The Honey Dreamers on the Beach

This is a companion post to one on my other blog devoted to the Honey Dreamers, a fine 50s group that's now forgotten.

The back of the EP (below) indicates that this group includes lead singer Patty McGovern, which would date the recordings as being made before 1955. However, this particular release must date from several years later, because it's on SESAC Repertory Recordings, which didn't come into existence until 1958.

To clear up any mystery, SESAC was and is the smallest of the performing rights organizations (the others are ASCAP and BMI). I believe that SESAC had a transcription service to showcase works by its composers. The Honey Dreamers must have made some recordings for them, later issued on this and one or two other EPs.

Here they are accompanied by the excellent Richard Maltby band, and the tunes, while not deathless are enjoyable and characteristic of the time; the wordless "A Peach on a Beach" includes wolf whistles, etc. The performances are, if anything, better than on the Gershwin album on the Big 10-Inch Record site.

The sound is lathered with reverb, but otherwise fine.