Joe Derise Obscurities

My last post about Joe Derise mentioned some obscure recordings he made as an arranger in the early 1950s. That note sparked a request for those items - here they are.

But before we get to them, let's listen to one of the numbers that Derise recorded with Claude Thornhill and the Snowflakes in 1949 for the transcription company Thesaurus. The Snowflakes and Derise did eight songs for Thesaurus, but I have just the one at hand, derived from an old bootleg.

The transcription is a version of "I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)," which the group also recorded for RCA Victor in a similar arrangement. (You can find the RCA disc in the earlier Thornhill collection.) 

The instrumental chart is by Gil Evans, with Derise responsible for the vocal arrangement on both 1949 recordings.

After Derise left Claude Thornhill in 1950, he formed a group called the Four Jacks and a Jill. As far as I can tell, they made only a few recordings. The first was in support of the Al Lombardi Quintet and vocalist Poppy Marin on the small Robin Hood label. The song was a cover of one of the many mildly risqué numbers that April Stevens specialized in, called "Don't Do It." This dates from 1951.

In 1954, Derise provided the arrangements and instrumental backing for a single by vocalist Ray King on the small Vitam label. The songs were "Can It Be Love" and "I'll Always Love You." If the label is to be believed, the latter was the title song of a film, but I can't find any trace of such a release. King's single did elicit a mildly positive review from Cash Box. 

King was probably the singer that Cash Box wrote about earlier in 1954: "Anchor Records has just released a pop single by singer Ray King, whom the diskery is billing as 'The Singing Truck Driver,'" helpfully adding, "He is being billed in this way because he makes his living as a truck driver."

For the final coupling in this group, the Four Jacks and a Jill return to back soloist Marie Peters for a release on another tiny label, Jester Records. Derise provided the arrangements for the vocal group and presumably the accompanying Les Barry Trio.

The first song is "Maybe, I'll Find You Tomorrow," which Peters sings earnestly. The flip side is a clumsy piece called "The Old Fashioned Way." The only information I can find about the singer is a 1957 Billboard report that she had taken a job as a disc jockey in Springfield, Massachusetts. It's not clear when the Jester record was made but I suspect it was before Derise joined Bethlehem as a solo artist.