March 2004

March 25, 2004
 
 

 

Hurricane Harry
Harry Roy and His Orchestra                   1933
(Decca 1037-B mx CE 6094)
 

Tiger Rag
Harry Roy and His Orchestra                   1933
(Decca 1037-A mx CE 6037)
 

Canadian Capers
Harry Roy and His Orchestra                   1933
(Parlophone R 1505 mx E 6036)

Harry Roy led a popular British dance band from the late 1920s until the early 1950s. 

I have this week's recording of "Tiger Rag" on both the original release on the British Parlophone label as well as the American release which came out on the Decca label about 3 years later.   On the flip side of the American release is this week's recording of "Hurricane Harry."  On the flip side of the British release is this week's recording of "Canadian Capers."   The American release of Harry Roy's "Canadian Capers" was on Decca 845 and paired with "Somebody Stole My Gal" - a recording I do not yet have. 

"Tiger Rag" dates back to 1917 and composer credit is shared between Harry DeCosta and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band.   "Canadian Capers" was composed in 1915 by Gus Chandler, Bert White and Henry Cohen.   "Hurricane Harry" was Harry Roy's own composition.
 
 

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. 
 

Gems From "Sometime"
Victor Light Opera Company                         1920
(Victor 35694-A)

The Victor Light Opera Company was an in-house performing ensemble for Victor records which recorded a number of "Gems From" releases featuring medleys from operettas and popular Broadway musicals.  I have a number of records from Victor's "Gems From" series and will include them in future "extra" updates.

Sometime was a Broadway production which opened at the Shubert Theatre in October 1918 and ran for 283 performances.  The music was composed by Rida Johnson Young and Rudolf Friml.  The most famous members of the show's cast were Mae West and Ed Wynn. 

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March 18, 2004
 
 

 
The Girl Friend
George Olsen and His Music                   1926
(Victor 20029-A)
 

Could I, I Certainly Could
Sid Sydney's Orchestra                            1926
(Victor 20029-B)

 
This week's selections come from a record I recently acquired.  I have 
had a copy of George Olsen's recording of "The Girl Friend" on an LP reissue for some while and it is featured in the playlist of my Internet radio station.  However,  since I think it is one of the Olsen band's better recordings, now that I have a 78 rpm copy, I decided to feature it here as well.

The Sid Sydney Orchestra featured on the flip side is a band that I had never heard of until I acquired the record.  This is the only recording of  the band that I can find mention of in any of the online discographies or in any of my reference books.  I did find a newspaperarticle published in the St. Paul Pioneer Express just a few days ago (March 13) in which someone recalls a 1930s riverboat trip:

"On board was a dance band, led by one Sid Sydney; I forget the catchy name of the orchestra, but I remember his. Many of the adult passengers danced to Dixieland jazz and other music on the spacious, polished-wood dance floor as we kids watched and listened for a while. The band consisted of all black men in natty white outfits."

Presumably this was the same band featured in the recording.   If anyone has further information about the Sydney Orchestra, I would be interested in hearing about it.

NOTE: I want to thank the visitors who wrote in and informed me that the "Sid Sydney  Orchestra"  was, in fact, a recording pseudonym for the International Novelty Orchestra, a Victor in-house band led by Nat Shilkret.  As the newspaper article  implies, there apparently was an actual band that went by that name.  One visitor points out that there was a musician called Sid Sidney (as opposed to "Sydney") who recorded with Joe Sudy and His Orchestra as well as the Mills Cavalcade Orchestra - and perhaps this individual also led the band mentioned in the newspaper article.
 
 
 

 
 

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. 
 

Stornelli Cattivi
Cav. G De Vita                                                 1928
(Okeh 9445 mx 401793)
 

Stornelli Dei Colombi
Cav. G DeVita                                                  1928
(Okeh 9445 mx 401792 )

Here are two Italian songs that I acquired recently and found enjoyable.  Because the matrix numbers on the record are of the standard series used at that time by Columbia and Okeh, my assumption is that it was recorded in the USA.   Unfortunately, I have no information about the artist other than his name.  The words "stornelli" and "cattivi" do not turn up any results with an online translator.  "Dei Colombi" translates into "of the doves."  Both recordings sound similar to others I have heard classified as "Neapolitan" music - but I am not sure if these properly fit that category or not. 

Note: Several people were kind enough to send me translations of the titles of these recordings.  "Stornelli Cattivi" translates into "naughty ditties" or "naughty ridicule songs" while "Stornelli dei Columbi" translates into "pigeon ditties" or "ridicule songs about pigeons."  Some, like I, thought that "Columbi" translated into "doves,"  However, one visitor informs me that because it is masculine, the word translates to "pigeon" and to be "dove" it would have to be the feminine "Columbe."

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March 11, 2004
 
 

Maurice Mattchiche
Victor Military Band                             1914
(Victor 35366-B)
 

The Horse Trot
Victor Military Band                             1914
(Victor 35362-B)
 

Peg o' My Heart
Victor Military Band                             1914
(Victor 35362-A)

During the 1910s, the United States was swept by an unprecedented dance craze which continued unabated well into the 1920s.  As a result, dancing became a major force in American popular culture for decades and ballroom and dance hall operators did a brisk business through the 1940s when they lost popularity due to the decline of the big bands and the advent of television. 

While dancing had been a part of American culture since colonial times, the new dances of the 1910s were significantly different and, in some circles, extremely shocking when compared to the polite waltzes, quadrilles and schottisches of Victorian times.  The new style of dancing was very sensuous and the steps were often of Afro-American origin.  They were also performed to highly rhythmic and syncopated ragtime music which was also of Afro-American origin.  The fact that such dances were no longer confined to low class  saloons and honkey tonks but were rapidly becoming popular with middle and upper class whites was especially disturbing for the more Puritanical types.    Some of the so-called "animal dances" such as the Turkey Trot were denounced as immoral and degenerate and were even outlawed in some cities. 

One of the most famous couples in American pop culture during the 1910s was the dance team of Irene and Vernon Castle.   The Castles were former Broadway dancers who became internationally famous as exhibition dancers at fashionable restaurants and roof gardens.  They also became extremely wealthy satisfying the public's curiosity to see and learn the latest dance steps by operating their own New York City nightclub as well as a cabaret and their fashionable dancing school, The Castle House.  The cultural influence of the Castles was such that, when Irene became ill and had her long hair shortened,  thousands of women across America followed her example and made "bobbed" hair an overnight fashion. 

Part of the Castles' success was due the fact that they were favorably received in even some of the more conservative circles.  The fact that the Castles  denounced some of the popular "animal dances" as being ungraceful and attempted to popularize dance steps which they considered to be more refined and dignified helped make ballroom dancing more socially respectable. 

During World War I, at the height of the couple's popularity,  Vernon Castle, who was a British citizen, joined the Royal Flying Corps and flew several combat missions.  He later served as a flight instructor and was killed in a training accident in February, 1918 at Benbrook Field, a Royal Canadian Air Force training base just outside of Fort Worth, Texas.  At the time of Vernon's death, he and Irene were residing at Fort Worth's Westbrook Hotel (see image above).

All of this week's selections come from 12 inch discs recorded by the Victor Military Band and carry a note on the label indicating that they are "For Dancing."  Most people associate military bands with certain types of marches - but during the early 1900s military bands such as Victor's in-house group as well as those belonging to bandleaders such as John Phillip Sousa, Arthur Pryor and Charles Prince were very versatile and played everything from the classics to ragtime.

A 1914 advertisement on a Victor record envelope lists this week's recording of "Maurice Mattchiche" as one of several  used for instructional purposes at Irene and Vernon Castle's Castle House dancing studio.   The label describes the selection as a "Brazilian Maxixe."  The maxixe, which was also known as the "mattchiche," was a type of Brazilian tango dating back to the 1870s.  The dance was popularized in the United States during the early 1910s by dance instructor Maurice Mouvet who was a rival to the Castles and for whom this week's song is presumably named. 

The recordings of "The Horse Trot" and "Peg o' My Heart"  have label notes indicating that they are suitable for both the One Step and the Turkey Trot.   There was also a popular dance at the time  known as the Horse Trot though I don't know if there was any connection with this particular song.  "Peg o' My Heart" was from the Ziegfeld Follies of 1913 and is occasinally performed to this day.

The 1916 Victor Talking Machine Company catalog listed over 500 dance recordings - this at a time when phonographs and records were still considered luxuries affordable only to the more affluent. The 12 inch double-sided 78 rpm discs featured this week had a list price of $1.25.  When one factors in currency inflation, that is roughly equal to $23.15 in today's money.  The more standard 10 inch discs had a list price of 75 cents - or $13.89 in today's money.  Because of the high price of records, few people had large collections  and records  were most likely to be  played only on special occasions or when there was company.  However, thanks to the phonograph and mail order dance instruction available through  teachers such as Arthur Murray, those who could afford it could keep up with the latest tunes and dance steps from New York's top nightclubs - even if they lived in a distant rural community not yet served by electricity.
 
 

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. 
 

Sleigh Ride In St. Petersburg
Marek Weber and His Orchestra               circa early 1930s
(Victor 24552-B)
 

The Nightingale And The Frog
Darius Lyons, picccolo solo with orchestra            1908
(Victor 16194-A)

March Of The Sharpshooters
Prince's Orchestra                                                 1910
(Columbia A5189 mx 30499)

All of this week's "extra" selections were written by Vieneese composer Richard Eilenberg.  I have only recently become familiar with Eilenberg.   Unfortunately, the only biographical information I was able to find on him was that he was born in Vienna in 1848 and died in that same city in 1927.

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March 4, 2004
 
 

 

The Lambeth Walk
Mel Rose and His Band                          1938
(Regal Zonophone MR 2765 mx CAR5009)
 

Cry, Baby, Cry
Mel Rose and His Band                          1938
(Regal Zonophone MR 2765 mx CAR5008)
 
 

Here is a rather enjoyable British record I came across about a week or so ago.  "Mel Rose" was a recording pseudonym used by popular British bandleader Harry Leader for records issued on the low price Regal Zonophone label. 

(NOTE - A visitor has informed me that, in addition to the Harry Leader band, the "Mel Rose" pseudonym was also used by Joe Loss and His Band.  This week's recordings are, in fact, by the Joe Loss band with vocals by Sam Costa)

Lambeth Walk is the name of a famous street in the North Lambeth section of London which was, for many years, the site of a busy street market before it was heavily damaged during World War II.    The song was composed by Arthur Rose and Douglas Furber with lyrics by Noel Gay and first appeared in the British musical comedy "For Me And My Gal" (which was not, in any way, related to the 1942 American musical film by the same name).  The Lambeth Walk was also the name of a popular ballroom dance that originated in the Limehouse section of London and was based on an old English folk step.   Dance instructor Arthur Murray is credited for introducing the dance to America.

"Cry, Baby, Cry" was also popular in the USA where it was a hit recording for the Larry Clinton Orchestra. 
 
 

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. 
 

In Deinen Augen 
Liegt Das Herz Von Wien
Marek Weber und sein Orhester                   circa 1930
(Victor V-6078-B)
 

Zwei Herzen Im 3/4 Takt
Marek Weber und sein Orchester
Leo Moll, vocal                                            circa 1930
(Victor V-6078-A)

Auch Du Wirst Mich Einmal Betrügen
Irene Eisinger - Erik Wirl, vocal
Orchester das Metropol Theaters                  circa 1930
(Victor V-6082-A)

In Wien, Wo Der Wein
Und Der Walzer Blüht
Irene Eisinger, vocal
Orchester das Metropol Theaters                 circa 1930
(Parlophone R191 mx 34749)

One of the musical genres that I have discovered in recent years and have become quite fond of is Viennese operetta.   This week's "Extra" selections feature songs by operetta composer Robert Stolz from the 1929 German film Zwei Herzen im 3/4 Takt (Two Hearts In 3/4 Tempo) which starred Irene Eisinger who is featured in two of this week's selections.  All of the recordings were made in Berlin - though my copies are from American pressings issued at the time on Victor.  To read an interesting biography of Stolz and his lengthy career, click here.   For a photograph and a brief biography of Irene Eisinger, click here.  I am unable to locate any biographical information about Erik Wirl.  Marek Weber was an extremely popular bandleader in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s whose orchestra performed a wide variety of music ranging from classical to tangos to jazz.   Stolz, Eisinger and Weber all had to flee Germany in order to avoid persecution by the National Socialists.