Joe Derise with the Snowflakes and Claude Thornhill

Joe Derise in 1949

Singer-pianist-arranger Joe Derise joined Claude Thornhill's influential big band in 1948 as a guitarist, singer and arranger, and began recording with the band in early 1949. He stayed with the group until about mid-1950, making a total of 10 commercial recordings - as a member of the Snowflakes, as an arranger and two as a solo vocalist. This post gathers together those 10 sides, all on the RCA Victor label. Derise's guitar presumably is also present on Thornhill's instrumental numbers of this period, but those aren't covered here.

The first two songs in this set come from January 6, 1949, with Derise as a member of the Snowflakes, who at the time also included Nancy Clayton, Jim Preston and Hugh Baker. The arranger for these two numbers is Gil Evans, but I suspect that Derise handled the vocal charts.

"I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" leads off the set, a standard by Fred Ahlert and Roy Turk dating from 1931. Among others, Tommy Dorsey, with Stuart Foster on vocals, revived it in 1946. (That recording can be found in this collection.) Thornhill's version is easy-going and dreamy, as his recordings tend to be.

From that same date came "There's a Small Hotel," a Rodgers and Hart song from 1936's On Your Toes. This version probably was occasioned by Betty Garrett's vocal in the film Words and Music, released just a week before this recording session.

The Thornhill Band - I think that might be Derise on guitar at center

We move on to an April session and Derise's first arrangement for the band, presumably both vocal and instrumental. "Moonlight and Roses" is a song with an unusual story. Organist Edwin Lemare wrote it as an instrumental Andantino way back in 1888. In 1921 Ben Black and Neil Moret added words, turning it into "Moonlight and Roses." Lemare objected, but they eventually worked things out. The song was a standard at one time - and was a hit most recently as 1964, for Jim Reeves. As the title may suggest, it's a highly romantic piece, well suited for Thornhill and the Snowflakes. 

Russ McIntyre

"On the 5:45" was an English song new in 1949, a simple ditty with Nancy Clayton and the band's boy singer, Russ McIntyre, playing newlyweds. This is from a June 1949 session, and like the balance of songs here, was a Derise arrangement. On these records, McIntyre can't decide whether he wants to sound like Bing, Perry or Vaughn Monroe. Here Crosby is to the fore.

Next we have one of Meredith Willson's more peculiar inventions, "The Iowa Indian Song (Io-Wuh)," which is mostly concerned with the growth of corn ("Knee high by the Fourth of July!"), to the accompaniment of a stereotypical "Indian" tom-tom drum. Willson did love his home state.

The song must have had some merit; Bing himself recorded it. Don't confuse it with the better known (to me, anyway) "All I Owe Ioway," which Rodgers and Hammerstein had written for the film State Fair a few years before.

Coming from the same November 1949 session was Derise's first solo vocal, on a novelty called the "Johnson Rag," one of any number of old-timey songs that were in vogue during the postwar period. This tune actually dated from 1939, when Glenn Miller recorded it. For whatever reason, a decade later all the bands decided to get in on the action. I generally can't stand the old-timey genre; as soon as I hear the tinny plunk of an upright piano, I lunge for the on-off switch. But I must admit the Derise-Snowflakes-Thornhill version is catchy and enjoyable. This was the only Thornhill record where Derise received a label credit, to my knowledge.

Moving ahead to January 1950, we have one of the best Snowflakes records, a great song from the Gershwins, "Bidin' My Time," from the 1930 musical Girl Crazy. Thornhill included it in his album Claude Thornhill Plays George Gershwin for Dancing, one of a series that RCA was recording with bandleaders. (Ralph Flanagan's take on Rodgers and Hammerstein is here.)

Claude Thornhill

Joe's final recording session with Thornhill was in April 1950. It began with another 1931 song, the enduringly popular "Sweet and Lovely," which bandleader Gus Arnheim both wrote and recorded. Thornhill's effort is mainly a feature for Russ McIntyre. You can contrast his reading with that of the young David Allyn here.

Derise recorded his second rhythm specialty next - the "Sugarfoot Rag," a terrific country tune that made the 18-year-old guitarist Hank Garland famous. Joe is wonderfully relaxed and swinging in this number, and the Snowflakes get a chance to rock for once. Too bad that Derise did not get a label credit for his performance.

The final song in this collection is "Honolulu," another 1939 revival. Harry Warren and Gus Kahn wrote it for the film of the same name. This one has the Snowflakes to the fore and the Thornhill band more extroverted than usual.

Thornhill did not make any additional commercial records until 1953. By that time Derise had moved on to his own group, called Four Jacks and a Jill. That ensemble did make some records for small labels, mainly backing a few terrible soloists. I have the records if anyone is interested in hearing them.

I should mention that Derise did record some transcriptions with Thornhill, and I expect to transfer a few of those soon. The items above mainly originated with the Internet Archive. The sound is generally good after I cleaned it up, but a few sides have some residual wear and noise. The recording of "Bidin' My Time" comes from my collection.

This post is a companion to one on the main blog covering Derise's 1955-56 LPs for Bethlehem.