In my last post, I promised some songs by Bing Crosby's
Waikiki Wedding co-star, Shirley Ross. If the latter name sounds familiar, it's probably because of her famous duet with Bob Hope in
The Big Broadcast of 1938, "Thanks for the Memory." Whatever fame she has rests on that and other duets with Hope, notably "Two Sleepy People."
Ross' memory should not reside solely with her several appearances in Bob and Bing movies, fine as they are. She was a superior vocalist. Unfortunately her sensitive style is captured on too few recordings.
Ross began her career as a band vocalist in the early 1930s. Her few 78s with Gus Arnheim came to the attention of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, who began using her as a demo singer.
Following her appearances in several Hope or Crosby films, the Rodgers-Hart team called upon her to fill one of the lead roles in their latest Broadway musical,
Higher and Higher, which opened in April 1940. That work had a superb score, but it did not impress either the critics or the public, so closed relatively quickly.
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| Shirley Ross, Jack Haley and Martha Eggert in Higher and Higher |
Before the opening, Ross recorded "It Never Entered My Mind," "Nothing But You," "From Another World" and "Ev'ry Sunday Afternoon" for Decca, with Ray Sinatra's orchestra. Ross herself introduced "It Never Entered My Mind" and "From Another World" in the show. The former song has probably my favorite Lorenz Hart lyrics, with seemingly every couplet containing a subtle double-entendre (e.g., "You have what I lack myself / And now I'll even have to scratch my back myself"). Ross' rueful reading is affecting, and especially worth hearing because it contains the complete lyrics, which are almost never heard these days.
Ross herself thought she was better suited for the screen than the stage. After the failure of
Higher and Higher, her career dimmed. Her death more than 30 years later was little noticed, probably because she was then known as Bernice Blum - her real first name and her husband's last name. But Hope and Crosby reportedly found out and sent flowers.
The download includes my transfer of the 78 coupling of "From Another World" and "Ev'ry Sunday Afternoon." The other two songs are included as well. While they are not my transfers, I did work over the sound.
Next up, we'll hear from Bing's other
Waikiki Wedding co-star, Martha Raye.
13 comments:
Link (Apple lossless):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/hxzb71j6nnqiq43/Shirley%20Ross%20-%20Songs%20from%20Higher%20and%20Higher.zip
Many thanks. I know Ross from her movie duets and will enjoy hearing more of her fine voice.
Hi Kevin - thanks for your comment!
Mediafire is such a pain in the neck. It thinks there's a version of "I Got It Bad..." by Ivie Anderson in the .zip file. I trust you can fix that.
Well, that's a new one. Let me upload to Mega.
Alternative link:
https://mega.nz/#!aVkhTIRT!PhqCAfC0JgFl5pZR2IzS5P60FHZ5oGhpU5UViStiMKU
These are nifty--thanks! Those Decca "mini-albums" of show songs from that period were a real mixed bag. The set for "The Boys From Syracuse" is covered with great photos from the show...and leaves the singing duties to Frances Langford and Rudy Vallee. Neither is...well chosen. I bought it with such high hopes. Sigh. - Jeff
Hi Jeff - I LOVE The Boys from Syracuse. One of my favorite scores. I am very fond of the 1950s Columbia studio LP with Jack Cassidy, a big favorite of mine. I can imagine your letdown with Vallee and Langford!
Buster--also a huge fan of Jack Cassidy, not to mention Bibi Osterwald with her wonderfully acidic voice. Both perfectly cast on that LP. And Lehman Engel resisted his tendency on those studio albums to take...the...ballads....really...really...slow.... Jack Cassidy's "Do Do Do" is so slow I'm surprised he could fit it on one side of the LP...but I digress...--Jeff
Thank you, kind sir.
much appreciated! thanks
From the lorenzhart.org site:
There were a total of thirteen songs in the finished score, although exactly which Larry wrote and which he did not we can only guess. Most of them were comedy numbers like "A Barking Baby Never Bites" and "I'm Afraid." Only one or two were at all memorable, most notably the haunting "It Never Entered My Mind." Marta Eggerth's big number was "Nothing But You," which has a lyric insipid enough to suggest Hart didn't write it; her other number, "From Another World" isn't much better. "Disgustingly Rich" was the only one retained when the show was filmed a year or so later.
"Higher and Higher" opened at the Shubert in New York on Thursday, April 4, 1940. Backstage Josh Logan sensed the audience's reaction was less than enthusiastic, although everyone seemed to love the performing seal. After the show, as the audience crowded the center aisle to leave, there was a small but perfect silence. Then into that silence, Logan said, an enthusiastic voice rang out. "'Darleeng, zat was zee muss vonderful f**k in zee world!' Many people turned to see who was talking. It was the young French wife of an American lawyer. She was using the French word for "seal" which is "phoque". Her husband tried to keep her quiet, but she protested, 'I deed not say zee show was good-I shuzz say zee f**k was good-zee f**k, only zee f**k, and oh, how I loved zat f**k' By this time the whole aisle was laughing. I stood in my box saying to myself, 'At last, a funny scene but it's not onstage.' Next morning the notices were as gruesome as I knew they would be. The show ran as long as the advance sale lasted, a few months."
Addison - Thanks! I persist in thinking it is a superb score, even if some of the songs do not have first-rate lyrics.
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