Notice Starting with this update there is a slight format change to the Hit of the Week publishing schedule.  Ever since I started the updates, new updates have been scheduled to be published every Thursday.  This was a nod to the day of the week that new issues of the old cardboard Hit of the Week records the updates are named after became available in newsstands.   While keeping that Thursday tradition up is somewhat charming and quaint, the fact of the matter is that Thursday is not always a convenient day for me to publish an update - and, as long time followers of this site already know, more often than not, the updates have, in fact, ended up being posted on some other day of the week. Long time followers of this site will also know that I have NOT always been able to consistently publish new updates on a weekly basis.  This is simply because publishing the updates is time consuming and I have other commitments and interests competing for my limited free time.   Having a self-imposed weekly deadline and the knowledge that I was not meeting it was starting to become a bit of a burden. I do enjoy putting these updates together and I know that there are a lot of people who follow them and value them.   But I do need to be able to find a way to continue them in a manner that does not come at the expense of my other priorities and interests. Therefore, going forward, future updates will be published on whatever day of the week happens to be most convenient for me to put them up.  And they will be published on a much more irregular basis depending on what else I have going on. Sometimes this will mean that new updates will be put up on a weekly basis.  Sometimes they will be less frequent.   In practice, such a publishing schedule has already been in effect for quite some while now - the difference is that it is now official policy  and I will no longer be back dating my updates to the previous Thursday and no longer promising another the following Thursday. The one hesitation I had about departing from a set schedule was the concern that regular visitors would have no way of knowing when to check back for the next update.  But, of course, this is an inconvenience that regular visitors have already been experiencing lately.   To solve that issue, I have added three convenient methods by which those who are interested can receive instant notifications whenever new updates are posted.  First, I have added an RSS feed which will enable you to receive notifications through services such as iGoogle and many other RSS enabled websites and programs.  Second, I have also set up a Twitter account to send updates to those who use that service.  Finally, for those who would simply prefer updates to be sent directly to their email accounts, I have set up an email notification list that you can sign up for. (Please note that this is an entirely different mailing list than the Radio Dismuke news updates that many visitors are already receiving).   All three of these methods will spare you the trouble of having to visit the site to see whether nor not new content has been posted. Eventually, my plans for these updates include an upgrade to a content management software program that will significantly reduce the amount of time I have to spend putting them together.  When I started these updates, the term "blog" was not part of everyday vocabulary and most of the software programs that enable people to quickly and easily publish on the web had not yet been introduced.  I put these updates together the old fashioned way by doing my own html - which, in this day and age, is needlessly time consuming.   A content management program also allow guest contributors such as Matt, Eddie and Christian to be able to log in and post an update whenever they feel like it without having to send it to me to put together.  I can't offer a timetable of when such an upgrade will take place as shopping around for the best program and migrating content over to it will be time consuming.  But it is in the works. The bottom line is I do value these updates and am committed to continuing them.   The new update schedule will provide me with the much-needed flexibility to do so.  And the new notification methods should make it easier than ever for regular visitors to keep up with the site. - Dismuke

 
 

Sun Spots
Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra      1934
(Victor 24574-A)

The Bouncing Ball
Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra      1934
(Victor 24574-B)

Let's Put Out The Lights
Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra      1932
(Victor 24140-A)

You're Telling Me 
Paul Whiteman And His Orchestra      1932
(Victor 24140-B)
 
 

Here are a couple of records I recently acquired.

Paul Whiteman is best remembered for popularizing jazz inspired dance band music in the 1920s,  a decade during which he was the most famous and financially successful American bandlader.   The onset of the Great Depression had an especially heavy impact on the Whiteman band when new bookings suddenly dried up and Old Gold Cigarettes decided  not to renew its sponsorship of Whiteman's lucrative network radio program.   To make things worse, the Universal Pictures musical talkie King of Jazz starring Whiteman and the band did not perform well at the box office.   Whiteman was forced to cut musicians, reduce pay and to accept bookings that once would have never been considered.    Because of the impact of the Depression on Columbia Records, the Whiteman band did not cut any records for an entire year until Victor bought out his recording contract in late 1931.

Eventually, Whiteman was able to land new radio sponsorships and managed to avoid the "has been" status that other 1920s stars had been relegated to.   One of the ways he managed to do so was by adapting to the era's rapidly changing musical styles.   When the swing era came along  in the late 1930s,   Whiteman solved the problem of whether to focus on a younger crowd at the expense of long time loyal listeners by forming  a sub band  within his larger organization which he named his "Swing Wing."

Whiteman recordings from the early 1930s tend to be somewhat difficult to come across simply because few people at the time could spare much money for records. 

"Sun Spots" and "The Bouncing Ball" are both very peppy, upbeat compositions by Frankie Traumbauer who is also featured on the saxophone on both recordings. 

"Let's Put Out The Lights" features a vocal performance by Ramona Davies who had recently signed on as Whiteman's vocalist and piano soloist.   "Ramona And Her Grand Piano" became a regular feature on Whiteman's radio programs.  While "Let's Put Out The Lights" was recorded by a number of artists, it was most famously associated with Rudy Vallee.   I have read that the song's lyrics originally read "let's put out the lights and go to bed" but NBC executives considered them to be too risque for Vallee's Fleischmann's Yeast Hour radio program which led to them being changed to "let's put out the lights and go to sleep."

"You're Telling Me" features a vocal by Whiteman's new Rhythm Boys  - a replacement group for the original Rhythm Boys of Bing Crosby, Harry Barris and Al Rinker .  The new Rhythm Boys consisted of Ray Kulz, George MacDConald, Al Dary and Jimmy Noel.
 
 

 - Dismuke
 
 

If you have questions or comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly people who share your interest in it, join in the conversation on Dismuke's Message Board.

 
 
 
 

EXTRA

This section will  present 78 rpm recordings that do not fall within the range of the vintage pop and jazz  fare that I usually  present.  Here I will feature recordings from a wide variety of eras, musical genres and nationalities as well as occasional spoken word recordings.
 
 
 
 
 

Grüss Mir Die Sonne Von Italien
Barnabas Von Geczy And His Orchestra             1935
(Disque Gramphone K 7634 mx ORA 396)

Was Schöne Frauen Träumen
Barnabas Von Geczy And His Orchestra             1935
(Disque Gramphone K 7634 mx ORA 435)
 
 

Here are a couple of nice tango recordings from Germany.   Tango was very popular in Europe in the 1930s, especially in Germany and Poland - and I tend to prefer the European tango recordings of the era over those I have heard from Argentina.  Von Geczy was a Hungarian born violinist who led one of the more successful and well known salon orchestras in Europe. 
 

 - Dismuke
 

If you have questions or comments about the music or would simply enjoy interacting with friendly people who share your interest in it, join in the conversation on Dismuke's Message Board.