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.

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