Two Warlock Carols, Plus More from the English Singers

Several years ago I presented a few carols as performed by the pioneering English Singers, including "Corpus Christi" by the remarkable English composer Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine).

Today we have another version of "Corpus Christi," performed by the BBC Chorus, along with a second Warlock song, "A Cornish Christmas Carol."

At the same time, I've done a new transfer of the English Singers' 78. The coupling for "Corpus Christi" is a setting of "The Holly and the Ivy" by Rutland Boughton. Also there are three new seasonal songs from the English Singers, also dating from the late 1920s:

• "In Dulci Jubilo" in a setting by R.L. Pearsall
• William Byrd's "O Christ Who Art the Light"
• "The Wassail Song" in the Ralph Vaughan Williams arrangement

Leslie Woodgate

See my 2013 English Singers post for more on this important group.

The BBC Chorus recordings, which come from 1936, are conducted by BBC choral director Leslie Woodgate. The soloists in "Corpus Christi" are contralto Ann Wood and the young tenor Peter Pears, making what may be his first recording.

"A Cornish Christmas Carol" is a setting of a text is by Henry Jenner in a translation by Trelawny Dayrell Reed. Warlock makes use of "Nowell, Nowell" in his setting.

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More Vaughan Williams Vocal Works in Historic Performances

This is a companion post to the recent item on my other blog presenting songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams in historic performances - "On Wenlock Edge" with Steuart Wilson and "Linden Lea" and "Silent Noon" with John McCormack.

Today we have three more leading English singers in notable Vaughan Williams performances - Astra Desmond, Roy Henderson and Heddle Nash. Also included is the first recording of the composer's "Serenade to Music," as led by its dedicatee, Sir Henry Wood, and sung by 16 famous artists of the era, including Desmond, Henderson and Nash.

The earliest solo work on the program is Desmond's performance of "Linden Lea," dating from 1941 and accompanied by the ubiquitous and always welcome Gerald Moore. As with all these singers, Desmond (1893-1973) was identified with the composer's music. Vaughan Williams had dedicated his Magnificat to the contralto in 1932.

Next are two 1944 recordings from one of the leading baritones of the era, Roy Henderson (1899-2000), who has appeared on my other site in George Butterworth's "Shropshire Lad" settings. Henderson performs "Silent Noon" and "Orpheus with His Lute," a setting of a passage from Shakespeare's Henry VIII. As with the "Serenade to Music," we have one of the author's remarkable odes to the power of music. Henderson's accompanist is Eric Gritton.

Finally we come to perhaps the leading English tenor of the time, Heddle Nash (1894-1961). His 1952 recordings include "Silent Noon" and "The Vagabond." The latter is best-known piece in Vaughan Williams's settings of Robert Lewis Stevenson, Songs of Travel. Here, as with many of the composer's works, he has chosen poems with a solitary protagonist who is seeking to become one with the natural world: "Wealth I seek not, hope nor love, / Nor a friend to know me; / All I seek, the heaven above, / And the road below me." Again, Gerald Moore is the accompanist.

The "Serenade to Music," with a text adapted from a passage in The Merchant of Venice, is one of Vaughan Williams' most beautiful and best loved compositions. He wrote the work for Henry Wood on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his first conducting engagement. In the score, Vaughan Williams indicated solo passages for 16 leading vocalists of the day: sopranos Isobel Baillie, Lilian Stiles-Allen, Elsie Suddaby and Eva Turner, contraltos Muriel Brunskill, Astra Desmond, Mary Jarred and Margaret Balfour, tenors Heddle Nash, Frank Titterton, Walter Widdop and Parry Jones, baritones Roy Henderson and Harold Williams, and basses Robert Easton and Norman Allin.

Sir Henry led the first performance on October 5, 1938, and recorded the work with the 16 soloists and the BBC Symphony 10 days later.

In addition to song texts, the download includes a table detailing the solo passages in the "Serenade to Music." The songs were remastered from files on the site of the AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music. The source of the "Serenade to Music" was a circa 1980s reissue as reworked by me. The resulting sound is very good.

Ralph Vaughan Williams and Sir Henry Wood

Gogi Grant and Songs from 'The Big Beat'

The year 1958 was a busy one for vocalist Gogi Grant. With a new contract from RCA Victor, the talented singer was soon at work on three solo LPs, three musicals in studio versions, various singles, and one film, which resulted in this EP.

The Big Beat was a teen exploitation flick that somehow shoehorned 16 musical acts into its 82-minute running time. I haven't seen the film - copies are apparently scarce - but the plot had something to do with a young fellow trying to convince his record-mogul father to sign new acts that would appeal to the teen market. Despite this premise, the musical acts in view are almost entirely old-school standbys, many of whom would not have been considered hip 20 years before. Hey, kids, want to hear some Russ Morgan and Freddy Martin?

The only quasi-rock acts on hand were Fats Domino, the Del-Vikings and the Diamonds (who were actually a cover group, but let's not quibble). Grant turned up as a well-known vocalist and apparently sang the four tunes on this EP, which may be the only vinyl souvenir of the film.

Gogi Grant in The Big Beat with that old rock-n-roller, Harry James

Grant does well by the songs. While not memorable, all are presentable. The anonymous big-band backing on "Lazy Love" has faux-R&B touches for a more up-to-date sound. "I Waited So Long" is a pretty ballad that elicits an impassioned vocal from Grant. It has a good arrangement, too, which is more than can be said for "Call Me," which employs a chorus to coo "ding-a-ling" as Gogi emotes her plea for telephonic contact. "You've Never Been in Love" is another pleasant pre-fab ballad; Grant's vocal skill makes the most of this material.

As a bonus, I've added Grant's two hit records to the download, made for the small Era label in 1955. Ironically both songs, "The Wayward Wind" and "Suddenly There's a Valley," are superior to the RCA material.

"The Wayward Wind" is a second cousin lyrically to Lerner and Loewe's "Wand'rin' Star" from the Paint Your Wagon score. It was a major hit for Grant. "Suddenly There's a Valley" is one of a number of inspirational songs popular during the period. Here, too, Gogi is effectively impassioned, and Buddy Bregman's backing is good.

Grant sued Era to get out of her contract, went with RCA in 1958, then was on to Liberty a year later, where she completed just one LP. Afterward, there were only a few albums for small labels.

Throughout this period, she had some terrible luck with art departments. The photo above isn't especially flattering, but check out her first Era LP and this monstrosity from Liberty.

By the way, The Big Beat was reportedly released as a double-feature with another teensploitation film. Summer Love. You can find the soundtrack to that epic on my other blog. Also there: a new post with Grant's studio recording of the Kiss Me, Kate songs with Howard Keel and Anne Jeffreys.

Billboard ad from April 1958

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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Dueling Sabres: Five Pop Versions of Khachaturian's Most Famous Work

On my other blog, I discuss the genesis of Aram Khachaturian's most popular ballet, Gayane, and the runaway popularity of its most notorious selection, the Sabre Dance. The Kirov Ballet premiered the work in 1943, but it wasn't until after the war than it became known in the West. The Big 10-Inch Record details the earliest recordings (Golovanov in the USSR and Kurtz in the US), and how other conductors and record companies began to jump on the Gayane/Saber Dance bandwagon as 1947 drew to a close.

It wasn't just the classical musicians who noticed the popularity of the Sabre Dance. In late 1947, pop record producers rushed to record the jack-hammer rhythms of the dance before a musicians strike began on January 1, 1948,  Among the pop adaptations set down were three of the five that are featured here: pianist Oscar Levant, bandleader Woody Herman and Freddy Martin's band with pianist Barclay Allen.

Even though Oscar Levant's 78 was on the Columbia Masterworks label, I consider it a pop record because it was an arrangement for piano and orchestra from the composer's orchestra-only version. Levant lived off the piece for years. In 1949 M-G-M even incorporated his rendition of it into the Astaire Rogers film The Barkleys of Broadway. It's not clear who arranged the Columbia recording;  it was possibly Levant - he is listed as the arranger on the solo-piano sheet music. On the record, the distinctly thin-sounding "Columbia Concert Orchestra" is led by Lou Bring.

Woody Herman's Sabre Dance, also on Columbia, is in some ways closer to the composer's score than Levant's is. Like Golovanov's recording, the contrasting trio section is led by a soupy saxophone, although Woody's troupe plays it in swing tempo.

Freddy Martin has another piano-led adaptation, featuring soloist Barclay Allen. Arranger Lou Busch (who later made piano records under the name Joe "Fingers" Carr) incorporated a boogie-woogie bass figure that works nicely. This is a well-played version, actually better done than Woody Herman's.

When these records began climbing the charts in early 1948, Decca decided to get in on the action by recording the Andrews Sisters in a vocal rendition with fatuous lyrics by Allan Roberts and Lester Lee. Singers did not belong to the Musicians Union, so were not covered by the recording ban. Neither, apparently, were harmonica players - accompanying the siblings were the Harmonica Gentlemen. They appeared on only a few other records, backing the Andrews Sisters and Danny Kaye on three numbers, including "The Woody Woodpecker Song," all in 1948.

By 1949, parodies of the Sabre Dance were beginning to appear. One was a gem by the inimitable Mickey Katz, who called it the "Sadir [Seder] Dance." Katz was then recording for RCA Victor, which viewed him as an ethnic act and limited him to Yiddish language records. I don't understand Yiddish, so the only parts of Katz's vocal I could follow were "Take it easy or you're gonna plotz!" and "Happy Pesach!" I had no problem, though, enjoying Katz's klezmer-style deconstruction of the work. Later in 1949, he would move on to Capitol, which did not confine him to Yiddish recordings.

The download includes more images of sheet music, labels and ads.

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Pat Friday's Decca Recordings

In my earlier post on singer Pat Friday, I mentioned that I had been unable to locate her Decca recordings of 1940. My friend Bryan Cooper, an authority of music of the era, has come to the rescue with transfers from his collection, which I am very pleased to present here.

Along with the Enterprise 78s previously shared, these are the only commercial 78s that the singer recorded, although off-air dubs of some radio programs survive.

Decca matched Friday with stodgy staff conductor Harry Sosnik for one session on February 16, 1940, with four titles resulting.

The first single coupled "I've Got My Eyes on You" with the elaborately titled "Would'st Could I But Kiss Thy Hand, Oh Babe." Cole Porter wrote the former for Fred Astaire and Broadway Melody of 1940. The Porter song is taken too slowly and seriously. Astaire certainly couldn't have danced to this tempo.

Pat Friday

On "Would'st Could I," Sosnik livens things up a bit, and Friday copes well with the antique lingo. The tune was written and recorded by Will Osborne. No offense to Will - and I am no expert on archaic languages - but I wonder if "would'st could I" was ever appropriate grammar. If there are any 500-year-old people out there, would'st could thou enlighten us?

The second coupling was "You, You Darlin'" and "The Gaucho Serenade." The former song comes from a film titled Tear Gas Squad, which could not have been a musical. But it did star Dennis Morgan, who could sing after a fashion, and I assume he introduced the number, which was recorded quite a few times in the 1940s. Friday's reading is very effective.

"The Gaucho Serenade" was written for the film of the same name and its star, Gene Autry. Here the singer and conductor did not agree on the tempo. She seemed to think it too fast, and I agree with her.

Decca's sound is good, enhanced by Bryan's fine transfers. Many thanks to him for bringing these elusive records to light.

A Tribute to Pat Friday

Although she was virtually unknown, Pat Friday is my favorite among the vocalists who appeared with Glenn Miller during his abbreviated career - except she never actually "appeared" with him. Friday dubbed Lynn Bari's singing voice for both of Miller's films - Orchestra Wives and Sun Valley Serenade - resulting in superior versions of "I Know Why (and So Do You)," "At Last," "Serenade in Blue" and "It Happened in Sun Valley." But she never otherwise sang with Miller's band.

I got to know the soundtrack recordings from the album that appeared on 20th Century-Fox records in about 1960. Friday's vocal quality and command appealed to me then, and they still do now. I did a deep dive into the Sun Valley Serenade soundtrack recordings a few years ago on my other blog.

Capitol News, February 1945

Helen Patricia Freiday, born in Idaho in 1921, first came to notice as a vocalist on Bing Crosby's radio show, which led directly to the Miller dubbing assignments. She was a modest person, who seemingly did little to promote her great talent, but nonetheless became a regular on the Roy Rogers and Victor Borge radio programs, while making a few records for Decca and for the small Enterprise label. She also appeared on radio with Jack Webb, pre-Dragnet. Webb apparently adopted her surname for his Sgt. Friday character in Dragnet.

I haven't been able to locate the four Decca sides, but Internet Archive yielded needle drops of six songs made for Enterprise in about 1946. One of those records is her commercial recording of the Lecuona-Ruby song "Mi Vida," which she dubbed for Vera-Ellen in the film Carnival in Costa Rica. The version on the film soundtrack was among the 24 Lecuona recordings recently featured on my main blog.

Also in the Enterprise collection are fine recordings of the standards "Don't Blame Me" and "It Had to Be You," with backing by the veteran Bennie Kruger. The leader's sax obbligato is far too prominent in "Don't Blame Me." Krueger also provides the accompaniment for "Mi Vida" and its flip side, "Too Late for Conversation." For the latter song, Friday's singing voice is in a much higher key than usual. I have included a repitched version of the song, but it's just as unconvincing.

The other songs are "Pin Marin," a good novelty number which Friday handles with just the right amount of personality, and the effective torch song "Tonight I'm Alone." Here the backing is by the Song Spinners, an organ and accordion combo.

The UK Glenn Miller site has an illuminating interview with Friday, where she recounts her brief career. She seems to have left the music business behind in about 1950 for a career in finance. Little detail is provided, but it seems as though she and her husband did very well. She died in 2016.

Billboard ad, August 31, 1946

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