Shirley Ross and The Foursome Sing Gershwin

A few Gershwin recordings today from one of my favorite artists, Shirley Ross, backed by The Foursome vocal group - who also get two songs on their own.

The four numbers were recorded in July 1939, and came out in two Gershwin albums issued by Decca soon thereafter.

Shirley Ross made relatively few recordings, some of which I've posted on this blog. These include her earliest disc, made with Gus Arnheim (it can be found in a post mainly devoted to Mae West) and four songs from the 1940 Rodgers and Hart show Higher and Higher, in which she took a starring role on Broadway. Today she is remembered, if at all, as Bob Hope's partner in the movie songs "Thanks for the Memory" (from The Big Broadcast of 1938) and "Two Sleepy People" (from the follow-up film called, confusingly enough, Thanks for the Memory).

Shirley Ross

In this set, she sings two of my favorite Gershwin songs, "Mine" (from Let 'Em Eat Cake) and "That Certain Feeling" (from Tip-Toes). On both songs, she is backed by Victor Young's band along with The Foursome.

The latter group's solo songs are "Bidin' My Time" (from 1930's Girl Crazy) and "Oh, Lady Be Good" (from 1924's Lady Be Good). The former is another favorite of mine, and is particularly notable here because The Foursome introduced it in the original production. For this performance, the group includes the seldom-heard and very effective verse.

The members of The Foursome at the time of the recording were Del Porter, Dwight Snyder, Marshall Smith and Ray Johnson. The group was unusual because its members not only sang but played ocarinas, an ancient wind instrument that can be heard in quite a few records of the time, in part because of the group's advocacy.

The Foursome

The Foursome appeared in films as well. You can see them in the 1936 Eleanor Powell musical Born to Dance in such numbers as "Rap, Tap on Wood". In 1940, Bing Crosby recorded the Burke-Monaco song "Sweet Potato Piper" for Decca with The Foursome's backing. For those not familiar with the ocarina, it resembles a sweet potato, thus the song title.

The Foursome also appeared on Decca records by Dick Powell and Pinky Tomlin and made a number of other discs on their own. Later on, Del Porter started a band called the Feather Merchants, which eventually turned into Spike Jones and the City Slickers.

This post is now available in excellent ambient stereo.

The Songs of Mae West's 'I'm No Angel"

Mae West was a buxom star of vaudeville, Broadway (her first play there was simply titled Sex), and the movies who prospered in Hollywood until the blue-nose police came along in 1934. Fortunately, the amusing comedy I'm No Angel arrived just before the Motion Picture Production Code made the merest hint of sex verboten.

I'm No Angel is generally remembered as being the second pairing of West and a good-looking English youngster named Cary Grant. (The first was She Done Him Wrong, earlier in 1933.)

The film is also notable for an excellent set of songs that are too little known these days. The music is by Harvey Brooks, reputed to be the first black American to have written a score for a major motion picture. The lyrics are by Ben Ellison and Gladys Du Bois.

Although young, Brooks had quite a lot of experience. He toured and recorded with Mamie Smith in the early 1920s. He then co-led the Quality Four with Paul Howard. He was the music director for West Coast bandleader Les Hite throughout the early 1930s.

Ben Ellison had written a few songs that were recorded by Leon René and Louis Armstrong in 1932. Du Bois had scored a major hit in 1931 with Russ Columbo's famous recording of "You Call It Madness (But I Call it Love)."

The I'm No Angel songs are well suited to Mae's cartoonishly sexy persona. In the title song, she assures us, "I can make it heaven when the shades are drawn / I'm no angel." But the real gem is her remarkable reading of "They Call Me Sister Honky-Tonk," which contains a miniature scenario of its own. It opens with a sleazy carnival barker extolling her virtues to a group of enthusiastic gentlemen, with bump-and-grind accompaniment. West then sings a chorus, moans and asks slyly, "Do you follow me, boys?" One spectator shouts, "Aw, we're way ahead of you!" and the barker adds, "Wrap it up and take it home with you, boys!"

"I Found a New Way to Go to Town" is the sort of double-entendre title that would later become the stock-in-trade of such entertainers as Ruth Wallis. "I Want You - I Need You" is more conventional, the kind of thing that would have been done by such red-hot mamas as Sophie Tucker.

West came out of that vaudeville tradition. You'll have to forgive her faltering intonation and erratic rhythm (although her comic timing in "Sister Honky-Tonk" is superb).

West did not record one of the five songs written for the film, "That Dallas Man." I've added it to the download in a very enjoyable performance by Allan Lane and His Orchestra. The "Allan Lane" pseudonym was generally associated with Al Mitchell. The anonymous singer was the ubiquitous studio vocalist Dick Robertson.

The "Dallas Man" arrangement was heavily influenced by Eddie Durham's work on Bennie Moten's "Moten Swing" in 1932 (a song later to become even more famous in the Count Basie remake).

In addition to Mae's recording, I've included one more version of "I'm No Angel" - that by the excellent Gus Arnheim Band and enthusiastic vocalist Shirley Ross, a blog favorite. This and its flip side were the earliest recordings by Ross and apparently the only ones she made with Arnheim.

Shirley Ross

I've included that flip side - "Like Me a Little Bit Less (Love Me a Little Bit More)" - even though it doesn't come from I'm No Angel. It is from the prize-fightin' film Palooka, which was certainly inspired by the "Joe Palooka" comic strip of the day (adapting comics for the movies is nothing new for Hollywood). The songwriters were a very young Burton Lane and equally young lyricist Harold Adamson. 

While "Like Me a Little Bit Less" didn't have much staying power (it's not a great tune), the film also introduced Jimmy Durante doing his signature song, "Inka Dinka Do," which did.

The download includes many cleaned-up posters, lobby cards and other ephemera from I'm No Angel. The sound files were sourced from Internet Archive and remastered by me.

Shirley Ross in Songs from 'Higher and Higher'

In my last post, I promised some songs by Bing Crosby's Waikiki Wedding co-star, Shirley Ross. If the latter name sounds familiar, it's probably because of her famous duet with Bob Hope in The Big Broadcast of 1938, "Thanks for the Memory." Whatever fame she has rests on that and other duets with Hope, notably "Two Sleepy People."

Ross' memory should not reside solely with her several appearances in Bob and Bing movies, fine as they are. She was a superior vocalist. Unfortunately her sensitive style is captured on too few recordings.

Ross began her career as a band vocalist in the early 1930s. Her few 78s with Gus Arnheim came to the attention of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, who began using her as a demo singer.

Following her appearances in several Hope or Crosby films, the Rodgers-Hart team called upon her to fill one of the lead roles in their latest Broadway musical, Higher and Higher, which opened in April 1940. That work had a superb score, but it did not impress either the critics or the public, so closed relatively quickly.

Shirley Ross, Jack Haley and Martha Eggert in Higher and Higher

Before the opening, Ross recorded "It Never Entered My Mind," "Nothing But You," "From Another World" and "Ev'ry Sunday Afternoon" for Decca, with Ray Sinatra's orchestra. Ross herself introduced "It Never Entered My Mind" and "From Another World" in the show. The former song has probably my favorite Lorenz Hart lyrics, with seemingly every couplet containing a subtle double-entendre (e.g., "You have what I lack myself / And now I'll even have to scratch my back myself"). Ross' rueful reading is affecting, and especially worth hearing because it contains the complete lyrics, which are almost never heard these days.

Ross herself thought she was better suited for the screen than the stage. After the failure of Higher and Higher, her career dimmed. Her death more than 30 years later was little noticed, probably because she was then known as Bernice Blum - her real first name and her husband's last name. But Hope and Crosby reportedly found out and sent flowers.

The download includes my transfer of the 78 coupling of "From Another World" and "Ev'ry Sunday Afternoon." The other two songs are included as well. While they are not my transfers, I did work over the sound.

Next up, we'll hear from Bing's other Waikiki Wedding co-star, Martha Raye.