The Evolution of 'Time Was'

Miguel Prado

In the past, I've posted two versions of the lovely song, "Time Was" - one by Buddy Clark with Wayne King, and more recently one by Bob Manning on his Lonely Spell LP. "Time Was" has an interesting history, involving three different incarnations, all of which surfaced in the space of a few years. Today we'll look at the various versions in contemporary recordings.

"Time Was" started life as the ballad "Duerme" ("Sleep") by the Mexican composer Miguel Prado (1905-87) with words by Gabriel Luna. Its first recording was likely in June 1937, with the Orquesta Castillito directed by Paulina Alvarez and the vocal by Prado himself. I haven't been able to locate a copy of this recording, which was made in Havana.

Al Bowlly

The following year, "Duerme" turned up in the film Di Que Me Quieres, as sung by Rosita Rios both in the film and for Victor. The recording was made in New York, the setting of the movie. Rios' record is the first in our set.

"Duerme" became "Dreaming" for a 1940 record by the great South African-born English vocalist Al Bowlly, with an orchestra directed by an uncredited Ronnie Munro. This is a well-sung version. The lyrics are standard-issue, although resonant because of the war: "Dreaming, dreaming of you in the firelight's glow / Sweetheart I want you to always know / Each night I dream of you."

Late that same year, Xavier Cugat recorded the song with its original lyrics as sung by his then-wife, Carmen Castillo. Cugat's version did gain some traction. 

Xavier Cugat and Carmen Castillo

Tito Guízar

The next version was by the excellent Mexican vocalist Tito Guízar, resident in the US since 1929. Both Guízar and Cugat used the original Luna lyrics, although both of the copies in this collection were labelled "Time Was (Duerme)." My guess is that these pressings came out after the song became popular with new English lyrics by S.K. Russell.

Perhaps the most successful of those English language records was that of Jimmy Dorsey, which is also the worst of all the renditions featured here. The vocals start with Bob Eberly, who is effortful as usual, but pleasant enough. 

Then Dorsey decides to "swing it," and brings in Helen O'Connell for an up-tempo chorus. She was just not a very good singer, sad to say. The song ends with an elaborate alto solo from the leader.

Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberly

The best record is surely that of Wayne King, from just a month after Dorsey. King leads off with a fine soprano sax solo (at least I assume it is King), followed by a superb vocal by an uncredited Buddy Clark. (He was anonymous because he was under contract with another label.)

Wayne King

Clark makes the most of the Russell lyrics, which aren't great, but much better than what Al Bowlly sang. (The words tell us of "Picnics and sleigh rides / And mid-winter hay rides" and the like.) I passed over this record quickly in my survey of Clark's recordings with Wayne King, so I've included it once again in this compilation. It's well worth hearing a second time.

BONUS - My friend and longtime blog follower Mel has passed along his own favorite interpretation of "Time Was." It is a swinging version by Janet Brace, a very good singer who started with big bands, notably Johnny Long's, then made a few singles for Decca. This comes from her only LP, Special Delivery, issued by ABC-Paramount in 1956. A quartet led by Don Elliott accompanies her.

I don't believe I have this record myself, so I am especially grateful to Mel for his contribution. I should gather up Janet's singles for a post - she was talented!

The link to this item is in the comments.

Doris Day - The V-Discs

For the second half of my tribute to Doris Day, I thought I might gather all the V-Discs she made with Les Brown and under her own name, including one duet with Buddy Clark.

As was common with V-Discs, some are dubs of commercial issues. Eight in this set of 12 fall into that category. The others are from a radio source, from unissued record company masters and from a special V-Disc session, complete with spoken introduction.

The first item in our collection is the most famous song recorded by Day when she was with Les Brown: "Sentimental Journey." This is not the Columbia recording; rather, it was taken from a November 1944 NBC broadcast of "For the Record."

Next in order of issue (although recorded first) was a special V-Disc made at a New Jersey army hospital in summer 1944, "Take Me in Your Arms." It includes a brief spoke introduction where Doris tells the soldiers not to take the title literally.

Les and Doris

"Till the End of Time" was one of the many classical-pop traductions of the time. On the label above, you can see that Kaye and Mossman didn't want to share the credit with Chopin. The second item is a Cahn-Styne topical piece called "He'll Have to Cross the Atlantic to Get to the Pacific" in the lyrics and by Columbia and "You've Got to Cross the etc." by V-Disc. We're going with the latter. Both songs come from a May 25 commercial session.

"You Won't Be Satisfied" is another Brown record for Columbia, dating from November 1945. It has a nice tenor sax solo by Ted Nash, who later had a very long career in studio orchestras.

From a March 1946 Columbia session, but unissued by the company commercially, comes a rocking number with the peculiar title of "Deevil, Devil, Divel," which may be why it remained in the vaults except for this V-Disc. It's a good workout for Brown's band, though.

By the next Columbia session, in June 1947, Doris had gone out on her own. The title selected for V-Disc was the commercial disc of "(I'm Still) Sitting Under the Apple Tree," which conveys a very different sentiment than "He'll Have to Cross the Atlantic to Get to the Pacific." Both were by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn.

Terry Melcher with mom's portrait

In September of that year, Cahn and Styne had turned their attention to the polka, penning "Papa Won't You Dance with Me." A second song, "That's the Way He Does It," dates from the same session. Doris' record came out on both the Columbia and V-Disc labels.

The following session, in November, resulted in an Columbia master unissued except for V-Disc. It's hard to understand why. It's a terrific reading of "No Moon at All" - then a new song - with a powerfully swinging arrangement by blog favorite George Siravo and a nice tenor solo from Toots Mondello.

From December 1947 comes "I've Only Myself to Blame," a rueful ballad by David Mann and Redd Evans, who also wrote "No Moon at All." This was issued commercially by Columbia.

The final title was a duet with another superb vocalist (and another blog favorite), Buddy Clark. From December 1948, "I'll String Along with You" is beautifully done with simple harmonizing by these two great artists. It's a fitting remembrance of both.

All these items except one come from lossy sources, but have come up well in the remastering. "I've Only Myself to Blame" does have some minor residual noise. I've substituted the commercial issue of "I'll String Along with You" for the very noisy V-Disc dub at hand.

Please see my other blog for another tribute to Doris.

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Buddy Clark on V-Disc

The great but short-lived vocalist Buddy Clark recorded four songs for V-Disc that aren't found among his commercial recordings, at least in the same form. This post collects the four.

"How Are Things in Glocca Mora" is an alternate take to his 1946 Columbia record. The backing was by frequent collaborator Mitchell Ayres.

Buddy did "Peg O' My Heart" for Columbia, but this version for V-Disc was taken from an aircheck of a Contented Hour broadcast from May 1947. Percy Faith provided the accompaniment

The third item is one of the most unusual of all V-Discs. It was taken from a 1946 Columbia session that represented his first attempts at "Isn't This Better than Walking in the Rain."

Buddy Clark

Here for a V-Disc subtitled "Fluffs at a Record Session," we have a mash-up of two breakdown takes. In the first one, Buddy flubs the melody and makes up his own, invoking Dick Haymes and "Bingie Boy" in the process. In the second, he launches into a broad Jolson imitation. He ends with a plaintive "What the hell am I doing?"

The final item has a spoken Clark introduction - a feature of many V-Discs - followed by a reading of "You're Too Dangerous, Cherie" (an English-language version of "La Vie en Rose"). It was sourced from an October 1947 Contented Hour broadcast.

These are not my transfers, but I did work over the sound, and it's good, except for a high frequency roll-off and a bit of noise in the final item.

This post is a companion to a new survey on my other blog of some of Clark's Okeh, Columbia and Varsity records.

ADDENDUM - Sharp-eyed reader Max pointed out that I overlooked one of Clark's V-Discs, and it's a good one - a wonderful version of the Carmichael-Mercer "How Little We Know" made in 1945 with an excellent Army orchestra when the singer was Cpl. Buddy Clark. I've added a link to a repitched and remastered version in the comments. Thanks, Max!

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Buddy Clark

This is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great vocalist Buddy Clark. (Thanks to Will Friedwald for that intelligence.) To mark the occasion, I've uploaded one of his 1948 singles, which I recently acquired.

On one side, Buddy takes on Leon René's "Gloria", a song that later became a doo-wop favorite. I have to say I prefer Ronnie Deauville's hypersensitive interpretation, but this is a good one, too. The flip is Harold Rome's "The Money Song", from the show That's the Ticket. The one was also recorded by Martin and Lewis, and Clark's rendition is to be preferred to that raucous affair.

Buddy Clark

On both sides, Clark has the backing of two notable singing groups, the well-known Modernaires, and the Skylarks, who also recorded with Bing Crosby, Tommy Dorsey and others, and were often on American television.

Clark died in a 1949 plane crash, at the peak of his popularity. It's a shame he isn't better remembered.

The sound on these sides is good. I think this may be the only green-label Columbia promo 78 I own (the rest of them are white). Love the crew cut DJ on these labels.