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.

LINK

Holiday Greetings from Capitol and Margaret Whiting

We've explored RCA Victor's holiday offerings for 1949, now let's listen to the season's greetings message that the Capitol folks sent out that same year, featuring the great singer Margaret Whiting.

This particular disc was aimed at the jukebox operators of the nation. It seems as though that group was planning a convention in Chicago, and this record was supposed to tie in to that gathering.

It's more than a little contrived, but carefully produced none the less. The scenario was that Margaret Whiting had missed the Super Chief (that was a train) for Chicago, so she flagged down Santa Claus for a lift. The bearded one just happened to be headed that way himself, loaded down with Capitol records.

It turns out that those discs were the ones that Capitol was promoting at the time, and this special record had one or the other of them on the flip side.

Apparently there were a number of different versions of the disc, all with a different side B. This particular item has a song by Johnny Smith and the Jubalaires called "Home, Home, Home," well suited to the season.

The Jubalaires were a pop/gospel group in the vein of the Mills Brothers, Ink Spots and Delta Rhythm Boys. They had been on radio for years, first with Arthur Godfrey, more recently on the Amos & Andy show. The group went through many changes, so I'm not entirely sure who is on this record, but you can read more about them here. (You'll have to scroll down.)

The uncertainty about this record also relates to the identity of "Johnny Smith." In its review, Billboard seems to think it's Jack Smith, then a Capitol crooner. This would not be unusual; both Sinatra and Crosby recorded with such groups as the Delta Rhythm Boys and the Charioteers. But it doesn't sound like Smith on this record, and why would Capitol rename him for this outing? It's a little peculiar.

Both sides of the record are fun, though, and just the type of thing I love. Hope you might enjoy it as well.

Margaret Whiting

Two Rare Margaret Whiting Singles

1950 publicity photo

I am celebrating Margaret Whiting's Capitol recordings this week with reups of 48 of her songs on my main blog (forthcoming) and on this blog, and by offering four new titles right here.

These new items were transferred at the request of my friend, vocal connoisseur John Morris.

First is a single from 1950 - the familiar song "My Foolish Heart" (by Victor Young and Ned Washington) and the lesser-known "Stay with the Happy People" (Jule Styne and Bob Hilliard).

The second coupling is from 1955 -  "Lover, Lover (Never Leave Me)" (James V. Kern) and "I Kiss You a Million Times" (Geoff Clarkson and Floyd Shaver), which is my favorite of the bunch.

Frank DeVol provides the smooth backing on all four numbers.

As always, Whiting is in excellent voice, singing with her usual warmth, clear diction and good intonation.

Margaret Whiting Meets Hopalong Cassidy

Back in 1950, televisions were finding their way into more and more American homes, and a great number of those sets were tuned in to Hopalong Cassidy western films, which had achieved new life on the new medium. Veteran actor William Boyd had originated the Hopalong character as early as 1935 for a long series of programmers that depicted his character as a clean-living, sarsaparilla-drinking hero who defeated a parade of bad guys with the aid of his horse Topper and a juvenile accomplice.

The explosive interest in Hopalong Cassidy led to an exhaustive parade of exploitation items - guns, clothes, lunch boxes, watches, dishes, and even Capitol kiddie records. Songwriters Nacio Herb Brown and L. Wolfe Gilbert, who had penned the theme music for Boyd's TV show, decided they wanted in on the action, and in 1950 they went to Capitol, who held rights to the character, with a request to record their "Hopalong Cassidy March" along with a lullaby they had written called "Hoppy, Topper and Me," in which the young protagonist dreams of riding as the cowboy's sidekick.

Hoppy, Maggie and
Johnny Mercer (?)

Only trouble was, as Billboard put it, the label showed "no eagerness to record the Hoppy numbers." Undeterred, Brown, Gilbert and their partner Boyd had the songs recorded independently, using Capitol artists Margaret Whiting and Frank De Vol. Capitol then agreed to ship out 500 copies of the promo single to the nation's disc jockeys. If the reception was good, a commercial release would be considered, per Billboard's November 25, 1950 issue.

The DJs must have liked the tunes well enough, because Capitol did eventually put them out in its regular series - the march coupled with another Frank De Vol side called "Circus Days," and the Whiting version of "Hoppy, Topper and Me" suitably backed by "This Little Piggy Went to Market."

This post combines the original Capitol promo single version of the Hoppy theme music with both sides of Whiting's regularly issued single. Personally, I can do without the march music, but the Whiting songs are predictably excellent, beautifully performed without ever seeming mawkish, nicely backed by De Vol and by Whiting's husband Lou Busch on "This Little Piggy." Boyd himself makes a cameo at the end of "Hoppy, Topper and Me," confusingly saying good night to the young cowpoke, after Whiting has made it clear that the tyke has just awakened from a night's sleep.

You also are invited over to my main blog, where I have just devoted a long post to early and rare Whiting 78s from the first several years of her career, before she encountered Hoppy and the horse he rode in on.

Margaret Whiting Sings Jimmy Clanton

I've written often about the fate of pop vocalists as the 50s wound on. In the constant quest for hits, they broadened their repertoire to encompass country, gospel, rhythm & blues, novelty songs, and anything else that seemed to have any chance of succeeding with the increasingly inscrutable record-buying public.

The superb pop singer Margaret Whiting was an old hand at this, having had success with country songs as far back as the 40s, especially in duets with former cowboy star Jimmy Wakely. In 1958, she had moved to Dot records, and was covering country hits and doing fairly well at it. Her offering for July was, however, something a little different - a cover of "Just a Dream" by the Baton Rouge teen singer Jimmy Clanton.

Neither Maggie nor the musicians are entirely comfortable with the song nor the New Orleans style arrangement. (Objectively it isn't a very good song, although wonderfully convincing in Clanton's version.) They are much more at home with the flip side, the rhythm song "Pretty-Eyed Baby", which has been recorded by any number of artists and was a mild hit for Jo Stafford and Frankie Laine in 1951.

I think these are non-LP songs, but I don't have access to my collection, so can't be sure.