Lauritz Melchior

This is a companion to my recent post of Lauritz Melchior in The Student Prince, which can be found on the Big 10-Inch Record.

This 78 offers up the supposed "Bach-Gounod" version of "Ave Maria", a Melchior encore, and couples it with the 1898 Ethelbert Nevin groaner "The Rosary", a song that was considered outdated a generation before this recording was made in 1947.

The famous heldentenor was branching out from Wagner in the 1940s, appearing in movies, recording operetta, and indulging in salon songs such as this pair, which he inscribed for the record arm of M-G-M. He also was endorsing a variety of products, including the drug store after-shave lotion called Aqua Velva. The ad below displays the peculiar notion that you could sell scent by associating it with tenors, actors, violinists, generals and writers. Why, everyone knows that half-naked women are the way to go!

On this single, in the grand M-G-M tradition, Melchior has the posh backing of the studio orchestra, led by Georgie Stoll. The sound is reasonably good.

1947 ad (click to enlarge)

Fran Warren with Charlie Barnet

I've been celebrating the recordings of the recently deceased Fran Warren on my blogs recently. Here is what I believe to be the singer's first record, made with Charlie Barnet's band in October 1945, when she was 19.

Warren had already sung with the bands of Billy Eckstine and Art Mooney. As far as I can tell, she made only two records with Barnet; this is the first. It certainly is a creditable effort, showing great promise.

Warren

Fran moved on to greater success with the Claude Thornhill aggregation - notably "A Sunday Kind of Love" - and as a solo artist. I have already shared some of her RCA Victor recordings here and on the Big 10-Inch Record, FYI.

Evans

The flip side of this Decca 78 is also of interest. It shows off composer Redd Evans' chops as a singer (he's a little like Johnny Mercer, another singing composer). However, Evans did not write the song, "Surprise Party", nor was he a member of the Barnet band. He did have a sideline as a music publisher, however - and as publisher of this particular song, he sold both it and himself to Barnet.

As a composer, Evans usually wrote with Dave Mann, and was responsible for among others, "No Moon at All" (a Page Cavanaugh specialty), "The Frim-Fram Sauce" (a Nat Cole hit), "If Love Is Good to Me" (a Jackie Paris favorite), and "Let Me Off Uptown" (Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge with Gene Krupa).