The Vocal Side of Leroy Anderson

Although Leroy Anderson is renowned as a composer of light orchestral music, seven of his compositions were given lyrics by Mitchell Parish - and one has become a holiday standard.

That standard is, of course, "Sleigh Ride," recently heard on this blog in the excellent version by Johnny Desmond. This post covers the rest of the Anderson-Parish vocal arrangements, save for "Belle of the Ball," which as far as I can tell has never been recorded. (Correction: my knowledge was incomplete. Reader JAC tells me that William Dazeley and Kim Criswell recorded it for the Anderson collection conducted by Leonard Slatkin for Naxos.)

I should mention in passing that Anderson also wrote music for the 1958-59 musical Goldilocks, with lyrics by Walter and Jean Kerr and Joan Ford, but those songs aren't covered here.

Eileen Barton

The first three recordings in this post come from 1951, one of the composer's most fruitful years. First we have "The Syncopated Clock," in a charming account by Eileen Barton, with the band directed by the estimable Neal Hefti, still in his 20s and writing charts for Count Basie.

Barton was recording for the small National label at the time. "The Syncopated Clock" was one of that company's last releases before folding. Eileen had enjoyed a number-one record the year before with "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake," originally on National and then picked up by the larger Mercury label. Barton moved on to Coral after National closed. You can hear a bit of her on that label here.

Mary Mayo never had a big hit, but she was well-known as a studio singer. Her Capitol version of "Serenata" makes use only of the gorgeous B section of Anderson's composition. Mary was one of several vocalists who specialized in ethereal vocalise, popular at the time, which she employs in the second chorus of "Serenata." (Others known for this technique were Loulie Jean Norman and Sally Sweetland, the latter of whom will be the subject of a main blog post in the near future.) The conductor of "Serenata" is Mayo's husband, Al Ham.

Mary Mayo and Florian ZaBach

Florian ZaBach was best known as a violinist, but on his record of "The Waltzing Cat" he introduces the song by singing at least the first part of Parish's lyrics, shakily but effectively. His fiddle and the band then indulge in the "meows" that populate the song. ZaBach had done well with another novelty, Paul Nero's "The Hot Canary," so varying the species made good sense.

Vico Torriani

Swiss singer-actor Vico Torriani presumably makes some use of Parish's lyrics in his c1952 recording of "Blue Tango" (a huge instrumental hit for Anderson), but I can't be sure because he sings in German. It's a good record; Torriani was popular for a long time.

A vocal version of Anderson's "Forgotten Dreams" unexpectedly turned up on Ed Ames' 1965 LP, My Kind of Songs. Ames' impassioned singing is just right for this lovely song. Marty Manning's arrangement features the plink-plunk piano accompaniment that was popular at the time, a cliché that has not aged well.

Ed's singing does redeem the record, though, and shows just how well Leroy Anderson's compositions work with vocals - as do all these selections.

This post is a companion to a two-part series on my main blog devoted to all of Anderson's 1950-54 recordings. Part 1 is here; Part 2 is forthcoming.

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