atlanta, 18 October, 1927: G. B. (Gillam Bannom) Grayson, fiddle & vocal; Henry Whitter, guitar.
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 32 times)
Grayson was the nephew of Col. W. M. Grayson, who arrested Tom Dula in 1868 for the murder of Laura Foster. The arrestee's surname is actually pronounced "Dooley;" it's a regional quirk similar to the reason the Grand Old radio show is pronounced "Opry." So...while I was in a posting mood, I thought I'd include the first recorded version of Tom Dooley as well...by the nephew of the guy that brought him in. It's quite different from the Kingston Trio's version.

56312-2 Tom Dooley Grayson & Whitter Victor V-40235
Memphis, 30 September 1929: Same personnel.
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 27 times)
More info on Dula can be found at http://www.mce.k12tn.net/johnson/legends/tom_dula.htm and http://www.wilkesnc.org/history/tomdula/

Quite a few of their records are cautionary tales, either songs about husbands/fathers who are drunkards or old murder ballads like Omie Wise and Rose Conley (I may get around to posting those sometime...there are many musical variations on the 1808 murder of Naomi Wise, the subject's the same, but the treatments are quite different.)...most have G. B. yelling out "take warning!" somewhere. Their I'll Never Be Yours is another take on The Banks of the Ohio (complete with a drowning murder, of course...).

All of their works are available...I have them on 2 Document CDs, but there's a single volume that contains the cream of the crop, and probably in better sound. HICTUD is seldom found in really great condition...my 78 of it sounds about as worn as the one that Parth used on his CD.

Happy Fiftieth...some novelties

An old friend (over 30 years) of mine celebrates his half-century mark today...I thought I'd post a few novelties that he (and you) should enjoy:

This cut, by Robert Maxwell, his harp and orchestra, was originally entitled Solfeggio on the original 78 rpm issue. Ernie Kovacs apparently liked the record well enough to use it...regularly! A few years later, M-G-M reissued it, under the title of Song of the Nairobi Trio: (link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 18 times) People in the Boston area (of our generation, anyway) will recognize the music as being played behind the "mailbox" section of the old Major Mudd show on WNAC-TV. (link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 32 times)

While I'm on a Kovacs kick, here's the Leroy Holmes Tug Boat Eight doing Hey Taxi! The voice is Kovacs himself...
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 18 times)
Let's flip the Holmes record over for another Kovacs-related number, Oriental Blues.
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 14 times)
And. finally, a weird item...a 7-inch one-sided 33 rpm single, with a special Pillsbury label (and a blurb saying "A Life Presentation 1961." Apparently there was a tie-in with Life Magazine...more to come on the connection as the info becomes available). It's called Hey There, Pillsbury! and it's by none other than the Old Philosopher himself, Eddie Lawrence.


(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 21 times)

Is that enough, Bunky?

Country Novelties recorded in NYC 1937

Recently, there was a request from a fellow 78-L member who was looking for recordings by a few obscure novelty country acts that were rcorded in NYC in 1937. Oddly enough (well, maybe it’s not so odd), I happened to have a record apiece by two of the requested acts. They are posted below, with the discographical info, such as it is (a lot of musicians who remain unknown):

Zeke Manners and his Swing Billies recorded four sides (all issued) for Irving Mills’s Variety label in March 1937…the instrumentation is a bit complex, so I’ll list it exactly the way it is listed in Russell’s Country Discography:

M-242-1 Organ Grinder’s Swing Zeke Manners and his Swing Billies Variety VA 640 –1, 3, 5, 8
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 53 times)
M-243-1 Blow The Whistle Zeke Manners and his Swing Billies Variety VA 640 –2, 4, 6, 7, 8
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 37 times)
NYC March 1937: Zeke Manners, piano-accordion –1; unknown, electric steel guitar; unknown, guitar; unknown, string bass; unknown, ocarina –2; unknown, bazooka or slide whistle; possibly unknown, xylophone –3; possibly unknown, washboard – 4; unknown, traps -5; unknown, bell –6; unknown, train whistle effect –7; Band, vocal and speech.

Members of the band are addressed on Mx M-242 as Ed, Hank, Bob, Bill and Ace. Hank appears to play the bazooka or slide whistle, and Ed may play electric steel guitar.

For what it’s worth, the other two sides in the session may have Elton Britt’s yodeling on them.
Arty Hall and His Radio Rubes did two sessions for ARC in 1937, six were recorded at the first session and all were issued. The second session produced six more sides, but only one was issued.

21495-1 Conversation With a Mule Arty Hall and His Radio Rubes Melotone 7-12-54
NYC 11 August 1937: Arty Hall, speech; unknown, fiddle; unknown, accordion; unknown, guitar. (link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 40 times)

21830-2 Sara Jane Arty Hall and His Radio Rubes Melotone 7-12-54
NYC 8 October 1937: Arty Hall, two unknown, vocal trio; unknown, fiddle; unknown, accordion; unknown, guitar; unknown, harmonica & Jews harp.
(link killed 23 February 2009 - Downloaded 32 times)

I think these sides are rather fun, in a Hoosier Hot Shots vein...light novelty fare without the bombast that Spike Jones would offer in a few years.

Oh...before I get any nasty comments, I do like Spike, and have a couple of unusual items that I'll post sometime in the future.

Shoooot...I'd settle for any comments, actually. I've had only one (from a friend) since I launched this furshlugginer blog......

(My labels scanned by my good friend, neighbor, and fellow 78-L member...you know who you are. Many, many thanks!)