November 2008

November 27
 
 

 
There's Oceans of Love By The Beautiful Sea
Dick Robertson And His Orchestra                          1932
(Perfect 12824-B)

Holding My Honey's Hand
Dick Robertson And His Orchestra                          1932
(Perfect 12824-A mx 11936)
 
 

This weeks's selections come courtesy of the collection of regular guest contributor Matt From College Station. 

Dick Robertson was an extremely prolific recording studio vocalist in the early 1930s who cut sides with a number of bands.  He also was one of the house vocalists for the American Record Company labels.  To the best of my knowledge, Robertson did not have an actual band of his own.  The band credited to him on records consisted of studio musicians.   In the mid 1930s, Robertson moved to the Decca label where he would record through 1942.  His Decca issues were usually accompanied by a "hot" Dixieland style band. 

"There's Oceans of Love By The Beautiful Sea" is a rather catchy song that was recorded by several bands in 1932.  "Holding My Honey's Hand" was composed by bandleader Ben Bernie who also recorded a version of it. 

 - 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.
 
 
 
 
 

J'Aime Les Femmes
R Moretti J Boyer ???            1933
(Mag Nis 1003 mx 7895)

Pour Mettre Un Peu D Entrain
R Moretti J Boyer                   1933
(Mag Nis 1003 mx 7895)
 

Both of these songs come from the 1933 French musical film Un soir de réveillon.  Unfortunately,  there is now a bit of a mystery regarding the performance credits.  When I digitized the recording a few months ago during one of Matt From College Station's visits to Fort Worth,  I included in my notes information from the record's label that I though was artists' credit.  In my subsequent research on the songs, however, I found information that suggested that R. Moretti and J.Boyer might have been the composers.  The fact that the record label and most of the information I found on the Internet was entirely in French certainly did not help.   Of course, it is entirely possible that R. Moretti and J. Boyer could have been both the composers and the performers on this recording.   But it is also possible that I simply misread the record label.   Unfortunately,  Matt now has the record in storage at a location that he does not have access to prior to this update being posted.   When he gets a chance to access the record and take another look at it, I will go back and update the archived version of this update accordingly. 

You can see a video clip on YouTube of the original film performance of  "J'Aime Les Femmes" at this link.   The music starts about one minute into the clip. 
 

 - 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. 
 
 
 

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Broken Hearted Baby
Arrowhead Inn Orchestra                           1928
(Brunswick 4053)

Moonlight Madness
Arrowhead Inn Orchestra                           1928
(Brunswick 4053)
 
 

The Arrowhead Inn Orchestra only made two record, both of them for Brunswick in 1928.   The band was one of many under the control of Meyer Davis who ran an entire chain of dance bands throughout the USA.   According to one online source, Davis started his first band in 1915.   A 1917 publication called the Handbook of Private Schools mentions that the Meyer Davis Orchestras employed over 300 musicians to fulfill its contracts and that it offered programs of "especial interest to the best schools."   According to a 1941 Time Magazine profile, Davis, at the time, controlled 89 bands with a total of 1,100 musicians.   While most of his bands were concentrated in the Northeast, I have been told that one of the 1930s era house bands in the Worth Theater in Fort Worth, Texas was under his control.

I am not certain where the Arrowhead Inn the band was named after was located.   I was able to find two possibilities.  One was the Arrowhead Inn in Burnham Illinois just south of Chicago which was a rough and notorious gambling joint controlled by Al Capone.  The other, and I suspect more likely, possibility was  Ben Riley's Arrowhead Inn Restaurant which was founded in 1897  in Saratoga, New York on land Riley's innkeeping great-great-grandfather had been  granted by King George III.  Legend has it that it was Riley who introduced frog legs as a delicacy.  In 1908 he relocated the restaurant to Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood.   In 1923 he sold the property to developers and moved the restaurant to Riverdale Avenue and 246th Street in the Bronx.  At that location, the restaurant was very popular with the New York high society throughout the 1920s and 1930s and featured live music.   Later Riley moved the restaurant again to Yonkers, New York where he died in 1944 as a result of a fire in the restaurant.   Considering that the Meyer Davis Orchestra was most active in the Northeast and specialized in performing for society functions, I suspect that New York Arrowhead Inn is most likely the one that gave this band its name. 

10/14/08   P.S  In my haste to get the update published, I forgot to mention that both Arrowhead Inn Orhestra selections and the Mildred Bailey selections in the Extra section come courtesy of the collection of Matt From College Station. 

 - 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.
 
 
 

When It's Sleepy Time Down South
Mildred Bailey With The Casa Loma Orchestra            1931
(Brunswick 6190)

Blues In My Heart
Mildred Bailey With Casa Loma Orchestra                    1931
(Brunswick 6190)
 
 

Mildred Bailey is one of my favorite 1930s female vocalists.   The sister of Al Rinker, one of Bing Croby's sidekicks with the Paul Whiteman's Rhythm Boys vocal group, she was introduced to Paul Whiteman by Bing Crosby in 1929 during the filming of King of Jazz.  Whiteman was immediately impressed and she was a vocalist with the band until 1932.   While Bailey was popular on Whiteman's radio programs, interestingly enough she did not record with the band until about three weeks after these sides were cut with the Casa Loma Orchestra.   Her first recording with the Whiteman band was yet another version of "When It's Sleepy Time Down South."   Bailey married Whiteman's xylophone player Red Norvo who later left to form his own successful band which regularly featured her as vocalist.   The two billed themselves as "Mr. and Mrs. Swing."   Her popularity declined in the 1940s and she spent much of that decade troubled by financial and health problems. She died in 1951. 
 
 

 - 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. 

November 6
 
 

 

What Do We Do On A Dew Dew Dewy Day
Lane's Dance Orchestra                            1927
(Lincoln 2672 mx 2569)

It Was Only A Sun Shower
The Rangers                                             1927
(Lincoln 2672 mx 2558)

Baby Your Mother
Bob Haring And His Orchestra                  1927
(Lincoln 2695 mx 2593)

You Sing That Song To Somebody Else
Clyde Doerr And His Dance Orchestra      1927
(Lincoln 2695 mx 2612)
 
 
 

Here are a couple of  records on the Lincoln label that I recently acquired.  Lincoln was a subsidiary label of Cameo records and was produced from 1923 until 1929 when Cameo was part of the merger that formed the American Record Corporation.    Many recordings on the Lincoln label were also issued on Cameo and on the Romeo label after it was introduced in 1926.   This was the case with this week's selections.

Both recordings on Lincoln 2672  "What Do We Do On A Dew Dew Dewey Day" and "It Was Only A Sun Shower" were, in fact, performed by the Sam Lanin Orchestra with Lane's Dance Orchestra and The Rangers merely being recording pseudonyms.   The exact same recordings were also paired on Cameo 1207 and Romeo 435 with entirely different artist credits. 

The other two selections "Baby Your Mother" and "You Sing That Song To Somebody Else"  on Lincoln 2695 were credited to the actual bands performing them as was also the case when the the recordngs were issued on Cameo 1230 and Romeo 458. 

Unlike today when popular songs tend to be associated with a particular artist, in the early decades of the 20th century the music industry was dominated by songs composed for and published by the  Tin Pan Alley publishing houses.   If a song was associated with a successful stage production or film or showed other signs of becoming a hit,  all of the big record labels typically issued their own versions of it, and, in some cases, multiple versions.  So-called "dime store labels" such as those issued by Cameo were sold at a reduced price to a cost conscious audience that was primarily interested in obtaining a competent recording of a particular song as opposed to a performance by a specific artist.

Cameo records were primarily sold through Macy's Department Store in New York City and Romeos were sold through the S. H. Kress dime store chain.  I have never learned if the Lincoln label was pressed for a specific store or chain or if it was sold through a variety of outlets.   Of the three labels, I run across far more Romeos than I do Cameos and only rarely come across Lincolns.  Part of that might have to do with the fact that I live in a part of the country where Kress had a very strong presence. 

"What Do We Do On A Dew Dew Dewey Day" was among 1927's more successful songs and was recorded by a number of artists.  I enjoy this particular recording because I think the sound effects used during the vocal section are rather amusing.   The song enjoyed a brief revival of sorts in 1948 when it was used in the presidential campaign of  Thomas Dewey.

The other three songs were also published in 1927 and were also recorded by a variety of artists. 

Sam Lanin and Bob Haring were both very prolific studio bandleaders throughout the 1920s and worked for several labels under many dozens of recording pseudonyms.  Clyde Doerr was a saxophone player who got his big music break in 1919 with the Art Hickman Orchestra in San Francisco.  By 1921 he moved to New York where he became leader of the Club Royal Orchestra which briefly substituted for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra at New York's Palais Royale when the Whiteman band was on tour in England.  For the rest of the 1920s Doerr was in high demand both as a bandleader and as a saxophone player and became quite successful financially, only to lose much of it in the stock market crash of 1929. 
 
 

 - 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.
 
 
 

Smiles And Chuckles
Six Brown Brothers                             1917
(Victor 18385-A)

Comedy Tom 
Six Brown Brothers                             1917
(Victor 18385-B)
 
 

The Six Brown Brothers are best remembered as an all saxophone band that recorded for the Victor and Emerson labels between 1914 and 1920.  At the time, the brothers were extremely well known on the vaudeville circuit.  The band got its start as an act for the Ringling Brothers Circus which Tom Brown joined in 1904 with three of his brothers joining him soon afterwards.  Eventually the act grew to six bothers, Tom, Alec, Percy, Fred, William and Vern.   At times, especially in the group's later years, non family member musicians were also included. 

Prior to the band's 1914 switch to an all saxophone format, the band was multi-instrument and featured the sort of blackface and comedy routines that were typical of the era.   The band was instrumental in introducing the still rather obscure saxophone to a general audience and for launching a "saxophone craze" which led to the instrument's very prominent role in the jazz and dance bands of the 1920s and 1930s. 

The band's records often featured nice, upbeat ragtime style songs - as is the case with the recordings featured here.   Personally, however,  I don't think that the band's overall sound has aged very well at all.   As someone who listens to and is fond of the rich orchestrations of the 1920s era dance bands which followed, the all saxophone arrangements sound rather flat and bland by comparison.   However, as always, it is important to keep in mind the context of the time.   In the 1910s, the band's sound was new, unique and very much a novelty.   As the popularity of the saxophone grew and was taken in new directions by other artists, the novelty of the Six Brown Brother's sound gradually diminished as did their popularity.   After a few successes on Broadway the band returned to vaudeville.  By the early 1930s the advent of talking pictures and the Great Depression had eliminated the vaudeville circuits and the group broke up in 1933. 
 
 

 - 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.