The Foursome - 1926-37 Singles

Back in April I posted some Gershwin songs as performed in 1939 by the Foursome vocal group, both on their own and accompanying Shirley Ross. That delightful act mated clever vocal arrangements to harmonizing on the ocarina, the sweet-potato shaped wind instrument with a distinctive sound. They helped popularize the instrument in the 1930s.

Today, a return to the Foursome via eight additional songs, ranging from their first record, from 1926, through to the bulk of their solo discs, made for Decca in 1937, and including the first recording of their most famous number, the Gershwins' "Bidin' My Time."

I am indebted to Jordan Young's biography of the group on Allmusic for much of the following information. The original group included Marshall Smith, Dwight Snyder, Harry Isaacs and Kearney Walton, all from the Pacific Northwest. By 1926, they had recorded a single with bandleader Paul Ash, "There Ain't No Maybe in My Baby's Eyes," a big hit song that year. Ash's version is bouncy in the style of the time, and the Foursome acquit themselves well, although their style was not yet distinctive.

By 1930, the group had appeared in a few films then on Broadway in Ripples, an Oscar Levant-Irving Caesar musical that went nowhere. By this time, the group consisted of Marshall Smith, Dwight Snyder, Del Porter and Raymond Johnson, the members for most of the ensemble's history.

Not sure, but this may include at least three of the Foursome - still from Girl Crazy

Ripples may have flopped, but the quartet had much better luck with their next opportunity - Girl Crazy from the mighty Gershwins. Introducing "Bidin' My Time" helped make their career. This set includes their first recording, made for Brunswick in 1930, which presumably is close to what was heard at the Alvin Theater as the opening number in the show. (Confidentially, their 1939 remake is better.)

By 1937, the group had secured a Decca recording contract, and devoted its solo first session to a dynamic specialty by Del Porter and Ray Johnson, "Sweet Potato Swing," which was backed by the 1923 chestnut "Nobody's Sweetheart," which is handled much better than the song deserved. By this time, the group had mastered playing their ocarinas. Jordan Young quotes Ray Johnson: "We worked like hell to get them in tune. You'll never hear that sound again - nobody would be fool enough to do it."

The Foursome

The final four songs in this set come from a November 1937 recording date, where the Foursome was joined by a Perry Botkin ensemble, with Botkin the stylish guitarist and Spike Jones as the drummer. 

Again the group reached back to the rhythm numbers of the 1920s for "My Honey's Lovin' Arms" and "Sweet Georgia Brown," both well suited to their style, and both most impressive. They added "Chinatown, My Chinatown," a 1906 number which is badly dated today but was a jazz favorite for many years, and "Blue (and Broken-Hearted)," which was popular in 1922 and for some time thereafter. The Foursome do both beautifully.

Perry Botkin

The groups' final records under their own name were included in the previous post. They also kept busy accompanying some of Decca's biggest artists, including Bing Crosby and Dick Powell. As I mentioned in the earlier article, later on, Del Porter started a band called the Feather Merchants, which eventually turned into Spike Jones and the City Slickers. The Allmusic article adds that Porter, Johnson and Snyder also were in a group called the Sweet Potato Tooters, and that the first two appeared on Capitol as members of the Starlighters. (The version of that group that I am familiar with had different personnel, however.)

Most of these recordings come from Internet Archive needle drops, which I've cleaned up in ambient stereo, but which still have some residual noise at times. Great performances, though!

Joe Derise with the Snowflakes and Claude Thornhill

Joe Derise in 1949

Singer-pianist-arranger Joe Derise joined Claude Thornhill's influential big band in 1948 as a guitarist, singer and arranger, and began recording with the band in early 1949. He stayed with the group until about mid-1950, making a total of 10 commercial recordings - as a member of the Snowflakes, as an arranger and two as a solo vocalist. This post gathers together those 10 sides, all on the RCA Victor label. Derise's guitar presumably is also present on Thornhill's instrumental numbers of this period, but those aren't covered here.

The first two songs in this set come from January 6, 1949, with Derise as a member of the Snowflakes, who at the time also included Nancy Clayton, Jim Preston and Hugh Baker. The arranger for these two numbers is Gil Evans, but I suspect that Derise handled the vocal charts.

"I Don't Know Why (I Just Do)" leads off the set, a standard by Fred Ahlert and Roy Turk dating from 1931. Among others, Tommy Dorsey, with Stuart Foster on vocals, revived it in 1946. (That recording can be found in this collection.) Thornhill's version is easy-going and dreamy, as his recordings tend to be.

From that same date came "There's a Small Hotel," a Rodgers and Hart song from 1936's On Your Toes. This version probably was occasioned by Betty Garrett's vocal in the film Words and Music, released just a week before this recording session.

The Thornhill Band - I think that might be Derise on guitar at center

We move on to an April session and Derise's first arrangement for the band, presumably both vocal and instrumental. "Moonlight and Roses" is a song with an unusual story. Organist Edwin Lemare wrote it as an instrumental Andantino way back in 1888. In 1921 Ben Black and Neil Moret added words, turning it into "Moonlight and Roses." Lemare objected, but they eventually worked things out. The song was a standard at one time - and was a hit most recently as 1964, for Jim Reeves. As the title may suggest, it's a highly romantic piece, well suited for Thornhill and the Snowflakes. 

Russ McIntyre

"On the 5:45" was an English song new in 1949, a simple ditty with Nancy Clayton and the band's boy singer, Russ McIntyre, playing newlyweds. This is from a June 1949 session, and like the balance of songs here, was a Derise arrangement. On these records, McIntyre can't decide whether he wants to sound like Bing, Perry or Vaughn Monroe. Here Crosby is to the fore.

Next we have one of Meredith Willson's more peculiar inventions, "The Iowa Indian Song (Io-Wuh)," which is mostly concerned with the growth of corn ("Knee high by the Fourth of July!"), to the accompaniment of a stereotypical "Indian" tom-tom drum. Willson did love his home state.

The song must have had some merit; Bing himself recorded it. Don't confuse it with the better known (to me, anyway) "All I Owe Ioway," which Rodgers and Hammerstein had written for the film State Fair a few years before.

Coming from the same November 1949 session was Derise's first solo vocal, on a novelty called the "Johnson Rag," one of any number of old-timey songs that were in vogue during the postwar period. This tune actually dated from 1939, when Glenn Miller recorded it. For whatever reason, a decade later all the bands decided to get in on the action. I generally can't stand the old-timey genre; as soon as I hear the tinny plunk of an upright piano, I lunge for the on-off switch. But I must admit the Derise-Snowflakes-Thornhill version is catchy and enjoyable. This was the only Thornhill record where Derise received a label credit, to my knowledge.

Moving ahead to January 1950, we have one of the best Snowflakes records, a great song from the Gershwins, "Bidin' My Time," from the 1930 musical Girl Crazy. Thornhill included it in his album Claude Thornhill Plays George Gershwin for Dancing, one of a series that RCA was recording with bandleaders. (Ralph Flanagan's take on Rodgers and Hammerstein is here.)

Claude Thornhill

Joe's final recording session with Thornhill was in April 1950. It began with another 1931 song, the enduringly popular "Sweet and Lovely," which bandleader Gus Arnheim both wrote and recorded. Thornhill's effort is mainly a feature for Russ McIntyre. You can contrast his reading with that of the young David Allyn here.

Derise recorded his second rhythm specialty next - the "Sugarfoot Rag," a terrific country tune that made the 18-year-old guitarist Hank Garland famous. Joe is wonderfully relaxed and swinging in this number, and the Snowflakes get a chance to rock for once. Too bad that Derise did not get a label credit for his performance.

The final song in this collection is "Honolulu," another 1939 revival. Harry Warren and Gus Kahn wrote it for the film of the same name. This one has the Snowflakes to the fore and the Thornhill band more extroverted than usual.

Thornhill did not make any additional commercial records until 1953. By that time Derise had moved on to his own group, called Four Jacks and a Jill. That ensemble did make some records for small labels, mainly backing a few terrible soloists. I have the records if anyone is interested in hearing them.

I should mention that Derise did record some transcriptions with Thornhill, and I expect to transfer a few of those soon. The items above mainly originated with the Internet Archive. The sound is generally good after I cleaned it up, but a few sides have some residual wear and noise. The recording of "Bidin' My Time" comes from my collection.

This post is a companion to one on the main blog covering Derise's 1955-56 LPs for Bethlehem.

Boogie Down with Ambient Stereo Remasters

To celebrate the advent of ambient stereo processing on the main blog, I presented 12 remastered recordings in the classical realm and a dozen more in the pop field. Here on the singles blog, we're offering an additional dozen, representing classical, pop, jazz and gospel. 

To start off the proceedings, we have a newly augmented post that mixes genres: it involves the early recordings of "grand dame of the harpsichord," Sylvia Marlowe (above), when her repertoire combined boogie woogie with the baroque.

Sylvia Marlowe Boogies. My original post had Marlowe taking on the compositions of Meade "Lux" Lewis and Jimmy Yancey. Now I've added Pine Top Smith's "Pine Top's Boogie Woogie" to the post, throwing in a Raymond Scott number for good measure. From the 1940s.

Gospel Boogie. Boogie woogie was big in the 40s, even reaching into the Southern gospel realm. Here we have the famous "Gospel Boogie" by Leroy Abernathy and the Homeland Harmony Quartet. Believe me when I tell you this one should not be missed.

A Danse Macabre. Let's move on to a "Danse Macabre," in which the Cleveland Orchestra's first music director, Nikolai Sokoloff, makes the skeletons boogie in this vivid 1928 recording of Saint-Saëns' classic tone poem.

More Sokoloff Conducts. One Sokoloff recording isn't enough - this entry has him leading the Clevelanders in music of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky - the "Song of India" and the Waltz from Sleeping Beauty. Entirely convincing romantic interpretations.

Chick, Ella and Wacky Dust. Back in 1938, bandleader Chick Webb and his young singer Ella Fitzgerald went to market with a thing called "Wacky Dust," which wasn't what you think, honest. (Well, maybe to those "in the know.") The song was the handiwork of Oscar Levant.

Diz Wants 'More Meat'. Several years later, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie came out with a bop vocal whose sole message was "Hey Pete, let's eat more meat. Cause the meat from the Texas cows is cheap." He liked this ditty so much he recorded it twice.

Andre Previn on V-Disc. Latter-day eminent conductor André Previn was recording piano jazz and arranging in Hollywood studios when he was in high school. These Armed Services V-Discs were made when he was 17 and already an amazing virtuoso.

André Previn Live in 1947. To give you an idea of what Previn sounded like live, I posted these concert recordings dating from 1947, just a year after the V-Disc session. I wrote then that "his pianism is propulsive, imaginative, many-noted and immaculate."

Playboy's Theme. Another famous musician who started off as a pianist was Cy Coleman, later the toast of Broadway, but in the 1950s a cabaret artist and songwriter. One of his biggest instrumental hits was "Playboy's Theme" from 1960, where he was both the writer and the piano player.

Shirley Ross and the Foursome. Two unjustly forgotten Broadway acts are Shirley Ross, star of Higher and Higher, and the Foursome, who introduced "Bidin' My Time" in Girl Crazy. In this set they dazzle in Gershwin songs - including "Bidin' My Time."

Let's finish with a few EPs, those four-song 45s popular in the 1950s and 60s.

Bobby Short's First Recordings. The famous cabaret artist Bobby Short was already a finished talent when he made his first recordings in 1953. This session was notable for a terrific rendition of "Sunday in Savannah" by the forgotten songwriter Hugh MacKay.

Elgar Marches. Finally, for the greatest possible contrast, we matriculate on out of here with a set of Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches in stirring 1955 performances from the little recorded English conductor Stanley Pope.

Most of these posts have new graphics to go along with the improved sonics. The links above take you to the original posts. As always, the download link is in the comments.

Songs from the 'My Sister Eileen' Musicals

When Ruth McKenney started writing about moving to New York with her sister Eileen, she began a multimedia enterprise that spawned New Yorker articles, a book, a play, a film, a Broadway musical, a Hollywood musical, and a television show. And perhaps some other things I've missed.

Today we'll concentrate on the musical offspring of the My Sister Eileen stories - the 1953 Broadway production Wonderful Town, and the 1955 Hollywood film issued under the original title. The two musicals had different scores - Wonderful Town by Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden and Adolph Green; My Sister Eileen by Jule Styne and Leo Robin. (Columbia Pictures apparently didn't want to pay for the Broadway score.)

Wonderful Town has sired a series of albums, including one by the original cast and another from the 1958 television production, both with Rosalind Russell as Ruth. There was no cast album from the film, possibly because the score was too skimpy. In that production, only Betty Garrett (Ruth) was known as a singer. (Yes, I realize that Jack Lemmon issued a few vocal LPs.) For me, the high point of the film is not a song but a spectacular dance duel between Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall, who were competing for Eileen.

This post is not concerned with any recordings by the original casts; rather it examines the records that appeared in the market covering songs from these musicals. Most are from Wonderful Town, but the few from My Sister Eileen are worth hearing as well.

Wonderful Town

Let's start with Wonderful Town and my favorite song from either score - "Ohio," in a heartfelt version by the superb Lisa Kirk. The work has witty lyrics by Comden and Green and a loping tune (possibly inspired by Gershwin's "Bidin' My Time") that suggests Bernstein thought that Ohio is out West where the tumbleweeds blow. Rosalind Russell and Edith (Edie) Adams introduced the song.

The Hi-Lo's (Gene Puerling, Bob Strasen, Clark Burroughs, Bob Morse)
and Lisa Kirk

"A Quiet Girl" is a hymn-like Bernstein creation here in a uncharacteristically restrained - and very beautiful - reading by the Hi-Lo's. Frank Comstock suggests the composer's debt to Aaron Copland in his arrangement. This song was done first by George Gaynes as Bob Baker, Ruth's eventual love interest.

In Wonderful Town, Eileen betrayed her feelings for Frank in the excellent and unaccountably neglected "A Little Bit in Love." Here we have the talented Sandy Stewart several years before her big hit "My Coloring Book." The song comes from an Epic EP devoted to songs from the score.

Sandy Stewart and Lena Horne

The most popular song from either musical was possibly "It's Love," here in a typically polished version from the great Lena Horne. Edie Adams and George Gaynes introduced it.

One of Bernstein's most felicitous inspirations was the "Wrong Note Rag," near the end of the Wonderful Town score. Pianist Jack Fina, who made his name with Freddy Martin, has some fun with the piece, although he seems almost pained by the wrong notes.

Jack Fina and Arthur Fiedler

Finally, we have a medley of the Wonderful Town songs from the Boston Pops and Arthur Fiedler. The conductor was more attuned to musical humor than Fina, and he nails the manic quality of the "Wrong Note Rag." Arranger Dave Terry comes back to it a few times in this exceptionally well-done compilation. It comes from the LP Curtain Going Up, available newly remastered on my other blog.

My Sister Eileen

We switch to My Sister Eileen for "There's Nothin' Like Love," here in a effective arrangement by Ralph Flanagan that features baritone saxophonist Stan Webb and the smooth vocalist Johnny Amaroso, who also played trumpet in the band. On film the singers were Bob Fosse (Frank) and Janet Leigh (Eileen).

Art Mooney and Johnny Amaroso

Next, some old-style corn called "Give Me a Band and My Baby," just the thing for Art Mooney and his crew, who specialized in such material. The bandleader's biggest success was "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover" in 1948. His hits in 1955 were "Honey-Babe," a march from the film Battle Cry, and "Nuttin' for Christmas," the lament of a juvenile Barry Gordon.

Sammy Davis, Jr.

Finally, Sammy Davis, Jr. does wonders with the Styne-Robin "It's Bigger Than You and Me," a crass tune that the vulpine Bob Baker (Jack Lemmon) croons to Ruth (Betty Garrett). With Davis, arranger Sy Oliver provides a brassy introduction, followed by Sam embarking on some jaunty vocalese that sets the tone for the number.

These selections were cleaned up from my collection and Internet Archive.

About the McKenneys

Ruth and Eileen McKenney

Ruth (1911-72) and Eileen (1913-40) McKenney grew up in East Cleveland, Ohio. Ruth wrote her stories for The New Yorker in the 1930s. They became a book in 1938. She was more multi-dimensional than the film suggests, being socially aware and a member of the Communist Party for quite a few years.

Eileen moved to the West Coast in the 1930s and worked as a Disney artist. She married the writer Nathanael West (Miss Lonelyhearts, The Day of the Locust). She and West were killed in an automobile accident a few days before the play My Sister Eileen opened on Broadway.

Ruth's daughter believed her mother never quite recovered from Eileen's death.

LINK

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.