September 2005
September 29, 2005
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
Webster's New International Dictionary
G.&C. Merriam Co., Springfield, Mass.
(From 1931 ad)
You
Try Somebody Else
Majestic Dance Orchestra
Glenn Cross, vocal
1931
(Romeo 1755-B mx 10902)
An
Evening In Caroline
Majestic Dance Orchestra
Smith Ballew, vocal
1931
(Romeo 1755-A mx 10987)
The record from which this week's
selections come is, unfortunately, not in the best of shape - especially
during the opening few seconds of each side. But since I have become
rather addicted to the very nice jazz violin solos after the vocal on "You
Try Somebody Else" I cannot resist including it here.
The Majestic Dance Orchestra was
a recording pseudonym used by several record companies and a variety of
bands recorded under it. In fact, while both of this week's selections
were issued under the pseudonym, they are performed by different
bands. Vic Irwin's Orchestra was the band on "You Try Somebody Else"
and the Merle Johnston Orchestra performed "An Evening In Caroline."
Unfortunately, I have very little information about either band. I do know
that Merle Johnston was a saxophonist with the Ben Selvin Orchestra
but he also made recordings under his own name in the late 1920s and early
1930s.
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.
I
Did What I Could With My Gas Mask
George Formby And His Ukulele
1941
(Regal Zonophone MR-3463 mx CAR-6042)
Hold
Your Hats On
George Formby And His Ukulele
1942
(Regal Zonophone MR-3654 mx CAR-6363)
Thirty
Thirsty Sailors
George Formby And His Ukulele
1942
(Regal Zonophone MR-3654 mx CAR-6362)
Guarding
The Home Of The Home Guards
George Formby And His Ukulele
1940
(Regal Zonophone MR-3411 mx CAR-5907)
I
Wish I Was Back On The Farm
George Formby And His Ukulele
1940
(Regal Zonophone MR-3411 mx CAR-5908)
George Formby was one of the highest
paid entertainers in Great Britain in the early 1940s and his unique brand
of humor and Lancashire dialect made him especially popular with the working
class. Early in his career, Formby purchased a ukulele and took a
dare to play it in one of his stage performances. The enthusiastic
response of the audience was such that it became a permanent part of his
act.
All of the selections here were
recorded while Britain was engaged in World War II and there are a number
of references to war time life. During the War, Formby toured extensively
and entertained an estimated 3 million Allied troops.
Additional biographical information
about Formby can be found at this
website.
September 15, 2005
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
(Click on image for larger view)
Philco
A Musical Instrument of Quality
(From 1933 ad)
Ro-Ro-Rollin'
Along
Anson Weeks & His Hotel
Mark Hopkins Orchestra
1930
(Columbia 2211-D mx 150518)
If
I Had A Girl Like You
Anson Weeks & His Hotel
Mark Hopkins Orchestra
1930
(Columbia 2211-D mx 150449)
You've
Got Everything
Anson Weeks And His Orchestra
Bob Crosby, vocal
1933
(Brunswick 6661 mx SF66A)
I'll
Be Faithful
Anson Weeks And His Orchestra
Pete Fylling, vocal
1933
(Brunswick 6661 mx SF67A)
The Anson Weeks orchestra was one
of the best known West Coast society bands of the 1930s. From 1927
through 1934 the band had a very successful engagement at the Peacock Court
ballroom in San Francisco's Mark
Hopkins Hotel. National exposure through its 1931 coast-to-coast
Lucky
Strike Magic Carpet radio program on NBC and its recording contracts
with Columbia and Brunswick records enabled the band to travel to New York
in 1934 for a long engagement at the St.
Regis Hotel followed by tours to other cities. In 1941 Weeks
was involved in a serious bus accident which badly injured his right arm
and forced him to leave the music business. In the late 1950s he
came out of retirement and formed a 7 piece hotel band which regularly
performed at the top San Francisco hotels, including the Mark Hopkins.
In the mid 1960s, the band moved to Sacramento where Weeks spent the remainder
of his life . More information on the Anson Weeks Orchestra
as well as some interesting audio files can be found at The
Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.
This week's selection "You've Got
Everything" is a recording I first heard on Rich Conaty's The
Big Broadcast and I was eventually able to locate and purchase my own
copy. The vocalist on the recording was Bing Crosby's then
unknown kid brother Bob. Two years after this recording, he assumed
leadership of the remnants of the Ben Pollack Orchestra and made it one
of the more successful bands in the country. However, Bob Crosby's
first major show business break was when he became a vocalist for Anson
Weeks in 1931.
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.
Windy
Willie
New York Military Band
1919
(Edison 50677-L mx 6949-B)
Manhattan
Beach March
New York Military band
1919
(Edison 50677-R mx 6986-C)
Both of these selections come from
an old Edison Diamond Disc.
"Windy Willie" is described as a
"characteristic march" and when I first saw the record, I expected
it to be a more or less typical march. To my very pleasant surprise,
it turned out to be an enjoyable ragtime selection. Its composer,
Frank Hoyt Losey, is best remembered as a composer of marches though he
did have a number of ragtime songs to his credit as well.
"Manhattan Beach March" was composed
by John Philip Sousa in 1893 and is one of his more famous marches.
Manhattan Beach was, at the time, a very popular New York resort where
Sousa's band had a long term engagement.
I have not been able to locate any
definite information about the New York Military Band featured in the recording.
It is possible that the band's name was merely a recording pseudonym used
by Edison. On the other hand, at the time, there was a real life
New York Military Band which was quite popular and, in 1920, became
known as the Goldman
Band which continues to perform to this day.
September 1, 2005
This week's Hit of the Week is brought
to you by
White Rock
The Leading Mineral Water
(From 1932 ad)
|
New Internet Radio Station
Review
Radio
Moscow Classic Russian popular
and patriotic music of the 1930s and 1940s
I am pleased
to introduce a brand new vintage music Internet radio station that is operated
by my friend and occasional Hit of the Week and Radio Dismuke contributor
Christian Kohlhaas. Radio Moscow is a Live 365 station which
features Russian popular and patriotic recordings from the 1930s and early
1940s.
Until I knew Christian, I had very
little exposure to the kind of recordings that were produced and popular
in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Some of the recordings
heard on the station are what I would have expected them to be like - very
somber and heavy. Others, however, were surprisingly lighthearted
and pleasant. Many of the ballads are very melancholy but beautiful
and some of the dance bands were every bit as upbeat and jazzy as their
Western counterparts. For a country that had only limited contact
with the West, its popular recordings, nevertheless, show a very definite
influence by the era's popular music trends in the United States and Western
Europe.
Sadly, the world from which the
recordings came was not a pleasant one. The Soviet Union was one
of the bloodiest and most brutal tyrannies the world has ever seen.
It was a country ruled by an oppressive and insidiously evil collectivist
ideology headed up by a dictator who murdered many tens of millions of
people and turned life into an impoverished and frightful hell for those
who managed to remain alive. Joseph Stalin was responsible for the
murder of far more people than even Adolf Hitler - and, along with Hitler,
he plunged Europe and eventually the world into the deadly bloodbath of
World War II exactly 66 years ago today. One can only imagine what
a cultural and spiritual lifeline that peppy Western style dance bands
such as Alexander Varlamov and His Jazz Orchestra (of which I have become
a big fan) must have been for a great many people who were helplessly trapped
in such a nightmare.
Christian, who developed his interest
in vintage Russian recordings as a result of his hobby of World War II
reenacting, has strived to be very authentic in presenting a representative
cross section of the sort of music that the Russian troops on the front
lines of World War II would have been familiar with at home before the
war as well as the sort of propaganda and motivational music they would
have been exposed to while in the military. As a result, some of
the recordings reflect history in ways that can sometimes be a bit disturbing.
For example, I will hear a song on the station that I think is very
pretty and pull up the Live 365 player window to see what it is called
- only to discover that it is a song praising one of the bloodiest mass
murderers in human history. It is probably a good thing I do not
speak Russian because, judging by some of the song titles which have been
translated into English, there are some very enjoyable and pretty tunes
in the playlist which probably have lyrics espousing views that I would
consider to be thoroughly repugnant. It is very sad to realize that
such pretty music was reduced to propaganda by the very worst sort of people.
Fortunately, those of us who do not speak Russian can enjoy the music and
be happily oblivious to any totalitarian messages that the lyrics might
contain.
While the station does an excellent
job at providing a fascinating historical glimpse at the everyday music
of a time and place that most Westerners know very little about, its educational
value is not my primary reason for recommending it. A great deal of the
music presented on the station is entertaining, emotionally moving and
very much worthy of the revival and public attention that, thanks to Christian,
it will now enjoy. If you enjoy the music on stations such as Radio
Dismuke and, most especially, Weimar
Rundfunk, you will probably enjoy Radio Moscow and want to make it
a part of your regular Internet radio listening. Because the
station provides a variety of musical styles from the period, you most
likely find yourself enjoying some songs more than others. For that
reason, my suggestion is to tune in for the first time when you are in
a position to listen for at least a half hour so that you can get a representative
sample of the sort of music that the station has to offer. Above
all, Radio Moscow is just one more example what a remarkable and powerful
medium the Internet has become at providing a voice to music and art that
previously had little chance to obtain much in the way of public attention.
My guess is that one would be very hard pressed to find another radio station
with a similar format anywhere in the world, even in Russia itself.
Thanks to the Internet, Live 365 and, of course, Christian himself, the
music and all of the emotions and contemplation it inspires is now available
to anyone in the world who has access to a sound card equipped computer
and Internet connection. |
The
Peanut Vendor
Don Azpiazu And His Havana Casino
Orchestra
Antonio Machin, vocal
1930
(Victor 22483-A)
True
Love
Don Azpiazu And His Havana Casino
Orchestra
Antonio Machin, vocal
1930
(Victor 22483-B)
Since I consider myself to be a
fan of 1930s era Cuban dance band music, I was very pleased when
I recently acquired this record. The record is historic not only
because it sold a lot of copies at a time when, due to the Great Depression,
few people were buying records, it was the first authentic Cuban
dance band recording to be issued in the United States and helped
spark the 1930s Latin dance music craze which lasted into the 1950s.
This record was also the first to introduce "The Peanut Vendor" to the
United States. The song has subsequently been recorded by many artists
over the years and is regarded as a Latin music classic.
Lady
Play Your Mandolin
Havana Novelty Orchestra
Paul Small, vocal
1930
(Victor 22597-A)
Mama
Ines
Havana Novelty Orchestra
1930
(Victor 22597-B)
I featured both of these recordings
several weeks ago when I included them in an announcement that I was unable
to put up a weekly update. Because they were not part of an actual
update, they were never archived on the site. Since that time, I
have received several inquiries from people who enjoyed the recordings
wanting to know where to find them again.
I first heard this recording of
"Lady Play Your Mandolin" on Rich Conaty's The
Big Broadcast last year and absolutely had to have the record.
Eventually, I was able to obtain a copy and have since acquired other versions
of the song as well. Both the Havana Novelty Orchestra version
and a version by Nick Lucas were among the best selling records of 1931.
I do not have any information about
the Havana Novelty Orchestra. My strong guess is that the group was
Cuban in name only and was probably comprised of American studio musicians.
(Update: a posting
in this website's Message Board confirms that the Havana Novelty Orchestra
was indeed an in-house Victor band led by Nat Shilkret)
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
Of "Havana"
Victor Light Opera Company
1909
(Victor 31774 )
Argentine
Tango
Victor Military Band
1913
(Victor 17276-B)
I thought I might as well carry
this update's Latin American theme into the "Extra" - though the selections
are mostly Latin merely by virtue of their song titles.
Havana was an operetta composed
by Leslie Stuart that opened at London's Gaiety
Theatre in April 1908 and at the Casino
Theatre on Broadway in February 1909. Stuart is best remembered
as the composer of the operetta Florodora which opened in London
in 1899. The American production, which opened in 1900, was a huge
hit running for an unprecedented 553 performances and was famous for its
"Florodora Girls." One of the Florodora Girls was Evelyn Nesbit who, a
few years later, found herself at the center of one of the first great
scandals
of the 20th century. After Florodora Stuart composed
several other musical productions, including Havana, which were
not as successful and have been mostly forgotten.
I have not been able to find much
information about "Argentine Tango." The record's label only
credits someone by the name of "Roberto" as the composer. At
the time, there was a famous bandleader and composer of tangos in
Argentina named Roberto Firpo. My guess, however, is that Firpo
was not the composer of this selection based on the fact that single name
credits on Victor reflected the composers' last names. I suppose,
however, there is a possibility that there might have been some sort of
error on the part of whoever put the label information together.
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