Bob Stewart on Embassy and Metro

Vocalist Bob Stewart appeared seemingly out of nowhere about 25 years ago, billed as one of the last of the great saloon singers. The first time I saw one of his CDs, I remember thinking to myself, "Bob WHO?"

It turns out that Stewart did have an earlier career, although it was an obscure one - and he really was quite a good singer.

This post brings together what are probably his two earliest recordings, both from 78s in my collection.

I believe the earlier of the two recordings, on the Metro label, dates from 1948. On it, Stewart is backed by a vocal group called the Victorians. The idea here was apparently to combine a singer who sounded a lot like Sinatra with a group that sounded just like the Mills Brothers. It all works surprisingly well, and the two innocuous songs are most pleasant - assuming you can tolerate the heavy surfaces on my well-worn copy.

I have not been able to find a date for the other record, which is on the Embassy label. The cover above may fool you into thinking the Embassy recording is an LP - it is not, and I was deceived myself when I picked it up years ago. It is a promo 78 sent to disk jockeys with a cardboard sleeve detailing Stewart's career, which to that point had entailed several big band stints and service as a plumber.

While the Embassy folks claim that their single was Stewart's first, I believe this record postdates the Metro 78 by a few years. On Embassy, the singer (to my ears) betrays the influence of Eddie Fisher, who did not become popular until 1950. However, I will admit that it is possible that the Embassy release comes from as early as 1948 - I found evidence of a record company by that name being founded in that year.

M-G-M promo

Whatever the dating, again this is a fine record, this time with pristine surfaces. The songs again are generic efforts, but Stewart and a backing group do well by them. One of the songs, "If I Had My Way," is basically "You Tell Me Your Dream, I'll Tell You Mine," an 1899 song that had been revived in 1939.

Now, because the singing styles on the two records are different, it is possible that there were two different crooning Bob Stewarts, although I think that is unlikely.

Stewart went on to tape a dozen or so songs for M-G-M in 1954, and had a least one single on Dot in 1957. But his most notable recording was a very good 1956 LP on Dawn with Mat Mathews, which has been reissued. After those efforts, nothing until his reemergence in about 1990.

This post is the result of a request from some time ago - sorry about the delay!

Copland for Children

Young People's Records (YPR) was a prolific and innovative postwar enterprise that lasted until it was dissolved during the 1952 Red Scare - only to have virtually its entire catalogue quickly resurface under the Children's Record Guild imprint.

YPR had the misfortune of being branded as a Communist-influenced organization during those tortured days, and many of its artists were likewise identified as sympathizers, such as folk singers Pete Seeger, Tom Glazer and Oscar Brand, as was YPR founder Horace Grenell.

The composer Aaron Copland also was in that category, although that is immaterial to his presence as the subject of this 78-rpm single, "The Music of Aaron Copland for Young People." This takes the form of a mother (radio-television actor Adelaide Klein) playing excerpts from the composer's music for her daughter (Madeline Lee), to a script by Raymond Abrashkin, YPR's staff writer.

Adelaide Klein

There isn't much you can say about a composer in the space of six minutes while playing his music, so the narrative confines itself to such passages as the daughter exclaiming that the excerpt from A Lincoln Portrait "feels like" Lincoln. (At this remove, it's probably more appropriate to say that our impression of the assassinated President "feels like" A Lincoln Portrait.)

The musical excerpts also include Appalachian Spring, El Salón México and Billy the Kid. All are well played by members of the New York Philharmonic led by Walter Hendl.

The dating of this record is uncertain, although I believe it comes from the late 1940s. YPR was founded in 1947, and Hendl was associate conductor of the New York band until 1949.

Walter Hendl

The sound from this early vinyl pressing is excellent. I mentioned YPR's record of innovation; the early use of vinyl was one facet, but more important was its mail-order subscription approach to marketing. It's said that YPR had a million subscribers at one time. I think this is wildly unlikely - I have encountered relatively few YPR records over a lifetime of collecting. Also, apparently one reason YPR went under is that libraries and other institutions cancelled their subscriptions during the Red Scare. These cancellations would not themselves have been a significant issue if the company truly had a huge subscription base.

YPR intended to produce a series of recordings about composers, but as far as I can tell, only this record and one devoted to Igor Stravinsky were ever completed.

I don't collect children's records (and didn't even when I was a tot), but I do have one other interesting item from the YPR/Children's Record Guild catalog - "By Rocket to the Moon" accompanied by the music of Raymond Scott, which I will share sometime in the future.