A Parade of 'Easter Parades'

What you see at left is perhaps the first Easter parade in song - it is a still from As Thousands Cheer, the 1933 revue with music by Irving Berlin that introduced his "Easter Parade."

I believe the right foreground displays Clifton Webb and Marilyn Miller, who first sang the number. At left is co-star Helen Broderick.

Webb recorded the song for Victor with conductor Leo Reisman, and it's the first entry in today's "Parade of 'Easter Parades'," a collection of 10 diverse interpretations of the song, including the best known renditions and some lesser recognized discs as well.

Henry Hall

Following its introduction, it wasn't long before Berlin's holiday classic made it across the Atlantic and intro the hands of Henry Hall, the conductor of the BBC Dance Orchestra. The label for his 1935 recording says that the song is from a West End revue called Stop Press, about which little information has survived. We do know that either the producers or Berlin himself altered the lyrics to fit London - removing the reference to Fifth Avenue, and to "the rotogravure," which, come to think of it, is a term that may baffle anyone younger than me. ("Rotogravure" refers to the picture supplements of Sunday newspapers, taking its name from the printing process used for their production.)

A much different approach to the song was taken in 1939 by the Jimmie Lunceford band, performing a stylish arrangement by Sy Oliver. This swing version has a smooth vocal by Trummy Young, trombonist in the band and later a long-time associate of Louis Armstrong.

Jimmie Lunceford and Trummy Young

Our next selection could hardly be more of a contrast - it is Andre Kostelanetz's lush reading from his 1942 album Musical Comedy Favorites, Volume II. Both volumes are available on my other blog.

Bing Crosby had a go at the song for his 1942 film Holiday Inn, where he warbled to Marjorie Reynolds and her Easter bonnet, as seen below. For his commercial recording Bing had to be content with the Decca microphone and maestro John Scott Trotter. (The complete Holiday Inn recordings are here.)

Bing and Marjorie Reynolds

The most famous recording of "Easter Parade" may be the one in the 1948 film of the same name, as performed by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire, who look splendid promenading below. The soundtrack version may be celebrated, but in truth Garland's singing does blare a bit.

Judy and Fred

Freddie Mitchell

Judy is not nearly as blaring, however, as the tenor sax of Freddie Mitchell in his 1949 R&B version for the Derby label. Freddie turned most everything into a boogie - literally so in this release, which first came out as "Easter Boogie," with Mitchell as co-author, but later was retitled "Easter Parade," with Berlin reinstated as composer. On the disc, the leader's tenor sax solo quotes Illinois Jacquet's legendary break in Lionel Hampton's "Flying Home." As usual on Mitchell's records, a tinny sounding upright piano is prominent.

The following year, the duo of Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely were in the Capitol studios to record one of their bigger hits, "Let's Go to Church (Next Sunday Morning)" along with its flip side, their take on "Easter Parade." Both featured the same creaky organ accompaniment.

Back then, the fashion in jazz circles was to record a noted soloist accompanied by sumptuous strings, following the success of alto saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker in that setting. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge got the treatment in late 1951, with his accompaniment arranged and conducted by George Williams. Eldridge recorded this cushiony interpretation for Mercury.

Roy Eldridge

To close we have an enjoyable version from the Ray Charles Singers, who made a long series of excellent records in the 1950s and 60s. This is from their Spring Is Here collection for M-G-M. The recording, from 1955, also features the Columbus Boychoir, for reasons that aren't obvious.

The Ray Charles Singers at a recording session. The leader is to the right of the microphone.

The recordings in this collection were remastered from Internet Archive and my collection.

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Astaire and the Gershwins Return in 'Shall We Dance'

Here's another in a series collecting the commercial recordings associated with Fred Astaire's films. The last entry, Swing Time, featured the music of Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. For this post, 1937's Shall We Dance, we return to the work of the Gershwin brothers, whose songs previously have been heard in A Damsel in Distress.

As before, the Gershwins produced a raft of classic songs for the production - "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off," "They Can't Take That Away from Me" and "They All Laughed," with "I've Got Beginner's Luck" and the title song being only a little less memorable.

Johnny Green

For Astaire's Brunswick recordings, pianist-conductor Johnny Green provided the backing, perfectly suited to the dancer's vocals and personality. In addition to the songs mentioned above, Astaire recorded "Slap That Bass," and both that song and "Shall We Dance" capture his tap dancing along with his singing.

There are no commercial recordings of Ginger Rogers from Shall We Dance, to my knowledge, but Johnny Green contributed an instrumental disc - joining Dave Terry for a two-piano medley of songs from the score. It's included in the download.

I've also added Astaire's 1948 version of "They Can't Take That Away from Me," done for The Barkleys of Broadway. Finally, the file also includes the delightful instrumental "Promenade (Walking the Dog)," from a much later recording.

As usual, the file also contains many restored posters, lobby cards and stills from the film - although I have to observe that the lobby cards in particular are garish. Fortunately the music is as elegant as can be.

Fred Astaire's 'Swing Time' Recordings

We continue our series of the commercial recordings associated with Fred Astaire's films with Swing Time from 1936. Unlike the last post, devoted to A Damsel in Distress, this film has Ginger Rogers as Fred's love interest.

Swing Time is considered one of Fred and Ginger's best films, and the dancing and music are extraordinary. However, the plot is contrived and the viewer has to contend with Victor Moore, who was inexplicably popular as a side-kick character at the time. That said, the cast also features the great Helen Broderick and Eric Blore. The two appeared in three Astaire-Rogers films, as did Edward Everett Horton, who is not in Swing Time.

Johnny Green

Unlike Follow the Fleet, Top Hat and Carefree, Ginger Rogers made no commercial recordings of the songs from this film (as far as I can tell). Pianist-bandleader Johnny Green took up the slack, however, with a recording of "The Waltz in Swing Time" and a two-sided medley of the movie's Jerome Kern songs, all of which are in the download.

Green's piano and orchestra also provide the backing for Astaire's records. Green is joined by future bandleader Dave Terry for the duo-piano medleys.

As with most if not all Astaire films, the score delivered a few songs that have become standards - here, "The Way You Look Tonight" and "A Fine Romance." A few others have achieved some renown - "Pick Yourself Up" and "Never Gonna Dance." All are graced by the excellent lyrics of Dorothy Fields.

As a bonus I've added a 1941 recording by the Gordon String Quartet of "The Way You Look Tonight," from the second of the ensemble's two Kern albums. Quartet namesake Jacques Gordon was a former concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony. Violist William Lincer was to become the New York Philharmonic's principal in a few years. Cellist Fritz Magg had been the Met Opera principal.

To-night vs. Tonight

If you examine the 78 labels carefully, you'll notice that the Astaire recording spells "The Way You Look To-night" with an hyphen (as does the sheet music). By the 1941 Gordon recording, that hyphen had been abandoned.  Someone has done research on this phenomenon, and found that the written usage of the hyphen in "to-night" (and "to-day") was surpassed by the simplified spellings in the early '30s, to the point that the hyphenated versions are seldom if ever seen today.

The sound on these items is good. They originated with Internet Archive and were cleaned up by me. The download includes refurbished stills, posters and lobby cards.

Astaire and Guests in 'A Damsel in Distress'

The previous installments in this series of Fred Astaire recordings have included three Astaire-Rogers films, all of which spawned commercial 78s by both Fred and Ginger. Today's entry, 1937's A Damsel in Distress, doesn't offer any Rogers songs because she didn't appear in the film. Her replacement was the limp Joan Fontaine, who didn't dance very well or sing at all. So to fill out the program of four Astaire performances, I have added two contemporary recordings by cabaret artists of the time.

A Damsel in Distress was loosely based on a P.G. Wodehouse story and play, characteristically involving intricate nonsense at an English manor house. Astaire played an American dancer - type casting - with radio favorites George Burns and Gracie Allen as accomplices. English bandleader Ray Noble played the silly-ass Bertie Wooster-type that was a constant in Wodehouse stories.

Beside Astaire, the stars of the show were the Gershwin brothers and their splendid songs. Fred's main numbers are all famed - "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "I Can't Be Bothered Now," "Things Are Looking Up" and particularly "A Foggy Day." These were among the brothers' last songs together - George died during the production at age 37.

Astaire recorded his four numbers in Los Angeles in October 1937 - about a month before the film opened - with backing by Ray Noble's band. These are all superb records. "I Can't Be Bothered Now" starts with Fred dancing and being unsuccessfully interrupted by a vocal group chanting in time, "Telegram for Mr. Astaire" and him responding "I'm dancing and can't be bothered now!" and so forth.

'A Foggy Day'

"A Foggy Day" begins with a mournful trombone, with the arrangement brightening at "Suddenly, I saw you there." "Things Are Looking Up" begins with the verse, usually omitted, which sets off the sunny chorus. Astaire's singing is backed by what sounds like tap dancing, but it was probably effects provided by the drummer.

Fred does dance in "Nice Work If You Can Get It," which again begins with the verse. This features one of Ira Gershwin's best set of lyrics, but all these songs are distinguished both in music and words.

George Byron

The film also includes two mock madrigals, including "The Jolly Tar and the Milkmaid," which has a wonderful Ira Gershwin lyric perhaps more influenced by W.S. Gilbert than the Renaissance masters. In the film, this number is almost a throwaway as Fred joins a madrigal group, but the droll piece stands on its own very well. In this set, I've included a contemporary recording by the West Coast cabaret artist George Byron, who handles the piece nicely. Byron has been heard on my other blog in music of Jerome Kern.

The download also includes a medley of songs from the score as performed by songwriter-pianist Edgar Fairchild for the Liberty Music Shop label. Fairchild has appeared on my other blog in an Oh, Kay! medley with fellow composer-pianist Ralph Rainger. Here he is mated with an unnamed guitarist, perhaps George Van Eps, who was active on the West Coast at the time.

One other song from the score was not to my knowledge recorded at the time but has been since. "Stiff Upper Lip" - introduced by Gracie Allen - has been done by Ella Fitzgerald among others. Gracie sings the number during the extended "fun house" scene. It is one of the best parts of the film, not least because of its spectacular moderne set.

In the fun house with Burns, Allen and Astaire

The download includes the usual passel of stills and posters. The transfers were cleaned up from Internet Archive needle drops. The sound in the Astaire songs is excellent. The Byron and Fairchild pressings are a bit grainy.

Fred and Ginger (and Harriet) Follow the Fleet

Here is one more in the series devoted to the films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, with the commercial recordings of both artists. Today's subject is Follow the Fleet, a 1936 vessel for their singing and dancing talents. The film also introduced vocalist Harriet Hilliard, who recorded the two Irving Berlin numbers she sang in the film - and which are added to today's playlist.

Astaire and Rogers both recorded two of the score's best and most famous numbers - "Let Yourself Go" and "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" - Fred for Brunswick and Ginger for English Decca (even though her songs were backed by the American bandleader Jimmy Dorsey).

Astaire had the film's best number - "Let's Face the Music and Dance" - to himself, also the lesser "I'm Building Up to an Awful Let-Down," "We Saw the Sea" and "I'd Rather Lead the Band." Fred is accompanied by Johnny Green and orchestra, who are perfect for the assignment.

Astaire's singing is, as always, wonderful, and three of the songs were hits. Rogers is in better form here than in some of her other outings in this series, aided by the excellent Dorsey band. She's far from a good singer, but it's wonderful to have these souvenirs.

It's also nice to have the Harriet Hillard recordings, made for Brunswick with her bandleader husband, Ozzie Nelson. This was years before Ozzie, Harriet and sons became popular on radio and then television. (That's Harriet in the corner of the poster above, looking innocent with co-star Randolph Scott.)

On these records, Ozzie manages to feature himself over Harriet, confining her to the "vocal chorus by" duties, well after the extended band intros. Hilliard was a better singer than Rogers, certainly, but she had a thin voice and could be inexpressive. She was in tune, though. Nelson's band was typical of the time, proficient but stylistically behind the times, sounding stodgy next to Jimmy Dorsey's troupe and unsophisticated compared to Johnny Green's.

Hilliard's songs are both good Berlin efforts. "But Where Are You?" is a simple tune and it needs more than the On. The. Beat. treatment that the Nelsons provide. Harriet is much better in "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan."

The download, as usual, includes a large number of restored posters, lobby cards and stills. The transfers are cleaned up from raw materials found on Internet Archive.

Fred and Ginger's Commercial Recordings for 'Top Hat'

I thought I might follow up my recent post of the Carefree commercial recordings with the singles from Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers' most famous film, 1935's Top Hat. 

As with Carefree, Fred and Ginger's records were done for two different companies, Brunswick (Fred) and Decca (Ginger). And as before, Astaire recorded more songs than Rogers - five to four.

Fred was, of course, a far more accomplished singer than Ginger, who could barely carry a tune. I will say that she seems more at ease here than she did three years later, at the Carefree sessions. Even so, her discs can be considered more souvenirs than masterworks of recording.

But who wouldn't want to have a chance to sing these glorious Irving Berlin tunes, written for the film. Both Astaire and Rogers have a go at the famous "Cheek to Cheek" and "The Piccolino," a novelty number that despite being set in Italy has a Latin beat. Ginger liberally rewrites the melodic line of "Cheek to Cheek."

There also are separate recordings of "No Strings," which in the film marks the nadir of the two's relationship. Both also do "Isn't This a Lovely Day," which accompanies their reconciliation. It's one of Berlin's best songs and Astaire's best vocals - also a good effort by Rogers.

The only song recorded by Fred but not by Ginger was, logically, "Top Hat," another iconic Astaire number. Both this number and "No Strings" include the sound of his remarkably rhythmic dancing.

For "Isn't This a Lovely Day" and "Top Hat" Fred is accompanied by Johnny Green, who in his mid-20s was already a well-known songwriter and a popular bandleader who backed Astaire both on records and the radio.

"Isn't This a Lovely Day?"

Astaire's other songs were conducted by Leo Reisman, who made a great many records in the 1920s and 30s. (FYI - the flip side of Astaire's "The Piccolino" is a Reisman instrumental, not from the film and not included here.)

Rogers' backings were by Decca bandleader Victor Young, who would soon relocate to Hollywood and find greater fame in the movies.

According to the Discography of American Historical Recordings, the Rogers 78s were issued only in England. I had to work from lossy originals for her recordings of "Isn't This a Lovely Day" and "No Strings." All other items were cleaned up from lossless originals found on Internet Archive. The sound is in general quite good.

The download includes many posters, lobby cards and stills from the film. 

The great Top Hat ensemble - Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, Ginger and Fred, Erik Rhodes

Astaire and Rogers in Songs from 'Carefree'

This post is a companion to a Fred Astaire extravaganza I've posted on my main blog, involving the three Chrysler Corporation LPs issued to promote Astaire's 1959-61 television specials sponsored by Chrysler.

For this piece, we will step back 20 years to the heyday of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and one of the terrific musicals they made together. Carefree, from 1938, was graced by the songs of Irving Berlin, and while it's not his best score, it does introduce one of the finest melodies ever written for Astaire - "Change Partners."

Fred's commercial recordings are well known to those with an interest in his career. Today's post gives me the opportunity to collect the four sides he made for Brunswick, adding a single that Ginger did for Victor. It also allows me to feature a picture label with Fred's smiling face floating just to the left of the spindle hole.

Astaire was a wonderful singer, and "Change Partners" is one of the best things he ever did. Rogers was not such a wonderful vocalist, and her versions of "I Used to Be Color Blind" and "The Yam" are strained. They are, of course, worth hearing, not least because of the very 30s arrangements played by Hal Borne's band. Ginger adopts a husky tone reminiscent of Libby Holman, yet with a touch of Mildred Bailey's phrasing.

Ray Noble

Astaire also does "Color Blind" and "The Yam," far more convincingly, and includes the verse to the first item. His accompanist is the distinguished English bandleader Ray Noble, whose troupe is, as always, immaculate. Noble was an actor as well - appearing with Astaire and Rogers in 1937's A Damsel in Distress. That film was based on a story by P. G. Wodehouse, and Noble made his screen persona here and elsewhere into a Bertie Wooster-type character. He was good at it, too, as you will hear in "The Yam Explained," where Fred attempts to give Ray a dancing lesson. Noble also was a songwriter, with credits for "Love Is the Sweetest Thing," "Goodnight, Sweetheart" and "The Very Thought of You," his signature song.

The download includes many lobby cards and stills from the film. The 78s were cleaned up from versions found on Internet Archive. The sound is excellent.

Can Anyone Here Tap Dance or Do a Soft Shoe?

Fred Astaire lent his name to several records in the 1950s on which he didn't actually appear. All were designed to promote the chain of dance studios that he co-founded in 1946, which competed with the well-established Arthur Murray studios, dating from the 1920s. Both chains are still in existence, far outliving their namesakes.

The first such "Astaire" album to appear was a 1952 pressing on the Capitol label. The company issued it both as a 10-inch LP and as a series of four singles. My own collection contains one of the singles, with a tap dance and soft shoe on the two sides.

These days, the record is of more interest for the arranger and conductor - Skip Martin - than for any titular involvement by Astaire. When the record was recorded, the big band veteran was in demand both for records and for film arrangements. He possibly came to Astaire's attention as orchestrator and conductor for the dancer's 1951 film, Royal Wedding.

Skip Martin

I transferred the single at the request of bandleader James Langton, formerly of the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, and now the New York All-Star Big Band. James, who likes to work from vintage arrangements, had discovered that a repository in Utah possessed the charts used for these records. But before he investigated further, he wanted to hear the record itself, to see if further effort would be worthwhile.

I don't want to make James' decisions for him, but it might be tough to adapt these arrangements for his band. The "military tap" number, "We Saw the Sea," has a Sousa-style arrangement, which may not be what his patrons are expecting. The "soft shoe," "Isn't This a Lovely Day," is more palatable, but both songs suffer from stop-time episodes that were designed to allow you, the listener, to dance along.

Following this Capitol LP, Astaire lent his name to RCA Victor's "Perfect for Dancing" series in 1955. Unlike the Skip Martin record, I believe the RCA LPs repackaged existing material. His competitor Arthur Murray was an old hand (or foot) at this sort of thing, lending his name to records as far back as the 1930s. While Astaire was endorsing the RCA series, Murray was busy issuing a competing series via Fred's old label, Capitol. The indefatigable Murray was back on RCA a few years later with yet another run of records. There was and continues to be a lively market for dance instruction.

I had no need for such lessons - my mother, the self-proclaimed former "Shirley Temple of Cleveland" - taught me my dance moves. I never learned to tap, but I can still fox-trot without injuring myself or innocent bystanders.

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The Barkleys of Broadway

Soundtrack recordings from The Barkleys of Broadway are not unusual, but I thought you might be interested in seeing how the relatively new M-G-M record company issued the music from its storied productions way back when.

Barkleys was a spring 1949 release (as was I, come to think of it), and at that time the 78 was still the dominant format. M-G-M took four songs from the score and issued them in a gatefold package for this release, with a colorful cover and the interior devoted to a spectacular Fred-and-Ginger montage (see below). As always, restored high-res scans are in the download.

The plug song from this production was the (to me) almost unlistenable "My One and Only Highland Fling," with the performers adopting broader accents than would be heard in your local high school's presentation of Brigadoon, and the added detraction of Rogers' wavering intonation. But things improve thereafter, and Astaire is terrific in the other numbers - although "Shoes with Wings On" isn't much of a song.

To me, one of the great pleasures of this package is the work of Conrad Salinger (and perhaps other studio hands) on the arrangements, which are simply glorious, and extremely well played by the orchestra led by Lennie Hayton. The sound on these original 78s is very vivid.

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